Executive Summary
Behind Seth Lugo and Curtis Granderson, the Mets leapfrogged Miami in the Wild Card standings. Mets 7, Marlins 4.
Discussion and Analysis
A few short years ago, sabermetric Seth Lugo appreciation would consist of astonishment that a 26-year-old never-prospect with a 7.73 ERA in Triple-A could defy his Davenport Translation to post a 2.51 ERA and 2.73 FIP over his first 11 major-league appearances. Today? We’re talking about Lugo’s historically high spin rates. Although he was never considered a big-league starter before the Mets became desperate for innings, Lugo’s exceeded all expectations. He faced 97 of the world’s best hitters over 12 appearances before giving up his first MLB dinger, a two-run opposite-field blast to Christian Yelich in the first inning.
The Mets fought back immediately in the bottom of the first. Jose Reyes slapped a single in the 5.5 hole. Asdrubal Cabrera, knee brace notwithstanding, destroyed a baseball for his fourth home run in his last five games. Team #TooManyHomers would have stopped there, but Jay Bruce pulled a one-out double and Wilmer Flores singled him home to give the Mets a 3-2 lead.
It’s inaccurate to say Lugo settled down after the first inning, because he tiptoed into and out of trouble all game. In the third inning, Lugo allowed a Dee Gordon leadoff double and pegged Marcell Ozuna on his elbow guard. Then Lugo got lucky: Martin Prado and Christian Yelich each scorched line drives to the outfield, but Yoenis Cespedes and Alejandro De Aza ran them down. He also caught Xavier Scruggs looking on a fastball that appeared a few inches outside. In the fourth, Lugo left runners on second and third when allowing a single would have surrendered the lead. To be fair, Lugo set the Marlins down 1-2-3 in the second, fifth and sixth innings. All things considered, the emergency fill-in continues to be a Godsend for a rotation that needs warm bodies.
Curtis Granderson pinch-hit for Lugo in the sixth and promptly deposited his 21st home run over the center field wall. Granderson is doing his best to maintain a near 1:1 HR to RBI ratio, as he’s only driven in 16 runners all year aside from himself. Reyes followed Granderson with a double down the left field line (his fourth hit of the game). Cabrera worked a full-count walk to chase Tom Koehler. A wild pitch from reliever Dustin McGowan with Cespedes at bat moved the runners to second and third. Cespedes grounded to third and the runners held. Don Mattingly intentionally walked Jay Bruce to load the bases for De Aza.
De Aza singled to score Reyes. Gimpy Asdrubal rounded third and ignored third-base coach Tim Teufel’s signal to keep running. He stopped at third… and so did Jay Bruce, coming around from second. Cabrera was tagged for the second out, then Flores flew out to end the inning. The best thing you can say about a third-base coach is nothing; this is the first time in recent memory I can recall Teufel running the Mets out of an inning, so let’s call this an isolated mistake.
Granderson came up with Rene Rivera on first and one out in the seventh and hit another home run, his 20th career multi-home run game. Per Jesse Spector, 7.9% of Granderson’s RBI this season came in last night’s contest. Granderson-De Aza-Cespedes-Bruce and Conforto (as of Thursday, he’s expected to be back with the big club) is going to be quite the game of musical chairs.
Contemporaneous Thoughts
Did Tim Teufel forget Asdrubal Cabrera is super gimpy right now and Jeff Francoeur was about to throw a baseball?
— D.J. Short (@djshort) August 31, 2016
Can SNY run a Kidthirdbasecoach contest?
— Maggie Wiggin (@maggie162) August 31, 2016
GKR-isms
“[Seth Lugo] was in college to be a geology major. A land man, he said.” — Ron
“I can make the Gary Cohen of silence.” — Keith, using the telestrator
“I think it’s going to be fascinating to see how it all plays out with the Mets outfield in the next few weeks, with who plays, and who sits.” — Gary
Coda
Bartolo Colon and David Phelps face off tonight in a battle of former Yankees.
Photo Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports