With their 5-4 loss yesterday, the New York Mets have now lost seven games in a row. They are seven games under .500 and nine games out of first place. The last time the Mets were seven games under .500 was when they were 73-80 in 2014. Yes, the roof has caved in. The wheels have falen off. The train has been wrecked. The dumpster is on fire. In fact, everything is on fire. It is all burning to the ground, and nobody is around to help. Everyone is standing around and watching everything burn to ashes, but nobody can do anything to stop it. It is out of our control now. The fire deapartment has gone home; they’ve given up. This is a lost cause.
The game recaps have become trivial and monotonous at this point; it’s the same blueprint for every game. It’s basically a Mad Libs exercise these days: Yesterday, the Mets had an [uneven/bad] start by [starting pitcher], who was supposed to be [good/great]. They showed some spurts of offensive life to keep them in the game, but ultimately lost when [bad/overworked reliever] [blew a lead/tie/let it get completely out of hand] in [late inning].
Yesterday, the Mets had an uneven start by Matt Harvey, who was supposed to be good. They showed some spurts of offensive life to keep them in the game, but ultimately lost when Rafael Montero blew a tie in the tenth inning as the Diamondbacks walked off.
Yes, Rafael Montero is still in the major leagues and still pitching for the New York Mets in tight games. This is about the 16th-most perplexing thing about the 2017 New York Mets.
To add insult to injury, the walkoff home run was hit by Chris Hermann, who has a career 64 wRC+.
There are some positives to take out of this game, of course, as there always are. Michael Conforto homered against the left-handed Patrick Corbin, because he actually does not break into hives at the sight of a left-handed pitcher. Juan Lagares also homered off the southpaw, as he finally had a hard-hit ball go his way. Harvey also looked the best he has recently, which is saying something considering he still gave up six hits, three runs, and four walks. But he struck out five, pitched into the sixth inning, and showed good bite on his slider. He even grazed 98 MPH with his fastball.
But these positives are still clouded by malaise. Sure, Conforto is awesome, but he can’t carry this offense by himself, and right now it looks like that’s what he needs to do. Lagares is never going to be an offensive threat, and doesn’t even look like the defender he once was by the eye test. And yeah, Harvey looks better than he did in his last few starts, but that’s not a huge development. The fact that we need to look at Harvey touching the upper 90s as a positive is depressing. We have not seen Matt Harvey in two years, and we don’t know when or if we will ever see him again.
Fun fact: Exactly four years prior to this start, on May 17, 2013, Harvey pitched 7.1 innings of two-run ball in Wrigley Field. He struck out six and walked none. His game score for that game of 71 was tied for his 10th-best start of that season. Since the start of 2016, Harvey has topped a 71 game score twice. In 2013, all we could talk about was Harvey’s dominance on the mound. Now?
Fan yelled "Adriana" real loud before Harvey surrendered that bomb.
— Mike Puma (@NYPost_Mets) May 17, 2017
Harvey says he didn't hear the fan taunting him before the pitch on which he surrendered the homer.
— Mike Puma (@NYPost_Mets) May 18, 2017
This is what has become of the 2017 Mets. Everything is burning to the ground, and nobody can do anything to stop it. Please evacuate the area and keep a safe distance from the fire, or else you too will have to witness Kevin Plawecki batting sixth.
TOMORROW:
The Mets return home to play the team Mike Trout is on (the Angels) at 7:10 p.m. Jacob deGrom has the burden of facing Trout, and Ricky Nolasco will pitch for Trout’s team, and thus will not have to face Trout. Mike Trout is coming to Citi Field, you guys. You should probably watch this game.
Photo credit: Matt Kartozian – USA Today Sports
I used to love MadLibs when I was a kid. Great fun. As for the Mets, one positive is that much of the roster will be gone after this season. It would be much worse if these guys had long term, expensive contracts.