Mets News
Coming off their sixth walkoff loss of the season — already twice as many as last season — the Mets expected to play without one Yoenis Cespedes, whose “cramped hamstring” was sustained on the final play of Monday’s game. They didn’t know Curtis Granderson would scratch himself from the lineup with a sore hip just minutes before yesterday’s 11 a.m. (!) first pitch. Wilmer Flores’ own hamstring issues, which have contributed to his recent 1-for-14 stretch, were overlooked (as was the fact that T.J. Rivera has never played outfield in the big leagues) in light of the team’s need to field a nine-player lineup.
The 11 a.m. game time wasn’t the Mets’ earliest ever. According to the great Greg Prince at Faith and Fear in Flushing, it wasn’t even the earliest the Mets have ever played on Independence Day: On July 4, 1969, the Mets faced the Pirates in a doubleheader at Forbes Field, where the first pitch was thrown at 10:35 a.m.
Something tells me this season will not end as happily as that one.
MEANWHILE, the best showing by a New York team in this game came courtesy of the Radio City Rockettes, who performed on top of the dugout before the third inning. Nationals 11, Mets 4.
Punditry
Bad Fun Fact Alert: Seth Lugo had a streak of wins in six straight road starts broken yesterday. That ties Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman for the best such Mets streak of all time. (I told you that was a bad fun fact.) Yet Lugo had opened the game so well: four pitches in the first inning and 11 pitches in the second. The first National to work an at-bat of more than two pitches came six batters in, when Ryan Raburn walked to give Washington their first baserunner. At that point, the score was 1-0 Mets courtesy of a Jose Reyes leadoff home run. Reyes’ 20th career Mets leadoff dinger was, in retrospect, the high point of the game.
Fans who watched past the second inning were treated to Rene Rivera’s sixth round-tripper of the year to tie the game in the top of the fourth. Rivera, who hit six home runs all last season, blasted one 410 feet to the opposite field, no big deal. MLB says the baseball is within league-approved tolerance. Rene Rivera, power hitter, asks you to read the research.
Remember when pundits anointed Jay Bruce as the team’s savior by concern-trolling anyone who expected him to be the Mets’ savior? Bruce is now 1 for his last 20. His .255/.328 AVG/OBP slash line looks suspiciously closer to his .233/.302 PECOTA projection (and his .249/.319 career mark) than it has at almost any point this season. The Mets and Lugo went off the cliff in the fourth inning when a routine ground-ball single to right field rolled under Bruce’s glove, leading to a two-base error, the tie-breaking run, and three consecutive hits after that. Between Bruce’s awful July and Jerry Blevins allowing a two-run tide-turner yesterday, the Mets’ primary trade chips sure have picked a poor time to, umm, regress to the mean. Maybe acquiring teams will remember Bruce’s ninth-inning home run and not the previous 19 outs.
The less said about Danny Murphy (5 1 4 5) and the Nationals’ offense, the better. Suffice to say that Wilmer Flores started running in the wrong direction on only one of the Nats’ 14 hits.
Social Media
#Mets defense pic.twitter.com/4VEAT6NqGt
— Scott D. Simon (@scottdsimon) July 4, 2017
GKR-isms
When you have a ball that has low seams or not raised seams, then that entire flatness of that seam will cover your whole hand or your entire finger… That’s really the issue for these pitchers… The entire hand is compromised. — Ron, on why today’s pitchers suffer from blisters
Each umpire in my day, I could tell who was umpiring behind the plate by taking a look at the baseball, because they all rubbed [mud on it] differently. Some made the ball really dark, and some, let’s say, didn’t put as much effort into it as other umpires. — Ron
Very rarely do the Mets have anything resembling speed on the bases and at the plate. Be aggressive, have some fun. — Ron
You just can’t have your best hitter compromised week after week — Gary, on Cespedes
Forecast
Tonight’s game features the best possible series pitching mismatch in favor of the Mets: Jacob deGrom (3.55 ERA, 2.69 DRA) against Tanner Roark (5.27 ERA, 5.51 DRA).