The game started out well for the Mets, as after Corey Oswalt hurled a scoreless top of the first, Amed Rosario gave the Mets the early lead in the bottom of the frame, singling home Jeff McNeil with an opposite field hit. Unfortunately, that was the highlight of the ballgame for the New York offense.

Oswalt did his part to keep the game on track in the final start of his rookie campaign, keeping the Fish off the board for the first three, but he ran into a patch of difficulty in the fourth. After allowing a pair of singles and a walk to load the bases with one out, Oswalt got the ground ball he needed from Magneuris Sierra, but unfortunately the speedy Marlins right fielder beat the return throw to first to allow the tying run to score. It became clear following that inning that Oswalt was done, and that was when the only real drama of the night unfolded.

It was already known Wright would be the first man off the bench tonight, and with Oswalt due up fifth in the bottom of the fourth inning, the stage was set. The Marlins however, delayed the moment, retiring No. 8 hitter Kevin Plawecki to end the frame and leave the captain in the on deck circle. Temporarily.

Paul Sewald entered for the Mets in the fifth and was unimpressive, surrendering two runs on three hits to the middle of Miami’s lineup, but all the crowd really cared about was the next half inning. Wright emerged from the dugout to a chorus of cheers, and the longtime face of the Mets’ franchise looked visibly nervous as he dug in. His at-bat was short lived, when he hit the first pitch he saw from José Ureña directly on the ground to third, but making an out was far from enough to wipe the smile off No. 5’s face.

After that, the rest of the night went downhill fast for the home team. Drew Gagnon entered for New York in the sixth, and while he only allowed one earned run in what  ultimately amounted to 1.2 innings of work, thanks to errors from Todd Frazier and Rosario, the Marlins were able to push five runs across against him, establishing an 8-1 lead that would be the eventual final score.

Tim Peterson pitched very well in the eighth and ninth innings to maybe provide a slimmer of a silver lining at the end, but it’s clear that everyone associated with this team began looking forward to tonight’s contest the minute Wright’s at-bat tonight concluded.

This evening, left hander Steven Matz will make his final start of 2018, but more importantly, Wright will take third base for the final start of his memorable Major League career, and it will be fascinating to see what kind of final moment he can give us.

Photo credit: Wendell Cruz – USA Today Sports

Like so many of the seasons that have preceded it, 2018 limps into the dark with a whimper. It’s been a lost season for so long, it’s hard to know whether nights like last night — a tight game where the Mets matched an elite team inning after inning before exploding with some timely hitting — are heartening or even more devastating, given the brutal summer that preceded it. But here we are. Again.

Jason Vargas held the National League East champions scoreless, allowing only three hits and striking out six; he went into the seventh inning for the first (and last) time this season, and in his last start finally pitched like the player the Mets had paid for in the offseason. He will finish the year 7-9. His effort was helped by two great stops by Amed Rosario at short, and Robert Gsellman pitched into and out of trouble in the ninth for his 13th save.

All of the Mets four runs came off homers by catchers, a Kevin Plawecki solo shot in the third off Atlanta starter Julio Teheran (six innings, one run, five strikeouts), and a Devin Mesoraco three-run pinch-hit home run in the seventh off reliever Brad Brach.

The Mets host the Marlins for the final games of the season, with Corey Oswalt (3-3, 6.08) facing Jose Urena (8-12, 4.07). First pitch is 7.10 p.m.

After being scratched due to weather concerns on Sunday and rained out on Monday, Jacob deGrom finally got to take the mound against the Marlins on Tuesday night. Miami has been something of a bugaboo for deGrom; he’s only 4-5 against them in his career, though he did memorably strike out the first eight batters in September 2014. For once, the Mets actually built a close-to-optimal lineup behind their ace, with Amed Rosario, Jeff McNeil and Michael Conforto in the first three spots in the order.

Arguably, the Mets should have just let deGrom pitch on Sunday, as he’s now set to make only four starts the rest of the way rather than five. On the other hand, I get to recap a game started by deGrom rather than one started by Jason Vargas, so I’m not going to complain.

Game Recap

Rather than dragging this out and waxing poetic about how good deGrom was at the start of this game, let’s just jump straight to the part where the BABIP fairy sprinkled her magic dust on the Marlins, as she always seems to do at Citi Field. With two outs and nobody on in the fourth, deGrom gave up an infield single, a bloop single and a double that scored two. The infield single was off the glove of Jeff McNeil (would have been a tough play) and the double was a total misplay by Austin Jackson (also a tough play, but probably should have been made). As a reminder, the Mets like Jackson, a horrifically bad defensive outfielder, specifically for his center field defense.

Fittingly, a Michael Conforto double leading off the bottom half of the inning was wasted. deGrom went back to dominating and only got a solo home run from Conforto in run support. He left for a pinch hitter in the seventh, when the Mets squandered another leadoff baserunner and left the ace without a chance for a win. He finished with nine strikeouts, two walks and three hits allowed, with both runs coming due to the BABIP misfortune and poor defense behind him in the fourth. The outing raised deGrom’s ERA on the season to a still ridiculous 1.71, and lowered his FIP to an equally insane 2.06.

Anthony Swarzak replaced deGrom and served up a solo home run to J.T. Riddle that stretched the Marlins’ lead to 3-1. Todd Frazier got ejected at some point for arguing balls and strikes (he was right). Robert Gsellman gave up two runs in the ninth, with the help of an ill-advised dive from Brandon Nimmo that turned a single into a triple.

Kevin Plawecki hit a two-run home run in the ninth and a two-out walk to Jack Reinheimer brought Amed Rosario to the plate as the tying run. Rosario could only manage a weak dribbler to second, and that was that. The 5-3 loss was the Mets’ 78th of the year and dropped deGrom’s record below .500, now at 8-9.

Thoughts from the Game

The latest installment of Jacob deGrom facts:

• Lewis Brinson’s double was the first extra-base hit on 0-2 allowed by deGrom this season.
• deGrom has now broken Leslie “King” Cole’s single-season record with his 26th consecutive start allowing three runs or fewer, a record that stood for 108 years.
• Still the most deserving Cy Young candidate in the National League. But you knew that already.

Why the Mets have decided to rush Swarzak back this season is a mystery. This is a reliever who they need to contribute to the bullpen next year if the team wants to contend next season. He’s dealt with shoulder issues multiple times, and pushing a 33-year-old to come back quickly in a lost season rather than just shutting him down and protecting him for the future is silly. It’s also a great juxtaposition against the extreme “caution” the team is taking with David Wright. Nothing fishy there at all, no sir.

Austin Jackson is terrible. He doesn’t make contact — 32.7% K%. He doesn’t hit for power — .078 ISO. He doesn’t walk a noteworthy amount — 7.2%. His defense has been a travesty for three seasons; -12.5, -7.7, and -16.8 UZR/150 in the outfield the past three seasons. He’s not a prolific basestealer or a particularly good baserunner. His presence in the Met lineup hinders the offense, and his defense might’ve cost deGrom two runs and a win last night. Given all of this, get ready for Austin Jackson, 2019 Opening Day center fielder.

Other Mets News

A report by Andy Martino today had some troubling news regarding the Mets’ GM search. First, Terry Collins is expected to assume a larger role in the organization. Terry Collins, who was one of the most inept managers in baseball largely because of his inability or unwillingness to use or develop young players, will likely be playing a larger role in player development. This is the sort of hiring that reeks of interference from Fred Wilpon.

Secondly, Martino mentions Mark Shapiro as a name to watch in the GM search. Shapiro has a long track record, serving as GM and later team president of the Cleveland Indians, and more recently as CEO and president of the Toronto Blue Jays. He’s most notable for his obsession with young cost control, which, in and of itself, is not a bad thing to focus on; young, cheap players provide the core of most winning teams. But Shapiro seems to focus more on being cheap for the sake of being cheap, rather than for the purposes of building winning teams. In short, he offers perfect cover for the Wilpon not spending money.

Well…..

At least six of the Mets’ hits were bloopers. And I don’t mean lightly-hit base hits that fell in front of the outfielders, either. I mean legitimate duck snorts. You know, the pop-ups with awful launch angles and even worse exit velos that just found grass. The Mets scored a run on a sac fly where the throw home beat the runner by 10 feet, but Yasmani Grandal dropped the ball. They scored a run on a ball deflected off the pitcher into no-man’s land. They scored a run on a wild pitch. They hit no home runs, and only one extra base hit the entire game.

The Mets aren’t usually associated with good fortune, but sometimes, the BABIP Fairy is just smiling down upon you.

But seriously what the hell was that?

Anyway, Zack Wheeler had another solid outing, tossing seven innings of three-run ball while walking two and striking out nine. The gopher ball was Wheeler’s main enemy tonight, as he only yielded the runs via the long ball. Max Muncy got him in the fourth inning for a two-run home run, and Cody Bellinger hit a towering solo shot to right in the seventh, his fourth home run off Wheeler in his career.

Nobody on offense really stood out much since the Mets were just hitting 145-foot Texas-Leaguers the whole game and somehow kept scoring runs. It was something out of Little League. Anyway, Jeff McNeil got two more hits, as did Michael Conforto. Kevin Plawecki had the only double in the game, before he was removed from the game after a hit-by-pitch.

After Wheeler, Relief Ace Seth Lugo locked down the last two innings with nary an issue, and the Mets won 7-3 to suprisingly take the series from the Dodgers. This is probably the best team the Mets have taken a series from all season long.

OTHER NEWS OF THE DAY

Both Wheeler and Plawecki will undergo CT scans for injuries suffered in last night’s affair. Wheeler took a ball off his chest, while Plawecki had the aforementioned hit-by-pitch to the ribs.

WHAT’S NEXT

The still-David-Wrightless Mets return home to take on the Phillies tomorrow at 7:10 p.m. Cy-Young runner-up Aaron Nola will start for the Phillies against Steven Matz for the Mets.

Photo credit: Kelvin Kuo – USA Today Sports

The Mets’ offense was present, knocking Jon Lester out of the game after six ‘eh’ innings pitched and keeping the pressure on the Cubs’ bullpen throughout the game. However, it was not enough to make up for the combination of Thor and Jerry Blevins’ poor performances.

New York started off the scoring with an Austin Jackson RBI single where Amed Rosario crossed the plate for the first run of this game. I will say it until I’m blue in the face – Rosario needs to be a 35-40 stolen base guy as he advances his game. He is a key cog in the machine. Obviously, the promising shortstop needs to improve his eye but the stolen bases appear to be coming. (A rare occasion) I commend Mickey Callaway for sending Rosario more on the basepaths.

Of course, professional hitter Daniel Murphy led off the game with a hit and eventually scored on an Anthony Rizzo double. In the third, Michael Conforto then answered with one of the loudest home runs ever hit, followed by a Rosario RBI single later in the inning.

Following the theme of up-and-down, the Cubs scored three in the bottom of the frame including a 2-RBI single from none other than one of the worst hitters in MLB history, Lester himself.

In the seventh inning, Kevin Plawecki homered to tie the game at four. While I don’t like him as a player, Plawecki should be playing everyday games at catcher considering Devin Mesoraco should not be a Met next year. Whoever the general manager is next year should grab a veteran catcher, but that likely will not happen.

The full momentum shift to Chicago came in the bottom of the seventh when Blevins, who had not allowed a run in August, gave up two without recording an out.

The Mets did threaten in the ninth with bases loaded, but Jesse Chavez was able to clean up the mess made by Pedro Strop and Justin Wilson, strikimg out Rosario and Jackson to close the book on an exciting contest.

In his postgame interview, Syndergaard was noticeably disappointed in how batters have been able to get to him; the Texan allowed nine hits and three walks in six innings pitched. There is clear frustration from the should-be ace who knows he is good enough to get anyone out, but is not executing as of late. Look for some mechanical adjustments to be made and the ball to be located higher in the strike zone his next time out.

The Mets should be looking forward to the Sept. 1 roster expansion as a look to the future, but who knows how they will handle it.

FINAL

NYM – 4
CHC – 7

Photo credit:  Patrick Gorsk – USA Today Sports

Vargas held the free-falling Washington Nationals scoreless over six impressive frames on Friday night, allowing only three hits and punching out a season high eight hitters as the Mets took the series opener from their D.C. rivals, 3-0.

After Vargas had retired the Nats’ in order in the top of the first, the Mets offense got off to a fast start against Gio Gonzalez in the bottom half of the frame. Amed Rosario led off with a single and then stole second base, and two batters later the speedy shortstop scored on a Wilmer Flores single. In the second, Vargas got himself into immediate trouble when Ryan Zimmerman and Juan Soto singled to start the inning, but the southpaw wiggled out of the jam by retiring the next three Washington hitters.

New York threatened in the home 2nd but couldn’t push a run across, and after an uneventful third inning, the game went to the fourth with the Mets still up 1-0. It was here where Vargas delivered arguably his most impressive frame of 2018, striking out Bryce Harper, Zimmerman and Soto consecutively. The Mets got a two-out rally started in the bottom of the inning when Jose Bautista was hit by a pitch and Kevin Plawecki doubled, but Vargas himself struck out to end the frame.

In the fifth and sixth innings, Vargas retired six of seven hitters to end his outing, but New York was unable to extend their lead against Gonzalez despite getting runners in almost every frame all night.

The Mets turned the game over to Seth Lugo in the seventh, and Amazins’ dynamic bullpen weapon retired all six hitters he faced over two frames, striking out three. In the bottom of the eighth, with Gonzalez out of the game, New York was finally able to push across some insurance runs to put the game out of reach. Cult hero Jeff McNeil led off with a walk and reached second on a stolen base. The next two New York hitters were retired by righty Koda Glover, but Nationals manager Davey Martinez then summoned southpaw Tim Collins into the ballgame to face fresh-from-the-DL Jay Bruce. The left-handed slugger promptly deposited a fly ball over the right center field fence to extend the Mets’ lead to 3-0, which felt like an insurmountable sum with the lifelessness of the Washington offense.

Robert Gsellman came on to record the final three outs of the game to close out his eighth save of the season, and the home team was officially back in the New York groove.

Tonight Zack Wheeler will take the ball for New York opposing Washington righty Tanner Roark.

Photo credit: Andy Marlin – USA Today Sports

The Mets! Another series! Rejoice!

WHAT HAPPENED, VARGY DOES HIS THING:

It’s no secret that Jason “Vargy” Vargas has faced his share of struggles. Entering Sunday as one of the worst starters of the year, the lefty managed to look just good enough to hold the Phillies for five innings. Sure, the only NL teams below the Phillies in OPS against left-handed pitchers are the Mets and Marlins, but for five innings, Vargas looked like he might actually be fine. After all, five innings of scoreless baseball isn’t a small feat.

Yes, balls were hit hard. The clock struck midnight when we entered the sixth frame, but it was a fine start overall. Vargas has now allowed just four earned runs in his last 11.1 inning, striking out just as many over that span. He isn’t blowing guys away, but his change-up worked for him  last night and, more importantly, so did the gloves of his defenders.

Of course, we’re past the point of convincing, but it leads one to believe that Vargas might have something left to give. Some area left where he can succeed. Surely, it’s not against righties. Oh God no. He’s one of the worst in the league there. And, well, he’s not great against lefties either. Not as a taker of meaningful innings, that’s for sure. Maybe it’s somewhere more remote. Against offenses that don’t hit lefties well. Or, generally, well at all. Maybe it is on Sundays, when The Lord has commanded opposing hitters to rest. Somewhere around this area seems to make the most sense.

WHAT HAPPENED, THE METS MAKE AN ALBUM:

At the plate, the Mets had a very unique outburst. You look at the linescore, and one thing sticks out. The Mets scored a ton of runs (8) on a ton of hits (14). When you look at the boxscore, it looks even better. Jeff “JT” McNeil, Jose “JoeyBats” Bautista and Kevin “Plaw Dawg” Plawecki recorded two hits apiece, Amed “El Niño” Rosario recorded three. That’s a lot of hits, but here is the kicker: they were all singles. Only one (1) of the Mets’ 14 hits on Sunday netted extra-bases — a pinch-hit, RBI double from Dominic Smith in the eighth inning.

It’s certainly one of the wilder things I’ve ever seen, and was most apparent in how the Mets got to Nick Pivetta early on. In the top of the second inning, the Mets put up four runs on five singles. Singles to left, center, right. The Mets were hitting the ball everywhere, and everywhere it was earning the Mets exactly one base. It was an effective tactic, as it bounced Pivetta in the fourth inning after throwing 79 pitches. It wasn’t your usual outburst, but it was an outburst nonetheless. It only left one question to be answered: will the Mets go platinum with this album?

WHAT HAPPENED, YESTERDAY:

Vargas and the pen finished strong against the Phillies. The lineup singled the Phillies to death. Overall, the Mets have officially spent the last two weeks…not losing? It’s a wild concept, I know, but the Mets have played better ball against mostly subpar opponents. Who knows if it will last, and I’m sure you’ve stopped caring, but it’s fine. Everything is fine.

WHAT HAPPENS, TODAY:

The Mets head back home to start a seven-game homestand, which starts with the San Francisco Giants. Derek Holland with face the scorching-hot Zack Wheeler, who owns a 1.41 ERA over the last month. It’ll be interesting to see if the Mets can keep up their improved play to wrap up the month of August, despite the competition getting a little tougher.

Photo credit: Bill Streicher – USA Today Sports

Game Two: Phillies 9, Mets 6

Just over two weeks after an epic drubbing by Washington — where they lost by 21 runs on July 31 — the Mets saw things from the other side of the equation as they scored the most runs in franchise history, which included a 10-run fifth inning capped off by a Jose Bautista grand slam.

The lowlight of the afternoon came when Brandon Nimmo took a ball off his hand with the bases loaded in the top of the third. It rolled into fair territory, and the ignominy of a rally-killing dribbler paled in comparison to the sight of Nimmo lying face-down in the batter’s box. This horror show came almost a year to the day after Michael Conforto ended last season on a swing that injured his shoulder. Nimmo came out of the game, and initial reports were that x-rays were negative for a fracture. Given that past reports of a player’s robust health have proven grossly exaggerated (stay off those heels, Yoenis!), Mets fans will be forgiven for still living in dread.

That existential terror aside, the offense exploded for the second game in a row, plating 24 runs on 25 hits, helped by some execrable Philadelphia defense: third baseman Maikel Franco committed two of the Phillies’ four errors. The Mets feasted on the Phillies pitching, both when facing professional pitchers and after Philadelphia skipper (and ice cream enthusiast) Gabe Kapler waved the white flag and sent out position players to toss the final three innings.

Six Mets had at least three hits; Conforto, Amed Rosario and Bautista (who replaced Nimmo in the outfield) homered. Bautista’s seven runs batted in were a franchise record for a player coming off the bench. Kevin Plawecki had another outstanding game, going 4-for-4 with three runs scored and three runs batted in.

Corey Oswalt went six innings for his second win of the season. Thanks to those errors, only half of his counterpart’s eight runs allowed were earned; Ranger Suarez is now 1-1 in two career starts. Jerry Blevins pitched an inning of relief and collected his first major league hit.

In the nightcap, the Ballad of Steven Matz continued its doleful tune. The Mets southpaw lasted two innings, surrendering two home runs and six runs overall (four earned). Zach Eflin pitched 6.2 innings for Philadelphia, allowing four runs and striking out five.

Rosario collected another pair of hits in the second game, and was the bright spot in an otherwise lackluster Mets offense — although, to be fair, six runs is a pretty above-average showing for this year’s Mets team, especially if you ignore the 24 runs they scored a few hours before.

Trailing from Matz’s early exit by as much as six runs over the course of the game, the Mets did mount a rally in the ninth, managing to bring the tying run to the plate to make things interesting. After six-plus hours of baseball and a combined forty-three runs scored, there was only so much interest to go around.

The series continues at Citizens Bank Park at 6:05 p.m. Friday, as Noah Syndergaard (8-2, 3.22) faces Aaron Nola (13-3, 2.28).

Photo credit: Bill Streicher – USA Today Sports

Last night’s game started out innocently enough. Zack Wheeler looked as bad as he has in a while, struggling to make it through the first two innings while working through tons of traffic on the bases and needing over 50 pitches just to get through the first six outs. He struggled to put guys away and didn’t have much command of his secondaries; ultimately looking a lot like the Zack Wheeler of last season. But because the Orioles are bad, he was able to make it through those two innings with only one run given up.

Wheeler settled down in the third, though, and was able to get through five innings having only allowed the one run. Luckily for him, the Mets were able to build him a 5-1 lead by that point. The team had scored two in the first inning on a Wilmer Flores sac fly and a Todd Frazier single, two more in the fourth on an RBI single by Jose Bautista and a double by Brandon Nimmo, and Frazier added a solo shot in the fifth.

But they were just getting started. The Mets came to bat in the top of the sixth inning. Here’s how that inning went:

Out
Hit by pitch
Double
Triple
Walk
Out
Walk
Double
Walk
Grand Slam
Out.

Nine runs later, the Mets led 14-1. They wound up scoring 16 runs on the night, when Flores cranked a two-run homer in the ninth.

The Orioles are quite bad.

The grand slam was, of course, hit by Kevin Plawecki. He was also the player hit by the pitch earlier in the frame, meaning he was the only Met who actually reached base twice that inning. Now, the entire offensive showing here is far too extensive to give any more of a blow-by-blow, so perhaps we should just highlight these offensive standouts for the night:

Brandon Nimmo: 5-for-5, 3 runs scored, 2 doubles, 3 RBI - He was a home run short of the cycle. After the game, he said he was honored to even have the chance to complete the cycle, because of course he did.

Wilmer Flores: 2-for-5, 1 run scored, HR, 3 RBI,  – Wilmer continues to be a steady offensive contributer with consistent playing time. Who the heck would have thunk it?

Todd Frazier: 3-for-6, 2 runs scored, double, HR, 4 RBI – Yeah that’s a nice line and all, but why exactly was he DHing?

Jose Reyes: 2-for-5, 2 runs scored, triple, double – Hey cool sure whatever.

The Orioles are really not a good team.

OTHER NEWS OF THE DAY

David Wright went 0-for-3 with a walk and played seven innings at third base, while Jay Bruce went 2-for-4 in their rehab assignments with Port St. Lucie.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Mets go to the City of Brotherly Love to do battle with the Phillies in what will be a five-game series this weekend, beginning with a straight doubleheader today. Corey Oswalt will get the ball in game one at 4:05, while Steven Matz will toe the rubber in Game 2. The Phillies have not announced their starters for the doubleheader as of yet.

Photo credit: Evan Habeeb – USA Today Sports

The Orioles are one of the few teams that are having an even more depressing season than the Mets, sitting at 35-84. Jason Vargas is on the mound against the much-better-but-still-boring-and-bad Andrew Cashner. As a cherry on top of this shitty game sundae, Gary Cohen is on vacation for this series, with Wayne Randazzo taking over play-by-play duties.

At this point, the Mets should be paying us for watching this crap.

Game Recap

At the same time, maybe not, because baseball is a wonderful, weird, wacky game that you can’t predict. So of course, Andrew Cashner vs Jason Vargas turned into a pitcher’s duel. Vargas gave up singles to the first two batters he faced, but Jonathan Villar was thrown out stretching for two and Renato Nunez was erased on a double play. Cashner, meanwhile, set the first nine Mets down in order. Both teams faced the minimum through three innings, locked in a scoreless tie.

Jeff McNeil got the Mets’ first hit with one out in the fourth, but was stranded at first. In the bottom half, the Orioles also broke through, with a walk, double, and sacrifice fly giving them a 1-0 lead. The Mets replied right away, however, putting the first two men on in the top of the fifth and ultimately scoring runs on RBI singles from Kevin Plawecki and Amed Rosario to take a 2-1 lead.

Vargas worked around a single in the bottom of the fifth to preserve his new lead, which was significant as it gave him a chance to record an out in the sixth inning for the first time this year. He got that out, but then immediately surrendered a game-tying home run to Adam Jones. A walk and a double play ended the inning and gave Vargas his first quality start of the year, but the game was once again tied.

Ironically, with Jacob deGrom getting run support, Vargas was now receiving the deGrom treatment. The offense failed to provide him any help (two runs against Andrew Cashner and the Orioles is pretty pathetic), and the bullpen immediately imploded once Vargas was out of the game. Bobby Wahl gave up a home run to Chris Davis in the seventh and set the Orioles up for another run with two walks. Paul Sewald followed that up by giving up a two-run home run to Tim Beckham in the eighth. The Mets headed to the ninth down 6-2.

This is the Orioles, of course, so the game wouldn’t end without at least a bit of dysfunction. Miguel Castro entered and allowed a leadoff triple to Brandon Nimmo, then threw the ball away on an infield single by Todd Frazier that allowed Nimmo to score and put the game-tying run on deck. Buck Showalter had seen enough, and he brought in Mychal Givens, who promptly shut down the Mets rally with a strikeout, pop out and check-swing groundout.

The 6-3 loss drops the Mets to 50-67, putting them on an extremely nice 69-win pace. Zack Wheeler takes the mound against the Baltimore ace, Dylan Bundy (owner of a 4.70 ERA), this evening to conclude the two-game set.

Thoughts from the Game

The only real takeaway from this game is that the Mets bullpen is still Bad. The pile of right-handed relievers they traded for over the past two years along with the handful they developed internally are largely unimpressive. Further exacerbating this, the team still hasn’t promoted the other potential relievers still in the minors – most notably, Eric Hanhold, Adonis Uceta and Stephen Villines. Don’t expect the team to spend to fix this issue in the offseason, however. Instead, prepare for a full season of Bobby Wahl, Jacob Rhame and Paul Sewald running ERAs in the 4s on a very bad Mets team.

Boring game aside, bear with me for a personal anecdote. My building on the Columbia campus has a door man named Jay. Jay is generally a cool dude. We all like Jay. Today I found out his last name is Vargas. My building is literally staffed by Jason Vargas. I don’t know how to look him in the eyes anymore.

Other Mets News

Jay Bruce began a rehab assignment with St. Lucie, going 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout. He’s expected to split time between first and the outfield during his rehab and do the same if and when he returns to the major leagues. That’s time that should be going to Peter Alonso of course, but the Mets are never not going to play the struggling veteran with a $13 million per year contract.

Photo credit: Tommy Gilligan – USA Today Sports