Was Keeping Mickey Callaway the Right Move?

In today's podcast, I recap a wild week for the New York Mets that started off with the team getting one-hit by the Marlins, and ended with New York sweeping the Washington Nationals. In between manager Mickey Callaway was on the way to being fired in the eyes of Mets fans, while the front office had other ideas.

First Place Yankees Hit 30 Wins As Fraizer Shines

YANKEES 11 - ORIOLES 4 

The First place New York Yankees destroyed the Baltimore Orioles yet again in Camden Yards as Clint Fraizer went yard twice and drove in five as the Bombers won 11-4.

New York is now at 30 wins on the season and two games ahead of Tampa Bay in the AL East. Not bad for a team with more than a dozen key injuries, and started the season under .500.

While the month of May has been cold this year, the Yankees have been anything but. They have been hotter than a firecracker.

Against the American League's worst team, the Yankees put the game away in the first inning. Yes, I said that, the game ended in the first inning. Gary Sanchez's three-run bomb to left put the Yankees up fat 3-0 and they never looked back. The homer was Sanchez's 14th of year as he has starting to look like the guy who was a Rookie of the Year candidate three years ago.

The Yankees piled on the O's in the third when Gio Urshela double in Aaron Hicks to make it 4-0, and Fraizer hit his first homer of the night to push the lead to 6-0.

Two innings later, Fraizer went deep again, this time a three-run shot to dead center, some 411 feet away to blow the game open at 9-0.

Since coming off the Injured List on May 6, Fraizer really struggled, hitting only .209 in the month of May, so perhaps this will get him going again in a big way.

D.J. LeMahieu remains hot, collecting three hits to bump his average up to .325 on the season.

The Yankees continue their scrimmage with the Orioles tomorrow night.

Van Wagenen Endorses Callaway as Mets Manager

It was easily the wildest 24 hours the New York Mets have experienced in years, and that is saying something.

Let’s quickly recap.

·      The Mets were held to three hits over the final two games of a three-game sweep at the hands of the Miami Marlins. By Sunday afternoon the calls for Manager Mickey Callaway to be fired only grew louder by each out.

·      On Monday afternoon, General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen endorsed Callaway and said he would remain manager for “the foreseeable future.”

·      In the same press conference, Van Wagenen announced Yoenis Cespedes, who just recently began running, fractured his right ankle during a fall at a Port St. Lucie Ranch. (Did he fall of a horse? Fall into a giant hole? Nobody really knows).

·      Robbinson Cano was benched for not hustling in Miami.

·      The Mets got blasted by fans and the media – with some calling the franchise dysfunctional.

·      The Mets jumped out to a 4-0 lead against Washington, holding on to win 5-3.

Yeah, it’s been interesting. Now the big question remains: what do the ramifications of Monday’s zaniness mean moving forward?

On Mickey Callaway:

Before Monday’s news conference, one could argue that Brodie Van Wagenen had every right to move on from Callaway for the simple fact that Callaway was not his hire.  Most General Managers want to hire their own guy to manage a team. However, with his endorsement of the embattled manager, Van Wagenen has tied himself to Callaway’s fate. 

"Mickey is our manager now. Mickey is our manager going forward," Van Wagenen said Monday. "We're not looking to blame a manager. He has our full support to lead this team for the foreseeable future."

“We built this team in the front office. We believe that this team has the ability to contend, the same way we said that in the offseason loudly and proudly. The accountability that will ultimately fall on this team, I want to place on my shoulders," Van Wagenen said. “At the end of the day, this is our team. We're proud of it, we believe in it.”

While it is honorable that Van Wagenen is trying to show leadership by defending his manager and players, he has squarely put himself in front of the freight train of the New York spotlight.

Van Wagenen is the one who made the trade for Cano and his five-year contract at age 37.

He is also the one who brought in Wilson Ramos, who has struggled offensively.

Van Wagnen brought back Jeruys Familia who has an ERA over six, and signed Jed Lowrie to a two-year $20 million deal.  And Lowrie still hasn’t played a game for the Mets yet.

So far it has been a lot more misses than hits for the rookie General Manager. If the Mets struggles persist, who is to say the Wilpon’s won’t look at Van Wagenen as well as Callaway when trying to assess blame later this year.

The Future of Yoenis Cespedes:

With another year left on the four-year $110 million deal he signed in 2016, the future of Cespedes is certainly in doubt. He will most definitely miss the rest of this season after fracturing multiple bones in his ankle, and there is legitimate question about his chances to comeback in 2020 now.

Remember Cespedes was coming off multiple heel surgeries that would have cost him a good chunk of this season. Now the Mets can forget him being a factor at all.

The question is how can the Mets recoup the money? Cespedes is due to make $29 million this season and $29.5 million next year. The Mets are insured for Cespedes’ heel surgeries, much the same way they were insured on David Wright’s contract.

In order to recoup his salary, the Mets need proof that Cespedes hurt himself. There is precedent for this. In 2010, former Mets closer Francisco ‘K-Rod’ Rodriguez tore ligaments in his thumb when he tried to attack with his father-in-law. The Mets were able to get K-Rod to forfeit $3 million from his contract. As VanWagenen pointed out, the Mets will investigate further.

Bottom line, Cespedes’ days as a Met are likely over. It is a tremendous fall from grace for a player who came to New York in 2015 to much fanfare. Cespedes was one of the more feared hitters in the sport, and it showed when he crushed 17 homers for the Mets down the stretch of the ’15 campaign as the Mets made the playoffs en route to a National League title.

Since it has been nothing but a nightmare as the former All Star has battled numerous injuries since 2016.

Mickey Callaway Firing Could Be Soon After 1-Hit Loss to Marlins

Mikey Callaway's hot seat is boiling over. The Mets manager may soon be the former manager if New York does not show any punch,  effort and a will to win on Sunday in Miami.

Why? Because on Saturday afternoon the Mets were not only held to just one hit offensively, they were one-hit by a pitcher, Pablo Lopez, whom they tattooed for 10 runs a week ago, as the Marlins beat the Mets 2-0 in South Beach.  New York fell to a season-worse four games under .500 at 20-24.

Food for thought, Saturday's game represented only the second time this season the god-awful Marlins won a series.

If the Marlins win Sunday, it will be the first time the Marlins swept a series from an opponent since September 18-20 of 2017. That opponent? You guessed it: the New York Mets.

Saturday's one-hit loss follows a disheartening 8-6 loss to Miami on Friday, where Jacob deGrom surrendered nine hits and six earned runs over five innings -- easily his worst outing of the season. In a stretch where the Mets were to play 13 games inside the division against the woeful Marlins and equally listless Nationals, the Mets are 3-4.

There is no excusing what is happening here with the Mets. The team lacks drive and hustle. Just look at Robinson Cano who was criticized for his lack of hustle on Friday, and didn't even take responsibility for it.

If Mets fans want to look for a source for the lack of urgency, the don't have to look far. Callaway, as good as a man as he is, just can't get this team to play focused, consistent, motivated baseball. When asked about his job security, the Mets manager played it down saying, "I don't think anything is a must win until Game 7 of the World Series."

Don't worry Mickey, you won't even see Game 162 of the regular season in a Mets uniform if this continues.

Callway continued: "We have talent in there, we haven’t played like it, but I believe those things for a reason. Everyone comes to the park everyday for something greater than what is happening and we have to make it happen."

In a year-plus Callaway is 97-109 as Mets manager.  After starting the 2018 season at 11-1, he oversaw a historic collapse, highlighted by a 5-21 June. The Mets would finish the season with 77 wins, but decided to bring Callaway back, hoping for better results.

It hasn't come. Whether it be his mismanagement of the bullpen, or the lack of offensive production. Nothing is working for the Mets right now and a change might be in the offing.

This is not to say that Callaway is the sole reason for the Mets struggles. He is not. General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen should shoulder plenty of blame, himself.  He is the one who traded prospects to get Cano, who is hitting .250 through 44 games. He is the one who brought in Wilson Ramos, who looks like an overweight and aging backstop with little pop in his bat. He is the one who brought back Jeruys Familia.

But, baseball is a business. And in this business, before the GM gets blamed, the manager usually does. And in this case, Callaway is not Van Wagenen's guy. He'll want to hire his own manager. On top of that, the Mets just brought in Van Wagenen last winter, so right away he is not going anywhere.

 Fans can also blame the Wilpon's as much as they want, but the fact is the owner can't fire himself.

So at the end of the day, if someone is going to get blamed, it will be Callaway. 

Even if the Mets win on Sunday to buy their manager some time, it is more evident than ever that change is indeed coming very soon. 

Could Peyton Manning Fit as Jets New GM?

Is New York City big enough for two Mannings? 

While the New York Jets look like a complete dumpster fire right now after the way ownership dismissed Mike Maccagnan as General Manager, and head coach Adam Gase is doing his darnedest to be the next Bill Belichick by threatening to trade Le'Veon Bell,  rumors are flying that the Jets could look to former Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manningas the next leader of the franchise. 

This is all speculation of course. But the biggest link to a Manning-Jets marriage would be Gase, himself. Gase and Manning worked together in Denver in 2013 and 2014 when Gase was offensive coordinator. While Manning was tearing apart defenses, Gase basked in the glow and took credit; Manning was willing to give it to him. The two have been friends for a long time since. Manning even called befuddled Jets CEO Christopher Johnson and put in a good word or two for Gase, leading Gang Green to give him the job.

CONTINUE READING ON JETS 24/7.

Yankees Third Baseman Miguel Andujar Out for the Season

Miguel Andujar's season is over. The Yankees third baseman will have surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, after trying to comeback from the injury earlier this year.

Since coming off the Injured List on May 3, Andujar struggled, going 3-for-34 and watching his batting average plummet to .128 with no homers and one RBI. He was a shell of the man the Yankees saw last year win AL Rookie of the Year honors.

While the news is sobering, it is certainly not the end of the line here for the Yankees. New York has moved on nicely without Andjuar even before this news ever dropped. Rookie Gio Urshela has lit things up at third base, hitting .341 while driving in 17. The 27-year old Urshela even went 2-for-8 with 2 RBI in the Yankees double-header sweep of the Orioles on Wednesday.

At the very least the news assures the Yankees won't have to wonder what to do with Urshela if Andujar were healthy. Urshela will keep playing third base as long as he hits, and the acquisition of veteran Kendrys Morales is a nice insurance policy until some of the Yankees other walking wounded stars come back.

Jets Have Fired Mike Maccagnan in Stunning Move

The New York Jets proved one thing on Wednesday morning. They proved they are an incompetently  run organization, that has absolutely no clue about what it is doing. The firing of Mike Maccagnan as General Manager stinks on so many levels, but the timing could not be any worse.

The Jets fired Maccagnan after he just led the franchise through an entire off-season, signed a number of key free agents including Le'Veon Bell and CJ Mosley, drafted Quinine Williams, and now ... NOW ... the Jets decide it was a good time to pull the rug out from underneath him.

Clearly the rumors of a power struggle between Maccagnan and head coach Adam Gase indeed existed. Gase blew off the rumors during the Jets voluntary workouts, but clearly a rift existed. The rift was apparently too much for owner Chris Johnson to bare that he decided to fire Maccagnan now, rather than wait six months to do after the 2019 season.

If the Jets were so much on the fence with Maccagnan they should have fired him at the end of last season when the kicked Todd Bowles out the door. But, no, that is not how the Jets operate. The Jets operate by doing things ass backwards.

Seven years ago they fired Mike Tannebaum as GM, and kept Rex Ryan as Head Coach, when clearly both should have been fired. They then tried to shoehorn Ryan with John Idzik, a bad marriage from the start, and both were fired at the end of the 2014 season.

Now with Gase as acting GM, and rumors swirling the team could hire NFL Network analysts Daniel Jeremiah as Maccagnan's replacement, copying the Raiders model of hiring a TV personality to run the front office - the Jets are a full blown circus. The only way this can end now is with the Jets announcing that Gase will be fired in January, because that is the circumstance that he now finds himself.

If the Jets play poorly this year, it will be on Gase's shoulders. And it should be, because he has accomplished nothing as a head coach when he was with the Miami Dolphins that would warrant him winning a power struggle with Maccagnan, or any GM for that matter.

The Jets should be ashamed of themselves, but this is the Jets for a reason. Once a circus, always a circus.

Yankees Send Message Taking Series From Rays

YANKEES 7 - RAYS 1

This wasn't supposed to happen.

When the Yankees lost Aaron Judge on April 20 to an oblique injury, joining a list of All Stars like Giancarlo Stanton, Didi Gregorius, and Miguel Andujar on the Injury List, it didn't look good for New York. Not for a team that was struggling to get back to .500, and along with the Red Sox, looked the biggest disappointment of the early season.

But this why the Yankees are the Yankees. They have as good, if not better depth in the minors than any team in baseball. They scout better than anyone, and they have put to rest the notion that the Yankees have no time for analytics. What the Yankees have done over the last four weeks is anything short of a miracle.

A team that was 6-9 after losing two of three to the Chicago White Sox at home, no less on April 14 has gone 18-7 since. They are 24-16, and are only a half game out of first in the AL East.

How did they do it? Relying on guys like Luke Voit, DJ LaMahieu, Gio Urshela, Cameron Mayben and Marc Tauchman. Who the hell are these guys? Exactly. Outside of Voit and LaMahieu, it's a cast of who's who in the Yankees lineup, but they are getting the job done because they are good, and because they can.

Sunday was no different. The Yankees pounded the Tampa Bay Rays to submission 7-1 on Mother's Day to take two of three from a weekend set. Who cares that the Rays threw two of the games best starter pitchers at them in this series, the Yankees won both times.

The Yanks got two early runs off reigning AL Cy Young winner Blake Snell to build a 2-1 lead. Then when Snell left, the Yankees offense kicked into high gear.

Luke Voit scored on a wild pitch in the top of the eighth to give the Yanks a 3-1 lead. Then in the ninth the Yankees rallied for four runs -- sparked by a solo blast by 23-year old Thairo Estrada to make it 4-1. After the Yanks loaded the bases on base hits by Austin Romine, Tuchman, and an intentional walk to Voit, Gio Urshela doubled in a pair to push the lead to 6-1. Finally the willy old veteran Brett Gardner caped it off with a sac fly to center, scoring Voit to make it 7-1, Yankees.

On the hill, Mashairo Tanaka earned his third win, going seven innings of five hit ball, allowing only a run with seven strikeouts. Tanaka is now 3-3.

Now only a half game out of first, and getting healthier by the day, the Yankees are clearly becoming the team to beat in the American League. Imagine how good this team will be when it is 100 percent healthy.

Pressure Mounting on Mickey Callaway as Mets Need Wins

As Seen on Amazin Clubhouse on May 9, 2019. 

The New York Mets are 17-20. Having just completed a disappointing 1-5 road-trip through Milwaukee and San Diego, the Mets find themselves at a crossroads in 2019.

With the next two weeks dedicated exclusively to divisional play against the Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals, it is an understatement to say the next 13 games are pivotal to the Mets season.

Because the rumors are already starting that manager Mickey Callaway is on the hot seat, and an in-season firing could be in the offing very soon.

The New York Post reported earlier this week that Callaway had the dreaded vote of confidence from COO Jeff Wilpon and General Manager Brodie VanWagenen, believing that the Mets will eventually get out of their offensive doldrums.

Earlier this year, the Mets biggest issue was its starting rotation and bullpen that for a better part of the month of April was at or near the bottom in Major League Baseball in ERA, and opposing batting average. The only reason the Mets stayed competitive was the offense.

Now, the offense is sputtering.

In the month of May, the Mets are hitting .198 as a team with only five home runs. One of those homers was from Noah Syndergaard. Two of them were from Pete Alonso. And even Alonso, who has two homers and five RBI this month, is only hitting .219 in the last two weeks.

Really outside of Jeff McNeil (.313/0 HR/ 1 RBI) and Amed Rosario (.300/ 0 HR/ 3 RBI), nobody else is contributing to this team.

Brandon Nimmo is lost in space. The smile that once stretched across his face has disappeared along with his bat. In his last eight games, Nimmo is hitting .083 (2 hits in 24 at bats).

Robinson Cano's bat has been frozen for several weeks. Cano is hitting a putrid .174 in his last 35 at bats. Were it not for a rare 4-hit game by Cano in San Diego the other day, he would be hitting .067 (2 hits in 30 at bats) since the end of April.

And don’t get started with the pitching staff, which to this day is still having issues. Jeurys Familia is on the injured list, and when he was healthy was ineffective. Same for Justin Wilson. Edwin Diaz has been getting hit hard of late. The starting rotation isn’t giving Callaway the length he needs to avoid the pen on a nightly basis.

So who is to blame for this mess?

Certainly Callaway shoulders plenty of blame. Here is a manager who couldn’t inspire his team in the month of June last year where it went 5-21 en route to a historic collapse after an 11-1 start to the season. This year the Mets were 5-1 out of the gate. They are 12-19 since.

He has had trouble navigating the bullpen. He overworks guys, and can be too impatient with his starters.

Offensively, he stays away. There is not much he can do there – he’s a pitcher by trade. He can rely on hitting coach Chili Davis as much as he wants, but he just doesn’t have the horses to hit the ball consistently to make up for his managerial gaffs with the pitching staff and bench.

We knew entering the season that Callaway was on thin ice. He was not Van Wagenen’s guy after all, so the new GM has every right to move on if he wants. Many assume that Jim Riggleman will take over if and when Callaway gets fired. But is it all on Callaway?

The answer is no.

VanWagenen should shoulder a lot of the blame himself too. It is only fair.

VanWagenen is the one who convinced the Mets to pick up the rest of Cano’s contract from the Seattle Mariners at age 37 and trade two top prospects in doing so. The fear was Cano could hit a wall and look his age – that certainly has happened.

VanWagenen is also the one who hitched his wagons to Jed Lowrie (who we still haven’t seen this year due to injury). He is the one who signed Wilson, who has an ERA of 4.82 and makes people miss the days of Jerry Blevins. VanWagenen is the one who convinced the Wilpon’s to bring back Familia; even the fan base knew they were better off without him.

Yes, Callaway has done a poor job managing this ball club. They are becoming unwatchable. That is on the manager.

But let us not forget who went shopping for the groceries. VanWagenen boasted this was a playoff team. But this is a flawed roster, with some nice young pieces that may or may not win 80 games.

In the end, if VanWagenen deserves a shot to figure what team he would like to field -- eventually; Callaway at least deserves a better fate than Willie Randolph.

Kentucky Derby Finish, One of the Most Controversial In Sports History

First off the bat let me say that I am not by any stretch of the imagination an expert on horse racing. You won't find me at Santa Anita, or Saratoga (although I would like to go to Saratoga one of these summers). Although I throughly enjoy watching the Triple Crown every summer, and enjoy putting down a few bucks on the biggest horse races of the year. 

Kentucky Derby. 

Preakness Stakes.

 Belmont.

I am there. 

Glued to my seat at 6:35 p.m. ET, waiting to see two minutes of sports action. I remember  Silver Charm's magical run in 1997. Real Quiet's near miss the following year in 1998. Was upset when Charasmatic injured his leg at the stretch of Belmont in 1999. I missed American Pharoah's Triple Crown achievement at Belmont in 2015 because I was up in Trois Rivieres broadcasting baseball, but I did watch Justify's run through the Triple Crown a year ago.  

But on Saturday, May 4, 2019, it will be a day -- at least in my opinion -- that will live in infamy for horse racing. In a sport that runs way too many horses in the Kentucky Derby, (20 is just too damn many horses on muddy tracks), and has seen its fair share of criticism for animal cruelty, and even featured death for both horse and jockey on the field, Saturday was another black eye for a sport -- that historically is viewed as American as apple pie. 

From pillar to post Maximum Security was in front. A 9-2 morning line favorite after Omaha Beach was scratched earlier in the week, Max Security, with Code of Honor (13), Country House (20) and Tacitus (8) all coming right on Security's tail at the stretch, pulled away and won the race. 

Until he didn't. 

In a world dominated by instant replay and bad calls, the stewards (replay officials) decided after 20 minutes of scrutinizing every camera angel available to them, and calling the jockey's involved in the race's final seconds that Maximum Security had committed a foul when he got into the lane that Code of Honor was trying to enter and blocked him, impeding the race, forcing a disqualification of Maximum Security. 

Instead, Country Horse, who was a distant second and was nowhere near the bumping that occurred between Code of Honor and Maximum Security was declared the winner. 

It was horrible. Even if the stewards were right, it was a bad moment at the worst possible time. 

The decision that Maximum Security blocked Code of Honor from moving up means that you would also have to assume that Code of Honor would have won. 

How can anyone justify such an assumption? 

Who is to say that Maximum Security still wouldn't have turned on the jets and finished first? The track was sloppy, and all the horses were converging into one another and bumping each other at the same time. It was a sloppy mess for everyone!  Video even shows County Horse bumping into Code of Honor and Tacitus down the stretch run as well. Does that mean Country Horse should be disqualified too? 

For all of those who were running to cash in their tickets once Maximum Security clearly won the race were the biggest losers of the night. Country Horse meanwhile took home a sweet purse with odds at 65-1 by post time. 

Had Country Horse won without instant replay getting involved, it would have been a great story to see a long shot that nobody talked about win. But, no.  

In the winner's circle as the handlers for Country Horse were awarded the trophy, you could hear 150,000 people booing in the distance. When was the last time that happened at the Kentucky Derby? Never. At least I can't remember. 

Instead horse racing gave us Saturday their best impression of the NFL, a league that can't shoot straight even if it tried. This was a moment that was so bad it harkened back to the dreadful non-call against the New Orleans Saints in last January's NFC Championship game that gave the LA Rams a ticket to the Super Bowl. 

That's right we live in an era where not only we can't tell what a catch or pass interference is in football, we now can't tell who really won a race at the Kentucky Derby. 

Welcome to sports in 2019 folks! What you thought you saw, you didn't see. And what you thought you knew, you didn't.  This is the era dominated and ruined by instant replay.

Mets Slip Under .500 For First Time in 2019

BREWERS 4 - METS 3 

18 INNINGS 

It took 18 innings, and at the end of the day the New York Mets are now under .500 for the first time this season following a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, Saturday night.

Having taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the 18^th on Jeff McNeil’s single to left that scored Andy Hechavarria from second base, reliever Chris Flexen, with an assist from home plate umpire Angel Hernandez, gave it right back to Milwaukee.

On a night where the Mets bullpen was truly phenomenal, Flexen was the last guy out of the Mets bullpen as the game reached the 17^th and 18^th innings. Blame Manager Mickey Callaway all you want, but there was nowhere else to go, unless he was willing to warm up a starting pitcher. 

With the game still tied at two, Flexen impressively got out of trouble in the 17^th inning when he worked around a leadoff double by Ryan Braun and an intentional walk to Ben Gamel.

However in the 18^th, he completely lost the strike zone.

Flexen walked Eric Thames on five pitches, even tough there were two pitches in the at bat that were clearly strikes that were clearly missed by Angel Hernandez.

After jamming Mike Moustakas into a fly-out to center, Flexen walked Yasmani Grandal on five pitches, and walked Travis Shaw on four pitches. Ironically, all four pitches to Shaw were right on the corner of the strike-zone, and could have been called. But don’t tell that to Herandez – infamously baseball’s worst umpire.

Still, Flexen should have been more aggressive in the strike zone and not left it up to Hernandez to decide what was and was not a strike. This is now two uninspiring outings for Flexen this year, who now boasts an ERA of 11.12.

Finally, Braun made the Mets pay lining a singe down the right field line scoring both Thames and Grandal to win in for Milwaukee.

The loss is a frustrating one for New York.  The Mets offense was once again non-existent. New York went a combined 1-for-3 with Runners In Scoring Position, and walked a grand total of one time, which over the course of an 18-inning game is inexcusable.

Outside of Pete Alonso, who remains hot, and tied this game at two back in the ninth inning on a solo home runs, and McNeil, who broke out of his slump with a three-hit performance, nobody else is hitting.

Robinson Cano went 0-for-7. Michael Conforto went 1-for-5, although he showed a couple of good swings. Wilson Ramos was 1-for-6. Amed Rosario went 1-for-7.

Over the last four games, the Mets, as a team are hitting .170 (26-for-153) with five runs scored, five RBI, six walks, 48 strikeouts, and are a measly 2-for-18 with RISP. Before Alonso’s homer on Saturday, the only other Met to go long this week was Noah Syndergaard.

The Mets lack of offensive firepower spoiled a solid outing for Zach Wheeler, who did well on Saturday allowing only two runs over seven innings while striking out 10.

At 16-17, the Mets have to find a way to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Brewers before flying to San Diego, Sunday night. New York will turn the ball over to Jason Vargas on Sunday. You could say this is “must win” game for the Mets and a “must impress” game for Vargas, who needs to give the Mets better than four innings of work.