Skip to main content

New Year, Same Ole Mets in Deflating Opening Loss

 PHILLIES 5 - METS 2 

If Monday night's 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies is going to be a microcosm of things to come for the 2021 Mets, it's going to be a long season. 

Because on Monday, Mets fans were treated to a familiar script. 

- Jacob deGrom pitches brilliantly. 

- The Mets fail to get him much run support, as he clings to a 2-0 lead, before exiting the ball game after just 77 piches.   

- 77 pitches? Really Luis Rojas. 

- The bullpen implodes. 

- The Mets rally late, but fall short. 

Yep, same story as we've become accustomed to from the Metropolitans. 

deGrom was indeed brilliant. In fact he was virtually unhittable. At one point he was hitting 100 mph on his heater in the sixth inning, and had Bryce Harper and the rest of the Phillies lineup completely flabbergasted. 

deGrom even helped his own cause with a pair of singles, including an RBI single in the fifth that gave the Mets a 2-0 lead. James McCann was the only other Met to produce a run, an RBI single in the fourth in his Mets debut. 

Other than that, the Mets had no answer offensively. They left 10 men on base, and were 4-for-11 with RISP.  

The $341 million man, Francisco Lindor? He made some snazzy plays defensively, but was quiet with the bat until his single through hole at second in the top of the ninth during a potential Mets rally. 

The real culprit of course was the bullpen. Former Minnesota Twins reliever Trevor May had nothing on his fastball which was completely flat, and the Phillies knew it. After giving up a 1-out single to Brad Miller, May lost Andrew McCutchen to a walk after an eight pitch battle. Then Rhys Hoskins slapped a base hit to right after a six pitch duel. 

Finally Rojas went back to the pen to bring in lefty Aaron Loup, who just didn't have it. Loup hit Harper in the rear end with the bases loaded to drive in a run to make it 2-1, and J.T. Realmuto slapped a single through the hole at third to tie it. 

Finally the Mets got sloppy defensively when Luis Guillorme threw away a grounder by Alec Brohm that drove in two run more Phillies runs to make it 4-2. 

It was  the ultimate disaster, and the Mets seemed powerless to stop the mudslide. 

The Mets tried to rally in the ninth.  Kevin Pillar and Lindor singled, before Michael Conforto reached on a RBI base hit that Harper couldn't handle in right. Finally, Pete Alonzo skied one to deep right that he barely missed hitting out of the park. Instead of changing the narrative, Alonzo's fly ball was emblematic of the night. So close, yet so far. 

The Mets (0-1) send Marcus Stroman to the hill tomorrow against the 4-0 Phillies.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jets, Dolphins and Patriots Playoff Breakdown

Here are the formuli that could get the Jets into and out of the playoff party this season: 1) If the Jets win against Seattle and Miami, they win the AFC East based on a better conference record (8-4) than the New England Patriots, even if New England wins out as well. 2) If the Patriots win out and the Dolphins win out and finish at 11-5, the Jets would be 10-6, or 9-7, and probably out of the playoffs. Both New England and Miami would make the playoffs, with the Dolphins as a divison winner and the Patriots as a wild card. The Patriots make the postseason if Baltimore loses one of its final two games. 3) If the Patriots win out and the Dolphins and Jets split, then the Patriots win the AFC East. The Jets will have to hope that they beat Miami to win that tie-breaker and, further, hope that they have a better conference record than the Baltimore Ravens in order to clinch the sixth seed. 4) If the Patriots and Ravens win out and the Dolphins and Jets split their final two games, then ...
8 comments
Read more

Francisco Lindor Remains Red Hot as Mets Top Phillies

 Francisco Lindor remains the hottest player in Queens right now.  The Mets shortstop blasted two more home runs, including a three-run blast in the bottom of the eighth inning, Monday night to help propel the Mets to a 5-4 win over Philadelphia.   Lindor who typically struggles in the month of April is putting together a heck of a month. Monday's two hit effort was the 10th game in the last 11 where Lindor has recorded a hit. In fact in the month of April alone this year, Lindor was hitting at .311 coming into Monday's action.  On the year, Lindor is batting .284 with five homers and 13 RBI.  Lindor's efforts proved to be prophetic, as the Phillies Alec Bohm crushed a three-run bomb off Edwin Diaz in the top of the ninth to cut the Mets lead to a single run. Fortunately for New York, Diaz was able to shut the door with strikeouts of Trea Turner and Bryce Harper.  New York (16-7) has now won five in a row.  
Post a Comment
Read more

Mets Keep Rolling into Phillies Series

 The New York Mets are feeling pretty good about things right now!  The Amazin's swept a four game series from the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday, winning 7-4 Sunday afternoon. It was the first time since 1986 that the Amazin's had swept such a series from St. Louis. We all know what happened later that season.    Well, not to get too far ahead of ourselves, because the 2025 version now faces a very stiff challenge. The Mets will face their arch rivals the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday with only two games separating the two teams in the NL East.  The Mets took out Philly in the NLDS last October, so this figures to be a heck of showdown. The Mets begin a month long stretch against teams that are likely postseason contenders like the Phillies, D-Backs, Cubs, Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers.  If the Mets (15-7) are this good, we will know for sure in a month.
Post a Comment
Read more