Mets Game 73: Loss To Brewers

Brewers 4 Mets 1

It’s official: the Mets offense is so awful, they make bad pitchers look good. And the Mets are now under .500, after being as many as ten games above it at one point in the season.

Mets Game Notes

Journeyman Jimmy Nelson came into the game 3-8 with a 4.64 ERA. In his last two starts, he had allowed 21 hits and 10 runs in 10 innings. In this game, he held the Mets to one run on two hits in eight full innings.

To be fair, Nelson posted similar performances earlier in the year against the Tigers and Reds. So it wasn’t completely out of character for him to dispose of the Mets so easily. But still.

The highlight of the game for the Mets was either Curtis Granderson‘s solo homer or Logan Verrett‘s perfect eighth inning. Take your pick.

Not that it mattered, but yet again the Mets made a mental error in the field that resulted in an extended inning and a run scored. On a slow bouncer off the bat of Ryan Braun to Lucas Duda that should’ve easily ended an otherwise easy fifth frame, Duda chose to toss the ball to a too-slow Bartolo Colon rather than take it himself. Braun wasn’t even running hard until he saw that the play evolved into a running race between he and the turtle. The play, remarkably but not surprisingly, was scored a “hit.” A few minutes and two singles later, Braun scored to put the Brewers ahead 3-1.

Speaking of Braun, he was a much better hitter when he was denying steroid use. It’s a coincidence, I’m sure, that his offensive numbers have dropped dramatically since he came clean. PEDs don’t really help performance, do they?

The fourth Milwaukee run scored when Scooter Gennett hit an 0-2 pitch into the right-field seats. Scooter? Whatever, it didn’t matter.

Supposedly, Mets manager Terry Collins held a pregame meeting telling his players to “relax.” When the ninth inning came, Frankie Rodriguez also said “relax,” and the Mets did. Not for nuthin’, but did anyone ever suggest to you to “relax” while you were in a stressful situation? Did it work? Or did it make you feel even MORE stressed? It’s akin to telling a little kid to “stop crying!”

During the postgame, Collins said the Mets players needed to be “tougher.” He was asked by a reporter what he meant by that — to define “playing tough.” He was speechless. Um …

You know there’s something wrong with your lineup when the opposing team pitches around your .240-hitting leadoff guy to face your #2 hitter. You also know there’s something wrong with your lineup when Darrell Ceciliani is batting fifth.

I love hearing Gary Cohen call play by play — he was clearly missed during his absence. And I get that he’s been out of the booth for a while and may not be up to speed on what’s been happening lately. But this response to a highlight/game update showing a Giancarlo Stanton home run was a bit out of place, considering the circumstances:

“See that’s the nightly recitation, right? Stanton hits one out of sight, big exit velocity, and the Marlins lose — EVERY NIGHT.”

Well, um, Gary, that’s not entirely true. Over the past 23 games leading up to Cohen’s quip, the Marlins were 11-12. Not great, for sure, but they’re not exactly losing every night. More to my point, the Mets were 9-14 over the same period. Not to mention the 6- (now 7-) game losing streak. Oops! Calling the kettle black and all that, you know? Maybe check the numbers before being so vociferous in your response. You’re too good at what you do to make comments like this.

Just so you know I’m not a Gary Hate-ah, later on he and Ron Darling were spot-on with this exchange:

Ron: “When you look at lineup that the Mets put out there … the people in the lineup are just not the kind of lineups you see around other Major League clubs that are playoff-kind of teams.”

Gary: “So ultimately it’s not that players are vastly under-performing, it’s that the caliber of player in the everyday lineup — with all the deletions they’ve had — is just not all that good.”

Well done, you’ve hit the nail on the head, Gary. Though, I take small issue with the “all the deletions they’ve had” caveat. Yes, the Mets have lost David Wright, Daniel Murphy, and Travis d’Arnaud to injury. But, every team loses players to injury — for example, the Nationals have lost Denard Span, Jayson Werth, Anthony Rendon, and Ryan Zimmerman (not to mention pitchers such as Doug Fister and Stephen Strasburg) for significant periods this season, but does anyone in Washington use that as an excuse?

Take a look at the bright side, Mets fans. While the Mets dropped another game behind on the Nationals with this loss and Washington’s win, they’re still ahead of the Braves by a half-game, since the Braves were the team the Nats beat. So, there you go.

Next Mets Game

The Mets look to avoid a second straight series sweep and eighth consecutive loss by sending Jacob deGrom to the mound against Taylor Jungmann, a “young man” from Texas with a 2-1 record in three MLB starts this year. Game time on getaway day is 2:10 PM Eastern Time.