Mets Game 1: Loss to Royals

Royals 4 Mets 3

Wait, is the World Series still going on? This looked awfully familiar.

Mets game notes

Good game, Royals!

Your third baseman made a strong throw from the line to retire a hustling batter-runner.

Your catcher blocked all the errant pitches that came his way.

Your center fielder left his feet going after a likely hit.

In general, your fielders caught everything that was hit right at them.

At the plate, your middle-of-the-order hitter shortened up when a sac fly was needed, and got it done.

When you bunted for a hit, you relied on surprise, and made sure to keep it fair.

On the bases, you took third with one out when it was there for the taking.

Your manager made a smart move too, bringing in a reliever who doesn’t allow a lot of hits, when you were facing runners in scoring position with two outs.

Coincidentally, had the Mets done these things too, they would have won the game 4-1.

Next Mets Game

Tuesday at 4:15, Noah Syndergaard attempts to personally take two out of seven from the champs.

David Berg has been following the Mets since 1990, and counts himself as a "die hard fan" -- the agonies have been numerous and arduous, but he's still watching every game he can, determined to "earn" the satisfaction when the Mets eventually win it all. In his non-spare time, David is a designer of graphics, web sites, and games. See his work at Shrike Design
  1. argonbunnies April 4, 2016 at 3:37 pm

    Other observations:

    – I thought the Mets batters showed great pitch selection for most of the night. Minus a few bad calls by the home plate ump and a few good plays by the Royals, the offensive line score would have looked better.

    – At the same time, when the Mets swung at the pitches they got to hit, they didn’t hit many of them hard. I know pitchers are often ahead of hitters in April, but it’s been a while since I saw a team miss so many fastballs right down the middle.

    – A lot of those meaty fastballs were accidents, but the Royals clearly read from his first few ABs that David Wright couldn’t catch up, and just threw it by him for the rest of the night. I’ve seen David beaten by hard stuff plenty of times, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen it right in his wheelhouse, over and over, before. They couldn’t have put it on a tee any better, but Wright didn’t do more than barely foul off anything 93+ all night.

    – I expect a good year out of Harvey, but I don’t expect the smooth sailing from 2013. He’s been fighting himself for a month now, in a way he never did that year before his elbow tightened up. On the plus side, his change-up in the later innings was better than it was most of last year.

    – Asdrubal Cabrera didn’t get to a ball Flores might have. Hopefully his range will improve as he gets farther from his knee strain. Right?