Mets Game 75: Loss to Cubs
Cubs 5 Mets 3
Who knew the Ringling Brothers were from Flushing?
If the excuse is still related to the Mets being tired, perhaps someone should start testing for African Sleeping Sickness.
Mets Game Notes
The Mets lose the series, and face a sweep. Dillon Gee pitched OK, not great. The Mets didn’t hit. They didn’t field. They didn’t think. They didn’t execute.
On the bright side, Daniel Murphy shaved off that ridiculous porno stache.
Do little things mean a lot? In the third inning, with two outs and Lucas Duda on first, Ike Davis hit a booming double that should have scored Duda. However, third base coach Tim Teufel hesitated for a split second before running his arm through the windmill motion, and thus Duda slowed down and stopped at third. Both men were at fault in this situation; Teufel needed to wave his arm more quickly, and Duda should have read the drive better and been busting it with a head of steam rounding third. As it turned out, Duda was stranded there. It was a one-run game until the bottom of the 8th, so, it was a significant mistake.
There were several close tag plays in this game, that went both for and against the Mets; the last one resulted in Ike Davis being tossed from the game on a disputed pickoff play. From the replay, it looked like the runner should have been called out. However, there was a similar pickoff the inning before that might have also been the wrong call — so, did it even out? Maybe. Who knows?
There were so many other mental, physical, and fundamental mistakes in this three-ring circus that I haven’t the energy to go through them all. I’m getting too old for this garbage, and I have to get up early to go to my “real” job, so please lodge your complaints and observations in the comments and we can all kvetch together. It was a game played terribly by the Mets; in fact, the Cubs looked like a more fundamentally solid ballclub in this particular contest. The 26-48 Cubs. Need I say more? Meh.
Next Mets Game
The final game of the series begins at 2:20 p.m. EST. Daytime star Jonathon Niese heads to the hill against Jeff Samardzija — whose name I find more challenging to spell than “Nieuwenhuis.”
About the Author
Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers.
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Davis made contact with the umpire. A suspension is very possible.
He was right though his reaction was kinda funny doing a double take an then hunching over like a foot to get in the umps face. In a strange way its nice to see him atleast care to argue during his slump he looked disinterested, at least thats the way it looked to me.. Is it possible to feel bad for our bulpen? 5 unearned runs in two nights jeeze louise.
Let’s look at the bright side. The Mets have a chance to hit .500 soon, earlier in the season than some might have thought. Just from the wrong direction. Duda is looking more and more like a DH because of his fielding. Davis is a head case. Now, irritated by the loss of basic fundamentals of this team, I am beginning to be irritated by Wright. It irks me that Wright is hitting in the 350s, just as Reyes was last year. Neither player ever reached that stratosphere before (and we know what has happened to Reyes this year).. And the only thing the two situations have in common is that they are contract years. It has to be more than a coincidence, and for that I am Mr Irritated Mets Fan today.
The club’s got a club option on Wright for 2013. While they’ve written articles about extension-talk, etc. – it’s not a “contract year” for him.
I am a DW fan and i don’t want him reverting to striking out all the time or hitting .260 but we need a few 3 run bombs every now and than.Just to offset the half a dozen games a year we lose because he can’t throw to first and second base alone.8 bombs at the all star break for a player who’s agent will start contract talks at 20 mill per year is not getting it done imho. .
Vaccaro in the Post had a piece the other day asking if the Mets are the worst of the good teams or the best of the lousy teams in the NL.We might have an answer when this road trip ends..
Teufel has been quite unwhelming as 3B coach.
Yeah, Tuff’s been a disaster over there.
Clarification on:
“but you have to wonder if it’s “automatic” once contact is made.”
…..meaning, automatic suspension.
As soon as I saw the Duda-Teufel debacle, I more or less knew what to expect the rest of the way:
- quick (almost instantaneous) Cubbie comeback; and
- that run not scoring, becoming a crucial turning point from which they’d never come back.
Once again, we saw nothing-short-of-AMAZING official scoring jobs; that have become an epidemic around the league. Hometown gifts essentially were awarded to Rizzo on his 2 hits. There should have been an error in the 1st, and then again in the 4th on his “double”, which was a single with no error charged to Kirk Nieuwenhuis in CF…..even though him falling down allowed 2 Cubs runners an extra base.
This team is making far too many errors, both mental and physical – to consistently win ball games — at this rate.
No revelation that they need to play solid baseball, especially given their limitations….but the question is: can they?
Not really sure what Ron Darling’s been watching, where he’s stating that Tejada “hasn’t missed a beat” since returning…..not only does he look rusty at the plate, but in the field – he hasn’t been much of a reassurance.
In addition, for someone I generally like watching….Nieuwenhuis is striking out at an amazing pace – and gives the opposition too many very easy outs with “throw-away” AB’s.
I know he’s always been prone to striking out, but they’ve really gotta figure something out there….especially if he’s going to be leading off for any prolonged period of time.
RE: Ike –
Absolute (crap)-show of a call, but like you said — maybe a make-up call for the previous pick-off he gave ‘em. That he “brushed” him with his glove doesn’t mean anything to me, especially since he quickly came to his senses and pulled back…….but you have to wonder if it’s “automatic” once contact is made.
I will say, that for all his in-game head-scratchers – along with other questions about him as a long-term Major League manager……I do applaud Terry Collins for getting right out there to defend his player.
Harkens me back to how annoyed I’d get, seeing the stoic Willie Randolph sit there and take it up the wazzoo – whichever way an ump liked to give it. Hated that more than words could describe.
This has all the makings of getting ugly quick, especially with the Dodgers next on-tap. Niese needs to shut ‘em down today……since nothing is really doing offensively with this lineup.
Funny reading all the fear about playing the Dodgers. Have to pay attention. They los 8 of last 10. what are you all so scared of. Only thing to fret is fact that Alderson has a minor league team on field and Collins may have run out of magic buttons to press.
“Paying attention” to the games the Mets play, it doesn’t take much to know that the Dodgers are better than the Mets. 8 of their last 10 means they’re due to turn it around.
…..especially if the Mets are going to try to make excuses about traveling to the West Coast, what time they get to the hotel, etc.
“Pay attention” to the fact it’s a 4-game series, and you’ll see what I’m “scared” of.
Joe,
One more complaint to lodge as I have a real job to do as well. After having the starter out after 3 innings, the Mets put up goos eggs in 6 innings against the bullpen of the worst team in MLB. That is hard to take.
Regarding the play where Teufel was slow with the sign and Duda held at 3rd: I checked the game write-ups in the Post, News, Newsday, Star-Ledger… and every one of them blamed Duda completely, without any reference to Teufel’s culpability. Maybe it’s a small thing, but to me it’s yet another example of the superior insight that comes from this website.
Teufel was pretty nonchalant about everything associated with that play.
For a guy down the line, and pretty much “in-position” to get his guy home with ease…..he was turned the wrong way (angled toward the stands), and was waving Duda home with his left arm…..looked like he was doing a spastic version of the back-stroke.
Duda needs to pick his coach up as soon as he’s hitting the bag at 2nd — or a stride or two into his dash to 3rd…..but otherwise, Tuff just didn’t make the grade in communicating with his guy.
We’ve seen this before, but at the same time – it’s not like our baserunners could be confused for being smart, by any stretch. One of the times Teufel did put on the brakes, Daniel Henderson…..err…..Murphy chose to run right through it.
Still needs to be better. He’s no Chip Hale.
We may need to bring back Matt Galante.
Niese needs to throw a shut out today. A sweep will be a disaster and a morale downer for the team going against the Dodgers. It really sucks that we lost with both Dickey and Santana this week. Regarding Murphys there is definately something tentative about his swing. If you look at the replays of his hit last night he hit the ball squarely and on the meat of the bat and with a lofting trajectory, but with only enough force for a single. Ready for Valdespin at second for the second half of the year
I guess DW read my above post.We are going to need a lot more 3 run bombs to stay in contenton.Missed the game.Nice to read about it.
My bad.I thought David hit 2 homers.Turns out it was Murphy.5 rbi’s not a bad start though