Mets Game 65: Loss To Brewers
Brewers 3 Mets 1
Mets lose by only two, but really, it could have easily been a loss by a much larger margin.
Mets Game Notes
Jacob deGrom continues to search for his first MLB win. Not yet time to start harking back to Anthony Young, though. He’s a competitor, and a battler, but not so sure he’s as great as he looked in his first few starts. I like him.
Wily Peralta overpowered the Mets hitters with his heavy fastballs and slinky slider. He didn’t seem all that outstanding to me, though, mainly because he couldn’t always locate away from the middle of the plate and he doesn’t have a true offspeed pitch. I think the lack of skilled hitters in the Mets lineup made him look better than he is.
A symbol of what should be valued in today’s post-PEDs-era ballgame (and was valued in the pre-PEDs era): Scooter Gennett in the third inning. First off, prior to the 1990s, every ballclub had a guy with a name like “Scooter” — where have all the nicknames gone? But I digress … Gennett rapped a grounder down the third base line, and, seeing an opportunity to stretch a single into a double, did so against the weak arm of Curtis Granderson. Two points right there: Gennett’s aggressiveness, and Grandy’s weak arm. Gennett then advanced to third on a fly ball to center by Ryan Braun. After meandering off the base upon contact, Gennett quickly and properly judged the liner to be caught early enough to get back to 2B and head to third. He then scored the first Brewers on a groundout to short. An important point here: Gennett is NOT a speedster, he’s merely a “heads-up baserunner” — a quality that has been all but forgotten over the past 20 years.
Another little thing: with men on second and third, and none out in the fifth, Carlos Gomez tapped a grounder to Daniel Murphy. The ball was hit so slow, Ryan Braun was scoring from third no matter what. But, Lucas Duda went after the ball as well, and shouldn’t have, and Jacob deGrom didn’t fully intend on covering first, and his brief hesitation resulted in being too late to cover first to get Gomez. As it turned out, it didn’t matter as the Brewers didn’t score again that inning, but had it not been for a liner snared by Ruben Tejada on the following play, the mistake could’ve cost the Mets at least another run, if not more.
Guess what? Little things like heads-up baserunning, good reads on the bases and in the field, arm strength of outfielders, etc., etc., are incredibly important now that we don’t see multiple homeruns every game.
The Brewers have some hackers, eh? Gomez, Aramis Ramirez, and Khris Davis all swing from their heels on nearly every pitch, regardless of situation. Gomez seems to cut down his swing just a tiny bit with two strikes — or that may be an optical illusion based on him being able to make a bit of contact.
Terry Collins was thrown out of the game for arguing with a replay/review call in the fifth. I SWEAR that just before he was tossed, the umpire asked Terry, “do you want me to throw you out?” Again, maybe it was an optical illusion, but I watched the replay of the toss five times and, while my lip-reading is not the best, it sure looked like the question was asked prior to the heave-ho.
Did you hear the “oh yeah” confab by GKR regarding the new SNY show? Three things ran through my mind: Ferris Bueller, Kool-Aid Man, and porn (you can find your own video for that one, it won’t be difficult).
I’ve never, ever been an advocate of booing. But I wouldn’t mind if the Citi Field crowd were a little more aggressive about booing Braun. I wouldn’t mind if they were obnoxious and relentless in their efforts, in fact — like Rangers fans when the Islanders invaded the Garden in the 1980s.
Brewers reliever Will Smith would probably look good in black jersey. I wonder if his nickname is “Fresh Prince” or “Agent J”? Smith is a decent LOOGY, but certainly no legend. Yes, these games remain boring for me, and the Keith Hernandez diatribe on the fan cave wasn’t enough for my fix, so my cheeseballiness here is the best I can do to keep myself entertained. Deal with it.
Maybe I should start gearing up for G-Unit.
Not sure what this means, but I find it fascinating: the Phillies’ “run differential” thus far is -44. The Mets’ is -3. Both teams have 36 losses. Anyone want to chime in on this?
Next Mets Game
The final and rubber game of the series begins at 7:10 PM on Thursday night. Jonathon Niese faces Kyle Lohse.
Also, they are no better than a .500 club. A far cry from Sandy Alderson’s 90 wins.
Really difficult to watch this team. They’re simply not entertaining.
The first run: Gennett’s grounder down the line bounced right where Granderson could quickly pick it up. The camera cut to Gennett rounding first base and I thought “he’ll be out by 20 feet”. But I guess Scooter was counting on a truly terrible throw by Granderson, and he got it — both weak and off-line. Gennett wound up scoring.
The second run: Ramirez hit a routine fly ball to shallow left, which Granderson initially ran away from, then circled in on. At this point he’d already played an out into a single. Then he made a dive that wasn’t even close to reaching the ball, and it rolled away, turning a single into a double. Ramirez wound up scoring.
The third run: with Braun on first, Lucroy hit a deep fly ball to left. He hit it hard, but it stayed in the air for a while, wasn’t that close to the line, and landed short of the warning track. Not every LF makes that play, but the best ones certainly do. Braun went to third on the play and wound up scoring on an infield grounder.
My point isn’t to shame Curtis, who was trying hard as always. I’m just disappointed that our lone big dollar acquisition, who was touted as being sure to contribute to an elite defensive OF, isn’t as advertised. I’m usually one to criticize GMs for listening too much to scouts, but isn’t this a case where Sandy should have talked to some scouts before acquiring Grandy, and should have known better before trumpeting his D to the fans? Anyone who watched him for a few games could note the poor arm, and anyone who watched him for more than a few games could note the bad routes and reads.
Alright, now let’s give Granderson some credit — he did show some guts and coordination in making two fine catches against the walls during the last homestand.
Grandy’s defensive issues fit the same theme: players aren’t hitting enough homeruns to make up for their deficiencies. You live with Grandy’s D if he’s hitting 50 HR. You can deal with Murphy’s D and baserunning brain locks if he’s hitting .330. But when the offense isn’t there, everything else is magnified.
Then, unfortunately, the Mets also got to bat and play the field…
deGrom only threw one good change-up all game, and his fastball had little movement. Hopefully next time out he’ll add his good stuff back into the mix with that competitiveness and dominate a weaker lineup.
Well, the Mets might have lacked decent hitters last night, but no need to take a cheap shot at Wily Peralta. Maybe you should educate yourself. Over his last 30 starts, Peralta is 12-11 with a 2.98 ERA with 145 strike outs and 63 walks in 184 innings pitched. He’s still learning to pitch at the Major League level. But when you’re running a sub 3.00 ERA over a year’s worth of starts, you’re a pretty good pitcher. And Peralta has been one of the better pitchers in the Majors over the last calendar year.
Welcome to the blog. I have strong opinions and voice them. Few if any of my opinions are based on stats, they’re based on what my eyes see in a particular game. I have seen Peralta pitch maybe 3-4 times previously, and the only thing about him that has impressed me is his velocity. I’ve seen him throw essentially one speed, and in my experience that’s not sustainable for a starting pitcher. Peralta has a great, heavy fastball and that’s it. His slider is used improperly most of time — like many MLB pitchers who can’t throw a change-up or curve consistently, he uses his slider as an off-speed pitch, and frequently hangs it flat, high, and with too much plate because he’s often throwing it for a strike. Again, not sustainable practice.
If he’s one of the better pitchers in MLB over the last year, then either you and I have different definitions of what that means, or hitters are awful. Maybe a mix of both, based on what I’ve been seeing of MLB hitters lately. No one knows how to hit based on situation and no one knows how to hit with two strikes. It’s all grip it and rip it.
Additionally, there’s been little to no situation more puzzling (yet, completely predictable) than what they’re attempting to do with Wilmer Flores…..considering he actually hit the ball well, with some semblance of regular AB’s.
Whattawaste of time.
It seems to me that Tejada does well when opposing pitchers assume he’s awful and leave the ball over the middle of the plate. As soon as they bear down a little, he’s toast.
I’m just at a point where I get genuinely annoyed in looking at a lineup card with “Tejada” (not only at SS – but) leading off & promised essentially 4 AB’s a night – for however long it’s going to last.
…….while Wilmer Flores continues to rot on the bench – even if he’s not “the answer” at SS.
This is a guy (Rube Ruth – after his 2 HR’s) they made it pretty clear about, in wanting nothing to do with him. Until, of course, the F.O. painted themselves into a corner – and had to give him a raise this year.
What the (flip) is their deal?
I didn’t think Joe’s comments about Peralta were a “cheap shot” but it is also fair to say that he is a pretty good pitcher. Joe may have been observing his pitches last night and thought the Mets may have made him look better than he saw last night so the “Mets made him look better than he is” and “Peralta is a good pitcher” are two ideas / comments that are not mutually exclusive and seems no excessive to label Joe’s comments a cheap shot?
I would like to see Mets fans boo opposing players more and home players less. Even if (for example) TDA is pissing the bed, I’m not sure what is gained by booing him when he makes an out – it just doesn’t seem to make any sense to me and I feel like Mets fans are some of the worst offenders in pro sports when it comes to booing their home team players.
Boo opposing players like Braun and even Mets manager Collins when he comes out of the dugout to send a signal to ownership and the GM that Collins should be canned? Yes. But home team players? No, I don’t think that’s productive.
I’d probably boo him a bit for using steroids. I’d certainly boo him for using them and then denying them and then using them again. I will boo him harder for his “the MLB system is broken, targeting innocent players like me, I am the paragon of integrity” speech after he weaseled out of a suspension on a technicality. Not to mention “I’d bet my life the substance never entered my body”. Seriously, how can you NOT boo that?
Tack on the attempts to blame the sample collector, a guy who isn’t a millionaire and whose livelihood depends on that job, and I’d be happy to see Braun suffer far worse than boos. I would have liked to see Scott Rice drill him in the face right before Scott’s demotion to Vegas.
Perhaps Sandy’s goal of 90 wins was really a goal of less than 90 losses.
The game tonight on SNY was highlighted by limited advertising. What that translates to me is that SNY is having great difficulty in selling quality advertising.
Hopefully, it’s only a matter of time that we see new ownership with deep pockets.
Don’t blame Terry Collins or Sandy. It all falls on Fred, who really is a decent guy but is blinded by the idiot son.