That was weird. They piled on early, and actually won a game by more than 3 runs for only the second time all year. They were up 5-0 after the first, and when the dust was settled, the 8 runs of support was a rare sight: Julio Teheran has only received 8 runs of support in 6 starts since the beginning of 2015 (68 starts). Good for that guy.
Teheran was mostly sharp, but ran into some trouble in the 7th and couldn’t get through it. He still threw 2/3 of his pitches for strikes, and Eric O’Flaherty pitched a scoreless 2/3 of an inning. Matt Wisler came in relief for two innings, and he was also sharp, dialing it up to 96 and throwing 17 of 26 pitches for strikes. He didn’t walk anyone, and he gave up one hit and no runs.
The offense managed to pump out 16 hits, with 3 extra base hits being doubles by Tyler Flowers, Ender Inciarte, and Jace Peterson. All told, 6 guys in the lineup had multiple hits.
We really should do this more often, and not just to the Padres, especially considering the Pads are now 9-14, which means they’d be almost a .500 ballclub if not for the Braves. When you face the back end of a rotation even as good as the Mets, the Braves have to be able to pound them. 5 regulars in our lineup now have OPSes of .750 or higher, and if Dansby Swanson and Ender Inciarte can get going, then that’s a lineup.
Afternoon game! 1:05 start.
Should have saved some of those hits for Syndergaard.
Motte up, Recker down.
4-man bench of Peterson, Adams, Bonifacio, Suzuki, but Peterson is starting for Phillips, who is day-to-day. Sheesh.
The Cubs are using a 13-man pitching staff right now. It actually has 13 major league pitchers, so that’s probably good.
Mo Cabrera had a scoreless inning in a rehab assignment, and Peanut said he should be up in the first week of May. I guess Wisler goes down when Cabrera is ready, and our bullpen is JJ, Viz, Mo, Ramirez, Motte, EOF, Krol, Collmenter in that order of leverage. Could be worse, I guess.
Syndergaard scratched with a “tired arm.” He’s going to a doctor. Hmmm.
We get Matt Harvey instead.
Jeff Nelsons strike zone is huge.
Syndergaard’s injury would explain why they didn’t skip Gsellman’s start. Mets are too good of a team to be playing this bad. If they have a few more key injuries, they could dig a pretty deep hole for themselves.
Red Sox have claimed INF/OF Chase d’Arnaud off waivers from the Atlanta Braves. To make room on the 40-man roster, reliever Carson Smith has been transferred to the 60-day DL. (ESPN)
Why does Suzuki insist upon backhanding every ball?
6 – another reason why we should have cut Bonifacio instead
Bases loaded nobody out no runs for the Braves. Bad.
That was inevitable after failing to score.
Dansby is terrible, and stop it with the BS “he’s hitting it so hard”, since he’s actually getting worse the more he plays.
He was obviously rushed from AA and just got lucky last year.
But Suzuki on the other hand…
That was unexpected.
Um. So Julio is the first bat off the bench.
Dickey pulled after 67 pitches — is he hurt? Seen some Twitter speculation he looked like he came up lame after his last groundout.
Still strange that there were 3 position players available to PH…
I think I heard something about when Dickey ran to first in the 4th; weird thing is he went 2 more innings while hurt?
Even DOB is critical about using Teheran to PH and he’s been a puppet for years.
Only thing I can think of is that Snitker’s making a point to the FO.
@17
A point to the FO about what? Do we really think that Snitker’s not on-board with the extra reliever plan? I remember there being talk, back before they went with Recker for the final roster spot, that they could use a “good hitting” pitcher as an early bat off the bench because the bench was so short. I don’t think there’s any dissent…I think this is the stupid-assed plan.
Manager’s don’t make a point to the FO unless they just want to lose their jobs. Snitker’s only job is to win ballgames. If he doesn’t, he’ll get fired.
Radio broadcast speculated it was an injury. I kinda wish Wisler hadn’t pitched yesterday, and they could have given him the ball for a more extended period.
With the off days and stuff, I’m glad we’re getting longer looks at EOF and Ramirez, and I wish Motte had made it into the game. It’s this weird push-pull with our bullpen that we now have an 8-man, there’s probably an irrational concern that our SPs won’t go deep into games like last year, we want to win games, but we want to use players to get looks to maybe trade them for pieces. There’s just a lot of competing things going on there.
RE: d’Arnaud
No tears shed over losing Chase d’Arnaud, but when a contending team claims a player you DFA, I wonder if there was a miscalculation somewhere in trying to remove d’Arnaud from the 25-man. If d’Arnaud got to the bottom of the list of teams to get to the Red Sox, then I’d imagine Boni would have passed through. Of course, d’Arnaud may just be a good fit, but it would seem like we were almost out of the woods there.
Also, Inciarte has an absolute cannon. He hit Suzuki on the fly to nail Bruce by 10 feet. Bruce didn’t even slide. He has an uncanny ability to charge the ball hard, break down smoothly and quickly, and release equally quick with tons of zip and backspin. I don’t think Andruw had that impact on nailing runners at the plate the way he does. Between Inciarte and Markakis, we have two guys that consistently make strong throws to the plate and rarely allow runners to move up unnecessarily. Watching this dumb, dumb Mets team makes me appreciate stuff like that.
He left with quad spasms
@20
We definitely should’ve DFA’d Bonifacio instead, and I’m not sure why we didn’t.
Also, if we’re seriously showcasing players for trades at this point rather than playing who we need to win the game (and I’m not sure I believe that we are), that would seriously piss me off. Showcasing is gonna happen in the natural process of playing the game, and that’s fine, but it cannot affect who we do or don’t play. That should not be the slightest bit of a priority at this point.
There is something incredibly satisfying about having a better win percentage than the Mets at this point. Never mind that we are playing. 400 ball. We are doing better than the Mets!
Out: win every series. In: sweep ’em or screw it.
Time for the Mets to finally hire Wally Backman.
The last place New York Mets. It just sounds right.
We are not the worst team in baseball, and we are an offensive JUGGERNAUT!
The Mets will never hire Backman as long as Alderson is the GM.
@29 No doubt Sandy has blackballed Backman.
There are some amusing YouTube videos of Backman from when he was managing an independent league team in 2007. NSFW.
@31: The documentary along with that season in the one-and-done South Coast League, “Playing for Peanuts,” is very fascinating. It’s all on YouTube. A couple of the episodes are 49 cents.
Rob Cope does good work.
Thank you, good sir.
This place sure isn’t as active as it used to be — I mean, the amount of comments.
Does anyone know why Lane Adams has 20k followers on Twitter? Seems like an enormous amount for a bench guy who just got his first MLB hit.
Ok. Just when I’m ready to rant about a weak-a$$ed bench….
But please limit Julio’s pinch-running duties.
How about that comeback?
It’s still silly that we have to use Teheran to do non-pitching things, but better pinch-running than pinch-hitting, as far as I’m concerned. I’ll think that right up until the moment he pulls a hammy pinch-running…heh.
@35 I was thinking the same thing. I miss the days of several hundred comments during a single game! I also miss Mac!
Freddie!!
Crazy to think we’ve scored 8,7, and 10 runs in 3 games.
Freddie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
39 — I think it’s a combination of Mac being gone, the team going through a rebuild, and people using Twitter instead of blogging now that has led to the decrease in traffic.
Braves win!
Ballgame…. not sure that just happened.
I agree @ 42. Just miss those days!
So this team is streaky. I for one don’t like a roster that requires your best pitcher to be a pinch hitter one game and a pinch runner the next.
A+ has scored 22 and 18 runs in 2 of the last 4 games. That team rakes.
I think the absence of Mac and the rebuild are the reasons. This format allows for a much more intelligent and depthful discourse than Twitter. As reactive as we are at times, Twitter is way worse. Plus, the 140 character limit causes thoughts to not be expanded upon. When this place has all of its great minds together, there isn’t anything better.
Are we streaking or do the Nationals just simply have our number? The Mets are a good team, and we split with them. The Phillies are hot right now. But the Nationals are to us what we used to be to the Mets.
The Nats have the best record in the league so far. They have Bryce Harper, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Trea Turner, Anthony Rendon, Adam Eaton…
Madison Bumgarner has a Grade 2 sprain of his throwing shoulder and is supposed to be out for 3 months.
I think this will take longer than 3 months. This is a career-threatening injury, in that he may not be the same pitcher when he returns.
Sucks to be the Giants right now.
I know I am in phase of not being able to watch or comment as much due to parenthood.
And the rebuild makes the team a little less “must watch” TV.
@51: Just put MadBum on first base and let him hit every game. When life gives you lemons…
Not all dead arm pitchers become Stan the Man. One may become Mad the Bum. Boy can hit.
Did have Adam Eaton…
But with Teheran, why is Joe Maddon an ingenuitive savant for putting Travis Wood in LF and bringing him in to pitch? Why can’t we do the same? Yes, bench is terrible, but Snit is being creative with the roster, something Fredi and Bobby rarely did. Plus, Teheran’s an athlete.
I think we use Teheran because the bench is short, not because the bench is terrible. (That is not meant to imply that the bench is not terrible. Pulling for Adams, though.)
But I’m with you up to the point someone gets hurt. Losing Bonifacio pinch running and losing Teheran pinch running are two entirely different matters.
recapped