No matter how many years I watch baseball, I’ll never get used to the off-day after the opener game (incase it rains). Not having a game on a Friday during the season is so strange. Anyway, the Mets return to baseball today after the off-day on Friday. Several Mets took advantage of the off-day to get vaccinated after the game to protect against Covid!
Speaking of things we almost never see – how about the ending of Thursday’s game? The Mets were leading 1-0 most of the game, still struggling to get hits with RISP when the Nationals went up 2-1 in the 6th inning. Everything that happened since that point has basically washed over the original story line of the game – Taijuan Walker looked great! The score stayed 2-1 until the bottom of the 9th when Jeff McNeil, on his birthday, smacked a solo homer to tie the game. The Mets then proceeded to load the bases for Michael Conforto, who may (probably did) lean into the pitch, got hit, and the Mets won the game. The umpires announced after the game that it was the wrong call and Conforto should have been called out on strikes.
There will probably be some karma correcting this for the Mets at some point. Here’s how I’m thinking of it – the Mets whole start of the season was ruined by the Nationals. The Mets got rusty, and another team, the Braves, got to face a depleted Nationals team in a less obtrusive way to their own schedule. This was the universe giving the Mets something back. Now the universe owes the Marlins something. Here’s hoping it isn’t going to come at the Mets expense.
It’s also Jacob deGrom day! The last Jacob deGrom day was interrupted by a Mets bullpen meltdown. Before the bullpen fell apart, Jacob was taken out of the game early, after 6.0 innings and only 77 pitches after allowing no runs and 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 7. One third of his starts came against the Marlins last year (4 starts) and he allowed 7 runs, 4 earned, over 24.0 innings from 19 hits and 6 walks while striking out 36 batters. That’s an ERA over 1.50. The Marlins have the following numbers against deGrom:
- Jesus Aguilar 4-12, 2B, HR, 2 K
- Garrett Cooper 4-14, HR, BB, 7 K
- Jon Berti 6-19, 3 2B, 5 K
- Jorge Alfaro 4-18, 2B, HR, BB, 10 K
- Brian Anderson 8-35, 2 2B, HR, 3 BB, 10 K
- Miguel Rojas 9-37, 3 BB, 7 K
- Corey Dickerson 2-14, BB, 4 K
- Starling Marte 1-9, BB, 3 K
- Adam Duvall 0-2, 2 K
The Mets bats will get their first 2021 look at Trevor Rogers. In Rodgers first start of the season against the Cardinals, he allowed 3 runs, 2 earned, over 4.0 innings from 2 hits, 4 walks while striking out 6. Rogers first two starts of his career were against the Mets last year. In his first start he allowed no runs despite allowing a hit and 5 walks over 4.0 innings. He did strike out 6 Mets in that outing. In his next outing he allowed 2 runs from 5 hits and 2 walks over 5.0 innings, this time with 5 K’s. After he stopped facing the Mets his season got a lot rougher. In his next 4 starts he would allowed 17 earned runs in 16.0 innings before ending the season with 3 scoreless innings against the Yankees. All of these great starts against the Mets and the Yankees were in New York – maybe he just really likes pitching here? Anyway, the Mets have the following numbers against him:
- Jeff McNeil 2-4, 2 2B, BB, K
- Dominic Smith 1-2, 2 BB, K
- Luis Guillorme 1-3, BB, 2 K
- J.D. Davis 0-1, BB, K
- Brandon Nimmo 0-3, BB
- Pete Alonso 0-5, 2 K
- Michael Conforto 0-2, 2 K
Let’s Go Mets!
