The Give and the Take

Sometime while driving around New Jersey on Saturday evening, with the Mets offense softly fizzling, I realized, or at least saw the facts through a figurative magnifying glass, that they had been utterly nonexistent since the behind-the-back statement made to Rhys Hoskins and the Phillies on Tuesday evening. The momentum, the cliché goes, is as good as your next starting pitcher, but no matter how good or bad the opposition's starting pitcher is, you have to back up your assertion that "we're not going to take it anymore." The Mets, ever so inconsistent, had given none of their starters since then, albeit only 2, any real chance of gaining the momentum back, removed from the completely botched, naturally, Jacob deGrom activation Friday night.

At some point Saturday night after thinking the above about the offense to myself (and whoever saw it on Twitter) the Mets staged a semi-comeback that was hot enough for an At Bat alert. I stayed silent, literally with the "speechless" emoji being tweeted. Jeurys Familia, however, decided to hand the momentum directly back to the Brewers and so went the game 8-6 Brew Crew.

I should have once again stayed silent on Sunday, an opinion many of you out there may echo, when I gave Steven Matz props for the performance, outside of 1 inning this year against the Phillies, he has rendered so far in 2019. Though the Brewers basically immediately tied it after I tweeted as such, the Mets were able to take back the lead and win the game 5-2, including on a hit by their new backup catcher, Tomas Nido.

There isn't much to say regarding Sunday morning's DFA of the failed Travis d'Arnaud chronic experiment. I was going back and forth, in favor of giving up on him, with someone on a facebook group page when the news came through that he had been designated. He gave us some brief memories and was an anchor in the 2015 late-season run, but he's been given chance after chance and it didn't work. Yes, a lot of that had to do with not being able to stay on the field, but that just comes with the overall picture. I still do not like that Devin Mesoraco did not make the team in the first place but I do not have the energy to go back into that right now. Yes, I've just used a lot of words after starting this paragraph with, "not much to say," but in my defense, there could have been more. I wish Travis nothing but the best and I'll leave it with this: one of my favorite memories is some random Twitter video back in August 2015 I saw of a fan finding d'Arnaud leaving in his car from the player's parking lot. The fan said some words of encouragement, and as Travis pulled away, he said, "Let's take this shit." To an extent, he backed up those words all the way through to the pennant. Wherever you go from here, take that shit, d'Arnaud.

Seth Wenig/AP Photo
Photo via msn.com

It truly is a give and a take with this team. Every time we think they're going to run with it, they take a step back. Every time we think they're going to continue to crash and burn, they give us reasons to believe. I can only hope for consistency out of this franchise one day, though I personally have to find my own as well. I, us and they have to continue to put in the work, find the balance and get better as much as possible every single day.

That's all we all can do. And that always brings me back to a familiar phrase I tend to use below.

KEEP. ON. PUSHIN'.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Middle of the Night Stupid Score Tweet & Text Storm

I once more had to go to bed early, around 9, but now I find myself up 2 hours before my alarm, 2 o' clock or so to be exact, and went to my phone to first see two texts from my Phillies friend.

Rhys jogged very slowly around the bases.

Same pitcher, right?

Frank Franklin II/AP
Photo via Washingtonpost.com

So, I went to check the score. 6-0. That set me off on a text and twitter "rampage." No anger there, really (well, maybe some...now, that I'm proofreading and editing this...)  just a big eye roll after seeing how the Mets allowed this game to finish off. My friend was no doubt sleeping like any normal person would be at 2 in the morning, and the majority of #MetsTwitter was no doubt sleeping like any "normal people" would be. That didn't stop me from letting my thoughts be known, and now I'm up and taking advantage of the fact I need to get to work earlier than I had planned anyway 'cause #LyftLife gonna #LyftLife.

My texts. These were all sent back-to-back in real time typing, too.

Jacob Rhe

 Shame

Jacob rhame

Nice Autocorrect

I fell asleep early

Well that is stupid score

Falling asleep early was totally planned too. I'm desperate to drive.

Now I'm up earlier than my alarm by two hours but considering staying up...

Alright, you're obviously NOT so I'll stop flash flooding

 4 2/3 innings Jason Vargas. 1 run but case and point. I don't care if he's your 5th starter.  What, Gio Gonzalez REALLY can't go longer?

A couple of those made the Twitter feed as well. First, my last tweet before I went to bed.

The game is a close one for sure, but I gotta lay down earlier than the end of this one again. If I don’t hear the comeback on @metsbooth, hopefully i’ll wake up to the sweep! #LGM! pic.twitter.com/9G8J2bDYsh

— Sam Maxwell (@THE_SamMaxwell) April 25, 2019

Then, I woke up.

Well...that’s a stupid score

— Sam Maxwell (@THE_SamMaxwell) April 25, 2019

4 2/3 innings Jason Vargas. 1 run but case and point. I don’t care if he’s your 5th starter. What, Gio Gonzalez REALLY can’t go longer?

— Sam Maxwell (@THE_SamMaxwell) April 25, 2019

Then...I discovered a tweet about Daniel Murphy.

This is as #OhMurph as it gets LOLOL.. 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣 pic.twitter.com/2rMlmWmCTz

— Mills (@MillManner) April 24, 2019

pic.twitter.com/lrV9AhNxCT

— Sam Maxwell (@THE_SamMaxwell) April 25, 2019

Then I texted the Murph tweet and finished up with this.

19LOB. NINETEEN. (****REDACTION: THIS WAS WRONG. MLB WROTE "19" ON THE BOXSCORE BUT AFTER A BACK AND FORTH ON A FACEBOOK METS PAGE, I REALIZED IT WAS A MISTAKE AND IT WAS CLOSER TO 11)

That's all. I got nothing else. I warned against a letdown game. (see basically last line of that post.) Stupid. Just stupid. You can't throw behind the opposition's back then not back it up. That game's on Mickey, as far as I'm concerned. Whatever. Day off then go get 'em.

Oh, one more thing, mets.com. 

SAVE THE HEADLINE SPIN.

I'll finish up with a pleasant distraction from yesterday.

View this post on Instagram

Yep. It’s THAT kind of day. #NYC #Skyline #Hoboken #SinatraDrive #HudsonRiver

A post shared by Sam Maxwell (@sammaxwell9) on Apr 24, 2019 at 12:59pm PDT

STUPID. METSIES.

LET'S. GO. METS.