The Comeback That Twasn't

I desperately wish I had more time to take in every aspect of the Mets I possibly can right now. It is such a welcome distraction, even when they lose. 

Even when they lose, I can take solace in the fact it isn't taxes, or bills overdue, or my dad's pancreatic cancer. My dad and I didn't religiously watch baseball together after I left the Yankees behind, but he was never a die-hard to begin with. As I said in the opening post of this blog, he was a die-hard fan of me and my passion for baseball, which led him to fan the budding flame in my bar mitzvah year of life, age 13. Last year, after his Whipple surgery fell apart when it was discovered cancer cells had metastasized on his abdomen, rendering the surgery moot, one of my favorite memories I have was watching the Mets blow a game. I obviously wasn't happy that they blew the lead and subsequently the season, but just like his cancer, my dad and I were able to shake our heads and laugh it off, wondering just how much Mrs. Lincoln liked the play before her husband, Abraham's, head was blown off.

Mike Stobe/Getty Images
Photo via https://www.federalbaseball.com

So, my intake of the Mets failed comeback attempt in yesterday's series losing loss to the Nationals was taken in as such before and during my driving Lyft: 0-0, 5-1, 12-2 then the final of 12-9 after Michelle Ioannou, my former Rising Apple colleague, informed me of the failed comeback via the following tweets:

yup, mets lost, but damn they went down fighting

— Michelle Ioannou (@mnioannou) April 7, 2019

There are many concerns of what we are seeing here. Zack Wheeler reverting back to post-last-year's-second-half form, the bullpen overall not performing well, (insert usual Mets concerns here), etc, etc....but the offense is not currently one of them. There may be isolated concerns in regards to the latter, like Brandon Nimmo's bat disappearing or Robinson Cano's overall slow start, but so far, Chili Davis's affect is being immediately felt with player's like Jeff McNeil, who we had faith would continue to perform as he did last year, Pete Alonso, who is absolutely crushing it in his first go-round that appears much more sustainable than any Jeff Francoeur-type hot start, and JD Davis, who may just be hitting himself into a sustained bench role when players like Todd Frazier and Jed Lowrie come back from the...ugh, I'm going to write it this way, aren't I?...the Injured List (It still feels like the disabled list in my head but I'm trying to train myself not to be a crusty old man about everything these days.)

Life may pile on hard, but at least we can laugh, love and live with the Mets, win or lose.

LIFE. GOES. ON. NOW.

LET'S. GO. METS.

A Night of Scoreless Baseball from Coney Island to Queens

Last night was a great night to be a New York National League Baseball Fan. In the upper part of the land mass that is Long Island, a Tennessean man worked his umpteenth masterpiece in a row for the New York Mets, beating the Baltimore Orioles 5-0. In the lower part of the land mass, the Brooklyn Cyclones battled the Staten Island Yankees to 0-0 in the 8th inning, only to score 2 in the bottom half and hold on in the 9th for a 2-0 win. They both occurred in sync with one another, with Howie in my right ear and the Cyclones right in front.

The action got started between 7 and 7:10, with the Brooklyn Squad around 10 minutes ahead of their parent club. On this night, there were four pitchers in the groove in the Counties of Kings and Queens. RA Dickey went at his usual briskly pace, while the Mets kept stranding runners against some Oriole named Jake Arietta. Down on the beach, Taylor Morton of the Yanks and Gabriel Ynoa of the Cyclones exchanged zeros throughout, with Brooklyn, in very recent Metsian fashion, stranding runner after runner, including a warning track fly ball by 1st baseman Cole Frenzel with the bases loaded to end the 4th inning. Before we knew it, it was 8:45 and the 8th inning had arrived. Up near the Long Island Sound, it wasn't till the 6th inning that the Mets could get something going, and of course RA Dickey got the rally started with a single of his own, moving over to 3rd on Jordany Valdespin's double. He was almost picked off 3rd on David Wright's line out to short, but got back in time to allow The Duda to walk with 2 out and Ike Davis to finally break out of his Citi Field homerless slump in the most dramatic way possible. The Howie Rose Grand Slam call was outstanding, and I pumped my fist and let everybody in our section know the other baseball news.

Staten Island lefty James Pazos could not find the strike zone in the bottom of the 8th. After Juan Carlos grounded out, the highly touted prospect, Brandon Nimmo, waited for the BB. Philip Evans, the shortstop for Brooklyn, walked as well, and Nimmo moved to 2nd. Alex Sanchez, the DH for the evening, singled past the shortstop and the bases were loaded. Stefan Sabol, the left fielder for the 'clones, waited for a strike but never got one, walking to force in the 1st run of the night. Cole Frenzel came up with the bases loaded once again, and for good measure hit a sac fly to score another run. The 9th inning was a breeze, with Tyler Vanderheiden striking out the last 2 Staten Islanders. Only 2 minutes later, RA Dickey struck out his last Bird to seal his 2nd consecutive 1-hit shutout. The Cyclones had fireworks afterwards, and my friend and I watched them from, what turned out to be, my perfectly parked car.

What a night of baseball indeed.

The New York Mets send Johan Santana out for the series win tonight at 7:10PM. O's will send Tommy Hunter to the Hill. 

The Brooklyn Cyclones take on the Staten Island Yankees for the next 3 days, with 2 games in Staten Island and Thursday's game back in Coney Island. If you haven't been to a game out there yet, do yourself a favor and venture to Coney Island for the Revival of Brooklyn Baseball. It is always a fantastic time.

LETS. GO. CYCLONES.

LET'S. GO. METS.

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My Fellow Southpaw

Yesterday, like many Met fans, I anxiously tuned in to see how Johan Santana would fare in his first attempt of the spring to comeback from shoulder surgery. My fellow southpaw pitched the first two innings in what was a 8-6 win over the Cards for our New York Mets.

I have to say, just watching him warm up was a sight for sore eyes.

The man looks healthy, his motion very fluid. He opened up the 1st with an 87 mile-per-hour fastball, which might not seem like much, but it was zipping out of his hands. He was consistently around 88 with his heater, which I hear is normal for any pitcher this early in spring, let alone one rehabbing a shoulder injury. He had enough pop and location on that pitch to induce a hard chopper to himself, which he made a fantastic snag on to start a double play.

It was clear early on he was mainly working on his fastball location. When he did throw his change-up, however, it was awesome, around 10 mph less than his fastball. Yadir Molina couldn't handle it.

And obviously the hip-wiggle was back. All in all, it was nice to see him on the mound and feeling good, his bubbly personality bouncing around the dugout once again. It's clear Johan is a smart enough pitcher to make the proper adjustments his post-surgery arm needs.


Other takeaways from this game:

• RA Dickey's 73 mph knuckler that stays inside to a left-handed hitter is a thing of beauty. 
• Andres Torres will always give you hustle. He's electric on the base paths and in the field, and you can see what Alderson was thinking when he traded for this guy right after Jose left.
• Familia looked good, the grand slam notwithstanding (it's character building to leave the kids out there to clean up their own mess.) The ball is like a sling shot out of his hands. His motion is short and compact, and I believe we will see him up by June, probably before Harvey, but I could be wrong.
• Brandon Nimmo has a great eye, especially for such a young kid. He's also very fast.
• Carrasco, dare I say, looked good.....? Well, against St. Louis minor leaguers, but his pitches looked tighter than at any point last season.
• Tim Byrdak just keeps on bombing, this time an RA Dickey dugout interview. Wish I could find video, but it ain't up yet. If you have the game on DVR, it's somewhere around the fifth or sixth inning.
• Val Pascucci singles. Ted Berg freaks the $%@# out.

I know it's just the second game, but I'm seeing some good situational work by the Mets early on. Looks like the coaches are stressing every minor detail, and while that's what they are supposed to do, they have not always done so in the depths of the Port St. Lucie past.

Keep working at it, gentlemen.

Hopefully, eight more months of Mets baseball to go.