Jake the Great

On Wednesday night, as Jacob deGrom and the Mets took on the Marlins in Miami, I was driving around enjoying my #LyftLife having decided to keep the oldies going on Pandora Radio instead of putting the game on the radio. For some reason, and maybe it feels different during the day with the sun out, I just wanted the passengers to enjoy the grooves instead of subjecting them to a game they most likely weren't interested in. After all, no matter how much I like baseball and the Mets, not everybody does nor needs to hear the sweet sounds of baseball on the radio. Plus, as I said, it feels much more in tune during the day than when you are picking people up who may be going out for the night.

Jason Vinlove/USA TODAY Sports
Photo via sny.tv

Throughout the game, MLB At Bat sends me certain alerts, most of which had to do with one particular man: Jacob deGrom. Even when referring to a fast offensive start, the alert read, "With deGrom on the mound and the Mets looking for a sweep in Miami, they take an early lead thanks to this smoked Amed Rosario RBI Triple" (more on that in a bit.) The most jaw dropping alert, however, was that deGrom had hit a homer in the massive Marlins Park, a visual I was most certainly anticipating viewing later on in the night. 'Twas impressive indeed.

Getty Images/Mark Brown
Photo via Newsday

More impressive, however, is how absolutely LOCKED IN our Cy Young Award winner is at this point in his career. Throw out your cynicism about it being the Marlins and such, 'cause we all know those pesky, flippin' fish will never allow us to easily pad our win total against them, no matter how much the league and its followers want you to believe they could be the worst team of all time in any given season. The highlight reel of deGrom's night is a thing of beauty, making sure you soak up an artist who has every brush, every color, every palate working, and it not only shows in the pitches batters cannot catch up to, but shows in the way he carries himself on the mound and as he strides towards the dugout after a strikeout. He's just that good right now, and we're watching a once in a lifetime talent quietly go about his business. His business, however, is so good, it is screaming at you to pay attention.

Regarding Amed Rosario's triple, his approach is maturing and indicative of the overall approach of the offense that has been so impressive in the first six games. They are attacking the ball and going the other way. Whether it is Amed or newcomer Pete Alonso, there is a consistent approach us fans can pick up on, and whether it is just hitting coach Chili Davis or the overall offensive mantra they are going with post-Alderson era, I'm loving every minute of it and I hope and pray they don't get away from it.

Jake the great is the boss right now. And we may finally have an offense that can support his impressive stuff. Have at it, fellas. Knock that ball all over the park. Just like Jake.

BOSS.  MAN. JACOB.

LET'S. GO. METS.

A Dice-K Start Less Than 3 Hours?!

I didn't know it was possible, but apparently that's what last night's 6-2 win was. 2:45 in length in fact.

My flight from San Francisco landed into the low-clouded tri-state area, specifically Newark Airport, at 1:45 in the morning local time. Wanting to check the score, I turned off the airplane mode on my phone, but of course texting people first that I had arrived safely. Once that had been done, MLB At Bat made its way open.

As it was loading, which is rather quickly when the service is good, my eyes realized without seeing the score that I could click the MLB.TV button in the upper-right-hand corner and take off from where I left off, when it was 2-1 in the earlier innings. When I have time (or really even when I don't) I like watching the wins on the MLB.TV replay access, most of the time just going through the most important innings. The thing is, you want to watch the whole thing anyway because it's unbelievable how on their games Gary, Keith and Ron (and Kevin) are at all times, win or lose. One could argue the losses can be even more entertaining because of everywhere they go in conversations. So, I was happy to be able to avoid the score and listen to those guys.

I quickly found out the Airtrain I had planned to take to Newark Penn Station was being "critically repaired" since May 2, and there was a shuttle bus operating...only the last shuttle bus had taken off at 2 and wasn't taking back off till 4. I hadn't made it off the plane in time for that. There is an express bus, but that finished at 1 and wasn't starting back up till 4. So, whatever I decided to take, I'd have to wait in the airport till 4 (and I quickly decided the bus directly to town was worth the extra $3.50). At least I had a Mets game to watch. I had an hour and a half to kill, and an hour and a half left on the game.

That timeline got eschewed a bit, as my service kept freezing the video with the audio still playing, and yes, as I said above, I like LISTENING to those guys, but I wanted the video as well. Yeah, they inform us of things like this info from Gary in the 4th inning...

So, the Mets have now had the lead in 15 of their last 16 games, including tonight. They've had at least a 2-run lead in 13 of those 16 games, including tonight....And yet, here the Mets are sitting with a 6-game losing streak and feeling as though the world is falling apart. Why? Because they already lost 21 games this year where they had a lead, and they've lost 11 games this year in which they had at least a 2-run lead. Last year, all season, they lost 14 games in which they had at least a 2-run lead; and we're not even close to halfway through this season.

Though Gary, Keith and Ron tell the story as well as comment, let us not fail to give credit to the entire SNY team, especially the director who is editing the moving picture to those words.

So, I kept fidgeting with the app, scrolling 30 seconds back, skipping some seconds ahead, restarting the app, yada, yada, yada. The restarting worked, but the scrolling didn't really. The gist is, I was only at the 6th inning by 3:11am because I couldn't deal with just the audio working. (During all that, I was surprised to see that there was still a game going on in the Majors but wasn't curious enough to take a look. I wonder how that ended...)

I had checked the wifi situation earlier in my travels, but none open for Newark travelers.  I decided to check it again, and it turned out Dunkin' Donuts, which I had inadvertently made my way next to, radiated free wifi. So, I ditched the phone and headed onto my laptop to wrap up whatever I could of this game.

I arrived to the bottom of the 6th. Along with information Kevin delivered on Jeremy Hefner and his Tommy John Surgery rehab (he threw 15 pitches from a mound in St. Lucie yesterday, and has been keeping a diary every day during recovery) the Milwaukee pitcher Marco Estrada walked 3 batters in the inning, with a Daniel Murphy fly out and Chris Young strikeout sandwiched in. After Lucas Duda walked to load the bases with 2 out, the new guy, catcher Taylor Teagarden, headed to the plate in his first game as a Met, without the Mets atrocious bases loaded batting average on the season attached.

And in his first game as a Met, Taylor Teagarden is going to have a moment. 

--Gary as Taylor approached the plate

With a 1-0 count, the righty Teagarden laced it the other way into foul territory, walking up the line when Gary knew pretty quickly it would be hooking way foul. Then, Estrada dropped a strike onto the outside low corner of the plate. A perfect pitch.

Keith: It's a good strike right there. NOW, it's 1-2, he can do whatever he wants.

Gary: Bases loaded, two out...and Teagarden hits it out to right. Braun retreating, to the warning track, at the wallllll, IT'S OUTTA HERE!!!!!!!!

It was basically the same pitch, but raised. Estrada did not hit the corner this time, and Teagarden muscled it the other way, dipping the ball onto the other side of the right field wall, something we all want to see right-handed Mets hitters do more. 

I finished watching the inning, and skipped to the 9th to see if anything had gotten out of control, as it tends to do. I wanted to be done with the Mets before I got on that bus. The score was 6-2, and at that point, you have an idea things will go well for Jenrry Mejia and the Mets as the broadcast timeframe of 2:57 is in front of you, and it would have had to be quite the quick meltdown and lockdown by the Brewers for us not to exit with a Mets W.

So, with 10 minutes to spare before I had to catch the bus back into the city, I read up on Derek Fisher and the Knicks.

Now, I am going to go to bed.

BACK. IN. TOWN. NOW.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. For more from myself and others on the Mets, head over to Rising Apple. And for the latest on a Brooklyn Baseball TV Series I am developing, Like the Bedford & Sullivan Facebook page, follow on Twitter here, and listen to the research process here.

RISP, RISP, RISP, RISP

It's games like this one that make me want to post only the numbers, which show that the Mets got Zero Hits with Runners in Scoring Position. So, instead of posting only the numbers, I'm just gonna talk about how games like this make me want to do no more than numerically show how inept the Mets were.

I especially want to post only this when the game is not in my immediate consciousness. I was rehearsing for Big Bad Baseball Gypsy's play called, "The Zeal of the Zealot." I can't go more than one inning checking up on the Mets on the At Bat. I keep thinking the score will be reversed, that the Mets will be on top with a huge home run while I've turned my attention away from it. Every time I check it, however, it is the same, familiar letters we've seen at home and against the Braves.

I'm just crazy.

I didn't even realize until I went looking for photos that Uggla hit his Home Run off Mejia, by the way.

And they've lost the first game of around 8 striaght home series.

Crazy.

Oh, well. Let's bounce back tomorrow and kick Larry and his Braves in the balls.

LET'S.GO. HEF. NER.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. And for Rising Apple twitter updates, click here.

Through the Static, Another 1-run Game Between the Mets and the Giants

Yesterday, a friend and I helped family bring a couch to an upstate house. With the furniture sticking out of the unfortunately undersized U-Haul on the New York State Thruway, I had the game going on my At-Bat App through the Bluetooth of the car. Frank Francisco kept getting behind batters in the 9th inning with a 4-1 lead, and along with Met fans listening and watching all over, Terry Collins grew tired of the act and went to Jon Rauch to truly close it out. With the score 4-2 and two on, I heard Howie Rose tell me of a ball popped up in the Bermuda Triangle of fielders. Ruben Tejada went back, Daniel Murphy went back, Kirk Nieuwenhuis came forward. Ruben couldn't situate himself and Kirk called him off at the last second, only to overshoot the ball, allowing the 2 base runners to score for a 4-4 tie. I sat there shaking my head while making sure I didn't let the emotions get the best of me while driving. Are we really on our way to another Mets Giants extra-inning game?

We got off the highway to get onto a route, making our way into the mountains 20 minutes south of Albany near Coxsackie. As the Mets were threatening in the 9th inning, the At Bat lost coverage, and I scrambled to see if the 660 frequency was picked up at all out there. The static was louder than Howie, but the man could still be heard, though slightly. We turned off the Route onto the backroads of the country, and Howie's voice went in and out, out and in, the static growing louder and quieter, quieter and louder. Through the rolling, hilly roads, we climbed and climbed, and all of a sudden I hear Howie go, "...And the Mets win the game 5-4. We'll be right back to recap the events. This is the WFAN Mets radio network." Uh...Ok. That's great. How'd that go down? I switched back over to see if At Bat was working, knowing it is usually about a minute behind the real feed. Sure enough, it was back on, and Past-Howie informed me of the Buster Posey throw down the right-field line, allowing Ruben Tejada to score for a 5-4 Mets win.

Well, that's awesome.

Let's move this couch.