N.Y. Mets: Sunday Night Blech Ball

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

THREE GAMES DOWN ~ FIFTY-SEVEN TO GO

WEEKEND OPENING SERIES REVIEW

I - STARTING PITCHING

Jacob deGrom opens the 2020 season with a gem.  Alas, his first start of the season only lasts five innings.  Luis Rojas sends in the relief corps after just 72 pitches.  However, I do not begrudge the freshman manager (better safe than sorry) as deGrom had in recent days experienced a small measure of back discomfort.  Otherwise, deGrom throws five scoreless innings of one-hit ball, with one walk and eight strikeouts.

On Saturday Steven Mats looks every bit like the mature 29-year old craftsman Mets fans have been hoping for.  The rotation, the team, needs him more than ever.  If the Mets are to achieve post-season contention, much less success, then Steven Matz - not Marcus Stroman - must step up alongside Jacob deGrom to form a formidable one-two punch.  Matz throws 98 pitches with 58 (62%) going for strikes.  He allows just one run on a mere two hits with one walk and seven strikeouts over six innings pitched.  But like deGrom, he exits to a no decision.

Atlanta takes out all their frustrations against Rick Porcello on Sunday.  The Mets off-season acquisition fails to make it out of the third inning, allowing seven runs (six earned), on seven hits and three walks in only two innings pitched.

I wrote this three days ago:

I'm hopeful Rick Porcello will pitch effectively but I'm only somewhat confident he will.  I like Rick Porcello, I really do.  I'm (also) a Red Sox fan since the mid 1970's.  Back then outside of the World Series inter-league play is nonexistent.  Having a favorite American League team is a non-issue.  And the answer to your next question .. NO .. I was in no way conflicted in 1986, for I am an orange/blue bleeding Mets fan.  Back to the matter at hand: I have a lot of respect for Rick's body of work with Boston.  The man exuded cool, calm, and clutch.  I'm just not sure that success follows him to Flushing.  His best seasons are 2014 when he posts a 3.43 ERA and 1.231 WHiP, and his Cy Young award winning 2016 campaign when posts a league best 22-4 record, with a 3.15 ERA, and fine 1.001 WHiP.   But that's six and four years ago respectively.  Outside of a 3.96 ERA during his rookie season, at no other time during his eleven year career does his season ERA dip below four.  He also has yielded more hits than innings pitched in two of his last three seasons.  Essentially what Mets fans need most from Rick Porcello is a classic baseball comeback season.  To his credit he is a mature, poised, intelligent 30-year old craftsman.  If anyone can bounce back, he can.  However, anything resembling his last three seasons with Boston simply will not do.

II - THE BULLPEN

With regards to Edwin Diaz, I already made my opinion quite clear. 

At some point Luis Rojas (although we all know BVW won't have it..) needs to rethink the ninth inning.  Diaz has proven wholly ineffective given ninth inning responsibilities.  His resume since becoming a Met speaks for itself.  Rojas must open the ninth inning to other members of his bullpen, or continue being victimized by Edwin's 5.37 ERA and 1.379 WHiP in just 60 innings since his arrival in Flushing.

Through three games, the bullpen can be separated into two lists: the Good & the Bad.

• GOOD:  Seth Lugo; Jeurys Familia; Justin Wilson;Dellin betances; Drew Smith.
• BAD:  Edwin Diaz; Hunter Strickland; Corey Oswalt; Paul Sewald.

In three games against the Braves, the bullpen yields ten runs on sixteen hits and three walks, with sixteen strikeouts through twelve innings pitched.  With a 7.50 ERA, strikeouts mean nothing to me -not after witnessing so many hurlers through the years pitch to contact all the way to Cooperstown and the baseball Hall of Fame.


III - AT THE PLATE

The Braves out-hit the Mets by a 28-20 margin; they outscore the Mets by a troublesome 19-5 margin.  As a team the Mets are 21 for 98 for a .214 batting average.  They make Atlanta's triumvirate of Mike Soroka, Max Fried, and Sean Newcombe, look like the 1970 Baltimore Orioles rotation.  Twice they are limited to a single run.

*          *          *

Everything is fine on Friday.  Come Saturday in the ninth inning the continental plates beneath Queens shake and quake.  By Sunday a Flushing Bay tsunami inundates Citi Field.

Time to get on a bus and head to Boston.