METS SWEPT AWAY IN LA
Give up 15 home runs in series as they fall 10 games below .500:
LOS ANGELES — Jose Reyes was surprised when he saw Wilmer Flores start barking at Yasiel Puig. Sure the Dodgers’ flashy Cuban outfielder had pimped home run. He stood and admired as the ball dropped about 20 rows into the left-field stands and then slowly trotted along the bases. Puig deserved the reprimand at first base.
It was just the fact that the laid-back and quiet Flores was the player that decided to stand up for the Mets that made Reyes do a double take.
“He cares about his ballclub,” Reyes said. “He knows we don’t play very good baseball right now, but to see that happen, you know, it was good that he step up and say something.
“I told him ‘Man, I like the interview too, I like what you say,’” Reyes said he told Flores for standing up and saying Puig had disrespected the Mets. “He was still a little bit angry. I like that.”
Now that fire just has to translate into the Mets’ play and the pettiness of Puig’s immature antics has to be put aside. The Mets went into Thursday night’s game having lost three straight and sixth of their last seven games. They dropped to a season-worst nine games below .500. They were 11.5 games back of the Nationals in their division.
So Thursday was at least a gut-check game, no matter how the Mets manager tried to downplay it.
“It’s a regular game,” Terry Collins said Wednesday night. “No. We’re going to play to win tomorrow, but we got to play right. This is isn’t a make or break game for us, no.”
Maybe it’s not make-or-break, but it was as close to a gut-check game as the Mets have had this season. They needed to show they can battle back, fight out of this malaise they are in.
And, let me be clear, I don’t mean fight physically. Yes, there are some who would like to see the Mets plunk Puig. They are probably same people who were disappointed that it took the Mets nearly half a season to go after Chase Utley in retaliation for breaking Ruben Tejada’s leg in the 2015 NLDS.
But the Mets are just not in a position to do that.
They needed starter Steven Matz to go deep in the game, and let’s be real, with the Mets recent injury luck, even a mild bench-clearing incident would probably end up with at least one player on the disabled list.
No, Matz could not go out and take revenge on Puig for humiliating the Mets. The lefty, however, could take revenge by pitching the way the Mets expect him to.
More than respect, the Mets need solid pitching right now.
They suffered yet another injury to their rotation when Zack Wheeler went on the disabled list with biceps tendinitis Wednesday afternoon. A team that is built around the idea of dominant pitching has a staff had allowed 389 (361 earned) runs through the first 71 games, the most runs allowed by any pitching staff in the majors. They have walked the fourth most in the majors (271) and given up the third most home runs (107) in the majors.
“Make no mistake about it. You can say whatever you want. These guys care in there,” Collins said Thursday afternoon. “They are frustrated. The pitching is frustrated. The hitters are frustrated.
“All you can do is do what you do best. You can’t try to carry the team. You gotta do what you can do.”
So, when Puig crushed a home run off spot starter Tyler Pill Wednesday night, sending it at least 10 rows deep into the left field stands, that was not the Mets problem. That was a symptom of what has been happening to the Mets for three straight days. Mets pitchers allowed 12 home runs in the first three games here. Then they allowed three more last night.
So Flores’ frustration overflowed and so did catcher Travis d’Arnaud’s as Puig crossed home plate.The next half inning, Reyes and Yoenis Cespedes had heated words with him as he ran in. Reyes would not disclose what Cespedes said, but Collins said later that the Mets slugger was as “mad as I’ve ever seen him.”
Thursday night, Cespedes’ anger and frustration needed to be focused. Reyes, who said Puig played naive about his offense during the confrontation, stated the obvious. The Mets are playing horrible, they can’t worry about petty payback now.
They need to just win a game.