A PAUSE TO THE MISERY
Lugo dazzles Yankees to add to Mets drama
ON A NIGHT when Seth Lugo made the case that he should never go back to the bullpen, he also allowed the Mets to salvage at least a little bit of dignity. Or as Todd Frazier put it, “Thank God we got a win tonight. We couldn’t get swept at home by the Yankees.”
It was that kind of week for the Mets, and as fast as their season was going off the rails, losing eight straight games on this homestand with barely a whimper from the offense, you had to figure it would take some type of miracle to beat the Yankees’ ace, Luis Severino.
Turned out the combination of Lugo’s brilliance and a home run from Frazier mostly provided that miracle, as the Mets won, 2-0, becoming the first team to shut out the Yankees this season.
Whether it leads to anything might be asking too much as the Mets head out on a daunting road trip to Atlanta, Arizona and Colorado, but at least the front office isn’t pretending the futility doesn’t need addressing.
After the game, in fact, the Mets announced they were releasing Adrian Gonzalez and calling up Dom Smith, presumably to be the regular first baseman. That’s a start, as they need to find out about what little they have in the way of young talent.
If Smith doesn’t hit this time around, Peter Alonso, the masher in Double-A Binghamton, can’t be far behind.
And surely Jose Reyes will be gone as soon as Wilmer Flores returns from the disabled list. He might have joined Gonzalez in leaving the building for good had his eighth-inning gaffe, in which he failed to touch second base in trying to turn a double play, had wound up costing his team the game.
Bottom line, the Mets need to get younger any way they can, especially while their starting pitching is giving them a chance to win just about every night.
Or as Frazier said, “Lugo, man, he was unbelievable tonight.”
In fact, Lugo dominated these Yankees the way few pitchers can this season, holding them to two hits over six innings, while racking up eight strikeouts. He could have pitched deeper into the game except he has pitched mostly in the bullpen until Noah Syndergaard’s finger injury forced him into the rotation.
And while Mickey Callaway has maintained that Lugo is more important to the Mets in the bullpen, he admitted this start may have changed his mind. “It makes you second guess it,” Callaway said. “That was a tremendous start. I’m sure not too many pitchers have done that to the Yankees this year.
“He’s making a case for himself. We have a tough decision to make, and that’s a good thing.”
It’s a moot point until Syndergaard returns from his finger injury, but the Mets are hoping that could be as soon as later this week, so in that case, then what?
Could they really justify keeping Jason Vargas in the rotation ahead of Lugo, even if he is making $8 million this year?
Lugo has pitched 13 straight scoreless innings over his last three outings, two of them starts, and looks like the real thing.
So the Mets’ starting pitching does give them hope, but for the moment it doesn’t really change the big picture that comes of this Subway Series.
That is, the Yankees are rolling along with the best winning percentage in the big leagues, the latest they can say that in a season since 2012, yet the Mets remain the more intriguing of the teams because, for all their futility, they are forever surrounded by drama.
The latest comes in the form of another setback for Yoenis Cespedes, who is being sent back to Port St. Lucie after aggravating his quad in a Double-A rehab game on Saturday night.
Suddenly you can’t help but wonder if we’ll see him in Queens before the AllStar break.
Meanwhile, there has been a sense, going back to Sandy Alderson’s press conference at the start of this homestand, that management thinks Cespedes needs to play through some of that discomfort.
The GM, remember, suggested the injury could be “chronic,” and the next day Callaway reminded the world how much money the Mets are paying their slugger, then Sunday he said there may come a point when Cespedes may have to play hurt.
“That’s what everyone is trying to determine,” he said. “Even Ces himself is trying to figure that out. If it continues to drag on, there has to be a level of understanding that maybe it’s something you battle the rest of your career.
“But I don’t think we’re there yet.”
One way or another, there is sure to be more drama with Cespedes, more debate about whether the Mets need to rebuild. In fact, Lugo’s emergence offers more reason to believe they could trade someone like Syndergaard for the young position players they desperately need. In any case, one win against the Yankees doesn’t change all that’s wrong with this team, but it should cement the idea that Lugo should be part of their long-term future as a starter.