Lessons to learn from ugly defeat
DENVER — The follies.
When Mickey Callaway was asked about pitching at Coors Field he offered: “You tell your pitchers don’t worry about what happens here and you move on. You come in here and you battle all you can and you forget about it. Because you can’t let what happens here put you in a tailspin because it’s not indicative of what you are going to be your next outing.’’
Mets pitching has let up 20 runs the past two games, losing 10-8 Wednesday night, the same score as Tuesday night.
As bad as the pitching has been this was yet another game where the Mets couldn’t get the job done overall. Over the first six innings the Mets left 10 runners on base. They had 22 baserunners and just eight runs, leaving 12 men on base total.
They committed two errors. Robert Gsellman surrendered a crushing three-run home run to pinch-hitter Ryan McMahon in the fifth on a hanging changeup right down the middle. Starter Seth Lugo could not make it to the fourth inning because he was falling behind hitters, trying to be too fine with his fastball.
Reliever Anthony Swarzak also surrendered a big home run to Charlie Blackmon in the sixth.
The Mets did not score a run off the Rockies’ dreadful bullpen.
Instead of forgetting what happened here, the Mets need to remember this game, this series to realize how not to play the game.
The Mets should be forced to watch the video of this game the first day they arrive in Port St. Lucie next spring. Sure, it is a game you want to forget, but if you remember it, you may learn from it. That is what this season is all about. The Rockies were trying their best to gift this game to the Mets and the Mets could not take advantage. This is one of those hard-lessons-learned games, and it fell apart for the Mets when pinch-hitter Kevin Plawecki grounded into a third-to-first double play to end the sixth inning, a look-easy play by Nolan Arenado. At that point, Callaway was down to his last two position
players but elected to pinch-hit Plawecki over Amed Rosario, who came on in the ninth to pinch hit and singled. Callaway said he needed Rosario in case he lost an infielder.
The Mets even got the game of his life from accidental left fielder Dom Smith, who singled, doubled and tripled.
In these first three games the Mets scored 28 runs and have lost two of three. The series and the trip ends Thursday.
And their left-field situation hasn’t helped things.
That was supposed to be the Mets’ strongest position because of strong man Yoenis Cespedes, who really hasn’t been the same since some extra heavy-duty weight lifting before the start of the 2017 season.
Callaway told The Post on Wednesday he spoke to Cespedes and there has been some progress made with his hip flexor injury, but still there is no idea when he will return to the Mets.
When Cespedes starts playing again will it just be a matter of time for an- other setback?
With Jay Bruce’s MRI exam confirming a hip strain Callaway once again had to call on Smith, a first baseman, to play left.
If a lefty were on the mound for the Rockies, Callaway could have turned to 37-year-old Jose Bautista. Some depth.
With Cespedes down, Juan Lagares out for the year and Brandon Nimmo shifted to right in Bruce’s absence, left field is essentially the poster child for what’s wrong with the Mets.
For those wishing for the Mets to call up Tim Tebow, and considering the current options, why not? Just do it — but scouts outside the Mets organization and team sources insist that Tebow Time is not close to happening.
Their lack of depth is hurting them in so many ways. No real left fielder, a short, aged bench, a weakened bullpen and a staff that needs Noah Syndergaard.
This is the way it is for the Mets. Remember and learn from it. .