R.A.’s revenge means little to better-off Mets
TORONTO — Revenge is a dish best served old.
Kudos to R.A. Dickey, who waited nearly 2 ¹/₂ seasons for a shot at his former employers and cashed in, shutting down the Mets for a 71 victory and a Blue Jays sweep in the Rogers Centre leg of this homeandhome series. The 40yearold knuckleballer allowed two hits and walked five, striking out seven, as he lowered his ERA from 5.29 to 4.96 and prevailed over his fellow geezer Bartolo Colon.
“I really didn’t view it as that,” Dickey said, when asked if beating his former team meant something special. “That was three years ago. I’ll leave it to everybody else to build a story. It was just another game for me.”
OK. I’m skeptical of that answer, yet as part of the “Everybody else” constituency, I’ll point out the night did present a greater point, for which I’ll steal from Jay Z:
As baseball’s worst firstplace team, the Mets got 99 problems. But R.A. Dickey ain’t one.
The Mets (3632) stayed a game and a half up on the Nationals (3433), who lost to Tampa Bay, 53, in the National League East — and saw their star Bryce Harper limp off the field with a mild left hamstring strain, to boot. So it’s all good, relatively speaking.
Nevertheless, things rarely come crisply or cleanly for the Mets. And on this night, they set off more red flags in a season replete with them.
“We’re playing a little sluggishly right now,” manager Terry Collins said after the game. “We have to find some energy.”
Maybe they’ll discover some at Turner Field, where they’ll be Fri day night. The Mets are 63 against the Braves this season. Overall, they’re 208 versus Atlanta, Miami and Philadelphia and 1624 against everyone else.
Their 1021 record on the road doesn’t constitute a source of pride, either, and with their one run Thursday — Lucas Duda’s eighthinning homer broke a 21inning scoreless drought — they remained tied with St. Louis as the thirdworst offense in the NL, as both clubs have scored 255 runs.
Now, the Cardinals own baseball’s best record because they’ve given up 188 runs, an average of fewer than three per game, while the Mets’ 267 runs allowed placed them sixth in the league pending the Giants’ late game in Seattle. For all of their pride about their starting rotation, only sophomore Jacob deGrom is enjoying an All-Star-caliber campaign.
While Colon excels most of the time — he carried a run of four straight quality starts into this game — when he’s bad, he’s really bad. Betrayed by some poor defense behind him on this night, he wound up surrendering seven runs (six earned) in 4 ¹ /₃ innings to the game’s best offense and saw his ERA balloon to 4.81.
“They’re pretty good hitters,” the large man of few words said, paying respects to the Blue Jays.
Dickey wouldn’t help this rotation much, not with his seasonlong struggles. Even this night could have gone differently if Curtis Granderson hadn’t struck out with the bases loaded, all via free passes, to end the second. Back in December 2012, the Mets did very well for themselves in leveraging Dickey’s surprising Cy Young Award into their starting catcher Travis d’Arnaud, highceiling starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard and veteran catcher John Buck, whom general manager Sandy Alderson subsequently packaged with Marlon Byrd to bring back current starting second baseman Dilson Herrera and reliever Vic Black from the Pirates.
The Dickster was a cult hero back in his time at Citi Field, and he surely would have received (and deserved) a standing ovation had he faced the Mets in Flushing instead of Canada. You don’t hear much yearning for Dickey anymore in New York, though, not with the return he brought back. And while he proved a reliable starter for the Jays in his first two seasons here, he hasn’t approached the excellence he displayed in ’12 with the Mets.
Maybe the Mets can pick up their play with the return of Daniel Murphy from the disabled list and the impending promotion of Long Island native Steven Matz for the starting rotation, and maybe David Wright can actually overcome his spinal stenosis and contribute, too. There are plenty of paths this season can take.
Definitely, the Mets are better for the Dickey trade. One night of payback doesn’t change that equation at all.