Amazin’ mess finds way back into Citi
JUNE WAS bustin’ out all over at Citi Field on Sunday.
You remember June, don’t you, the month in which the Mets went 5-21 while twice losing seven straight and enduring stretches in which they first lost 11 of 12 and then dropped 10 of 11?
Well, that stunning stretch of ineptitude had nothing on Sunday’s eighth and ninth innings. The tops of the eighth and ninth, to be precise, when the Nationals sent 20 batters to the plate, collected seven singles, one double, three home runs, walked three times and had one man reach after being hit by a pitch.
The Nats scored a combined 14 runs, getting eight in the eighth and six in the ninth to turn a 1-0 lead into a 15-0 final. This from the team that had been shut out for 32 consecutive innings — including back-to-back shutout losses to the Mets on Friday and Saturday — before scratching a run across in the sixth on an infield out. That’s baseball, Suzyn. Or some facsimile of it, at least. The best was when Adam Eaton — who had three hits in the final two innings — attempted to steal second base after leading off the eighth inning with an infield hit and both second baseman Jose Reyes and shortstop Amed Rosario covered. Eaton was safe and three batters later came home when Paul Sewald walked Juan Soto with the bases loaded. That made it 2-0.
“We threw 78 pitches in two innings,” manager Mickey Callaway said. “We didn’t throw the ball over the plate enough.”
Well, except for the Tyler Bashlor pitches Wilmer Difo and Eaton hit out of the park in the eighth before the Corey Oswalt offering that Mark Reynolds crushed for a grand slam in the ninth. Those were over the plate, all right, even if for only split-seconds.
“I made some good pitches and had some unfortunate luck,” said Sewald, who totes an ERA of 6.87 since the beginning of May after being charged with five runs in one-third of an inning. “I can’t do anything about it now. “It just wasn’t my day.” Listen, these things happen over the course of 162 games. Not exactly these things, but close. And the paddy whacking can’t completely obscure the fact that, a) the Mets have been playing reasonably well since the start of July; and b) the seven innings of one-run, five hit ball they received from Steven Matz.
Comedy aside, Matz did keep the rotation’s conga line going after going as deep as seven full innings for only the third time in 24 starts this season and over 32 starts dating back to last July 9. Matz, Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler, Noah Syndergaard and Jason Vargas have combined for a 1.39 ERA over 58 ¹/3 innings covering the club’s past nine games. “Matz was great,” said Callaway, whose tenure has been pockmarked but whose partnership with pitching coach Dave Eiland has proved positive for Matz and Wheeler. “It was a big step for him.” The Wilpon ownership and the front office are most likely deluding themselves that tripling-down on this rotation-heavy formula following broken 2017 and 2018 seasons is the pathway to success in 2019. But the team is 16-4 in the past 20 games started by deGrom, Syndergaard and Wheeler. Matz, not so much, with wins in just two of his past eight, but no one would blame him for Sunday’s fiasco. The Mets are 26-24 since the start of July. They had won 12 of their past 18 entering Sunday, outscoring their opponents by an aggregate 110-56. If the season had begun on Aug. 8 and ended Sunday, the Mets would be going to the playoffs as NL East champions. “The biggest conclusion I’ve drawn [from the recent play] is that through all the ups and downs, and after we had some very low points, guys have come to play every day,” Callaway said before his team cobbled together all of three singles against Jefry Rodriguez and four relief pitchers. “They never got too down on themselves. “I think we’ve gotten back to playing like we’re capable of.” Upon further review of the eighth and ninth innings, let’s hope not.