BLOOMINGBURG, NY – I’m back from vacation and so is baseball, after the Covid-induced lay-off of all things sporty. It’s simply unbelievable that even in a pandemic, the more things change the more they stay the same. Why am I speaking in code? The New York Freaking Mets is why.
Sitting in Brigantine on Friday afternoon among a cold one in hand and several empty cans of Miller High Life, Jake deGrom treated Met fans to his usual brilliant self and his mates lack of run support. Things just go that way for the Mets ace and reigning Cy Young; he pitches his arse off, gets pulled, and then the bullpen spoils the effort or a run – and maybe even two – cross the plate after he has been pulled from the game.
The scenario played out that exact way when the seldom-healthy Yoenis Cespedes crushed a home run to left field that proved to be the only run of the game. Yes, when this guy is healthy he’ll hit his share of long balls the same way you know what you’re getting with No Mistake Jake on the hill. The Mets won and Edwin Diaz closed the game out. Which was stunning. All Mets fans had to feel great after no games of any kind – even with the cardboard cutouts and piped in sound effects. The Orange -n- Blue won their opener. It didn’t last long.
Game II was a familiar tease…. we were treated to the same sh!t Mets fans have become accustomed to over the course of the last twenty plus years. The ace reliever has been none of that as soon as they put on that uniform. You know the names and I won’t even remind you of all the failed fireman who grasp defeat from the clutches of victory. The most recent suspect is Friday’s Hero, Edwin Diaz. After a disastrous 2019 and a Save yesterday, he reverted back to last year’s Diaz, blowing it by allowing a 2-out homer in the 9th.
You can’t make this crud up. Diaz has the yips. Plain and simple. There were no hometown hecklers in his head as cars along Roosevelt Avenue could be heard behind the Citi Field backdrop. I’m volunteering to drive Eddie Dee to the airport to make sure he gets to Mets management’s new destination for him. He’s that awful. Make Betances your closer and watch things get better in a hurry in this shortened season. You can’t have your bullpen throwing games away in a sixty-game season the way they did last year.
So, yes… We’ve been subjected to the same old Mets over the course of two games. The sky is falling already, Grady Chicken Little. Even in a pandemic, it’s the same old Mets. How many days until pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training 2021?
Leave your curves out over the plate below and come back tomorrow for another starter starved for runs, Junoir Blaber.
