By the time I post this it is old news, but still bad news. Horrible news for the two players effected. News that would make Sandy Alderson wish he had hair he could pull out in big tufts like Larry Fine. He was prepared, but how prepared can you be? Losing two players to broken bones! In one game! IN THE SAME INNING!
Travis D'Arnaud was hotter than July. He should be back in June. Jerry Blevens, flawless lefty out of the pen, a move that was looking so brilliant, shot in his pitching arm. His return will be in the month d'Arnaud was hotter than. Last week David Wright (hamstring) goes on the D.L. a week into the season. We lost a starter in Zack Wheeler (Tommy John surgery) and our closer Jenry Mejia (due to stupidity).
These events could make Terry Collins hair a little whiter, if that's possible. 'lil bit.
It made Metfan/comedian Jim Breuer's bug his eyes out.
Again.
This would normally be the time we fans say, oh no, not again. Not to Jim's eyes, but to this drastic turn of events.
And we can say that, these are awful breaks for the team, but as I've said before, we are moving forward.
To lead with that is a downer but there's no way this should ruin the excitement of an amazin' 8 game winning streak. A very impressive best (10-3) record in all of Major League Baseball. But the other bad stuff did happen, and this is important, so it goes into the record.
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The 2nd Harvey Day of the year at Citi Field was another wacky game. I don't want to take a microscopic look at this game. Too depressing. But a little rundown:
Things were looking greater than great mid game. New York batters exploded for 7 runs! Granderson started it with a bloop single to center and Rubin Tejada capped it with a bases loaded double. Dan Murphy tied it with a ground single to right. Juan Lagares extended his 7 game hitting streak with a single roped to right and gave the Mets the lead. Travis d'Arnaud had two hits and one RBI in the one inning! Trav drove in the 7th run that culminated the highest scoring inning for the Metsies since July, 2013.
Matt Harvey up 7-1. Normal fans would consider this game as good as over. Mark it as a win. Be we Mets fans aren't normal. We can't be. We're too amazin'.
But we didn't know that The Dark Knight had risen ill that Harvey Day, and wasn't sure he could go. He still came in and he took the mound. He didn't look Harvey sharp but even Matt Harvey less than 100% is...Matt Harvey. He pitched well until he began to run out of gas. The New York Ace was tapped for a run in the 2nd and again in the 6th, but in between he was rollin', retiring nine in a row going into the 6th.
In the 7th inning all the trouble started.Matt Harvey ran out of gas and our lefty specialist, Jerry Blevins, came on to bail him out. He probably would have done it too, but he was felled by an a wicked line drive to his pitching arm.
In the Mets half of the same inning Travis d'Arnaud was hit by a pitch in the right hand.
Unbelievable. Not only the same game, but the same inning. Damn.
Suddenly things were looking bluer than blue. Sadder than sad.
The Mets almost gave the game back to the Marlins but the pen did close it, and Familia picked up his 6th save. New York held on to win 7-6 and sweep the four game series from the F'kn Fish.
Gary Cohen,SNY: Since 1998 The Mets have only had two 4 game series sweeps at home. They swept four from the Rockies in 2003 at Shea and they swept four from the Pirates here in 2010, and that's it in the last 17 years.
Gary, you were promoting the number 7 all day, and then there was the 7th inning. Just sayin'. Jinx!
For the first time in the teams history the Mets have started by going 7-0 at home.
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Curtis Granderson sounded a little shocked yet upbeat after the win & loss:
"There's an off day to realize what's happened....
Once two guys get called up we'll keep moving and keep trying to play good baseball."
The two called up are catching prospect Kevin Plawicki and relief pitcher Hansel Robles. I will start a combo rookie card for them & post it as soon as they take the field.
Terry Collins said something after the game that I really liked. I know he can be very RAH RAH cheery but what he said here was more than that. Talking about what a bad blow it was to lose both d'Arnaud & Blevins in one game, and how great it was to win 8 in a row, his words reverberated through my head and they came out here:
"It was a big hit. But we've got to enjoy today, we can't go home on a sour note, we've got to enjoy this. We've worked very hard."
He was talking in reference to his players. It also applied to us fans in the seats and at home on our couches. I'm with Terry. Let's enjoy this. Maybe by the end of the World Series this will be another of those amazin' tales in Mets history, the one where all kinds of shit went wrong and we won it all anyway.
Matt Harvey won his 3rd game to no loses. After the game he sounded more mature than usual.
Now if you slide out Matt Harveys name and put in Tom Seaver in this quote regarding the Mets injuries, it's like going back to 1972. Call it cliche if you want, I liked hearing this.
"For us, we had such a good spring training and good start to the season. For us, we can't let it effect us. We still have to go out there and give it our all every day and, unfortunately as it is we don't have those guys, we still have a season to play. We still have to win- go out there and compete and pick up where we left off."
They left off with the best record in Major League Baseball.
Making his first appearance at Camden Yards, deGrom (12-6) gave up one run, five hits and a walk in 7 2-3 innings. The right-hander struck out six and lowered his ERA to 1.98, second-best in the National League behind the Dodgers' Zack Greinke.
Granderson connected off Kevin Gausman (2-5) on the game's second pitch, providing deGrom a lead he never relinquished. Granderson also homered in the fifth inning for the first-place Mets.
