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Let’s Get Weird!

Posted by Nineteen Eighty-Sixed on



Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mets mamas out there!

Speaking of mothers, the Mets had one mother of a week. Things are getting weird around here. The Mets, particularly Pete Alonso, seemingly created a new “approach coach”, named Donnie Stevenson, out of thin air, and the bats began to heat up just as “Diesel Donnie” arrived on the scene. 
Fans on social media speculated as to who or what Donnie really is. He could be Pete playing dress up as a Kenny Powers type, or it could just be a round of Don Julio tequila during pre-game meetings. It‘s almost funnier not knowing. 

And then suddenly the entire fun episode turned not fun or funny as Chili Davis, the popular hitting coach, and his assistant coach, Tom Slater, were fired after Monday night’s game in St Louis. 
The following day, an emotional Pete Alonso spoke to the media, and David Lennon of Newsday asked him if he felt “Donnie” contributed to the firings. Pete rightly refused to answer that, and the question was strange considering news had already come out that the decision to replace Davis & Slater came last week, before Donnie was first mentioned.

You’d think that’s the last we’d hear about Donnie, but Pete then dropped some Donnie shirts on his website, and had the other guys wearing them pre & postgame.

And it only got weirder from there as offensive frustrations, and a defensive miscue, spilled over into Friday night’s suspected tunnel fight between Lindor & McNeil. The incident was papered over by a story about a rat or raccoon, or possibly an opossum, which the media ran wild with, and the Mets themselves leaned into to have a little fun with.

But at the end of the day, it seems like the clubhouse chemistry remains strong, which is vital to success on the field. And equally vital to that end, it seems the bats are beginning to heat up, or at least not look so miserably futile.

 

DISLOCATED RECAP 
Hey, how have the Mets been doing?

🟠 Sunday 5/2 at Phillies - W 8-7 

Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. Yikes. For those of us who were unable to sync the Mets radio broadcast to the TV, we endured ESPN’s booth delivering tons of misinformation. But I digress. 
David Peterson got the start, and as is becoming his MO, he was shaky in the 1st, but settled down nicely, ultimately going 5 innings, striking out 8, and only giving up 1 run. 
Castro had his first rough outing of the year, but Barnes & May had a clean inning apiece. 
The Mets had a big inning in the 8th to seemingly put the game out of reach as the new Philly Villain, the wild Jose Alvarado, and some sloppy defense by the Phils, allowed the Mets to hang a 6 on the board. But then Rojas made the strange decision to bring in Diaz in a non-save situation, and he predictably failed to perform. 
The game was literally saved by the RF railing when Rhys Hoskins had a home run called back after review. Familia came in to get the final out. 
Phew!

🟠 Monday 5/3 at Cardinals - L 5-4 

With both Nimmo & Davis, their most productive batters over the first month, out of the lineup, the Mets are of course suddenly hitting again. Pillar in particular has been swinging a hot bat filling in for Nimmo in CF, homering for the 2nd straight game in this one. 
Joey Lucchesi started, and things fell apart for him pretty quickly. He ended up giving up 6 runs in 2 and 2/3rd innings. He should’ve escaped the 3rd without any damage, but a seemingly strike 3 ball in the dirt to Nolan Arenado was called a foul tip, and subsequently Arenado knocked a 3-run dinger. Oof.
Gsellman, Reid-Foley, and Barnes combined for a strong long relief outing, not allowing any further runs, but despite the early run-scoring from our offense, the bats went quiet after the 3rd inning.

🟠 Tuesday 5/4 at Cardinals - Postponed

🟠 Wednesday 5/5 at Cardinals - L 4-1

The Mets looked lifeless in the first game of a 7-inning double header. They only got two hits, both singles. Their only run came on an error with the bases loaded. Stroman pitched well, at one point striking out 5 in a row. But his night was ruined after a throwing error by Lindor, which led to a 2-run homer by supreme Met-killer, Paul DeJong. 
Barnes looked sharp in his inning of work. At least the pitching staff is killing it. 

🟠 Wednesday 5/5 at Cardinals - W 7-2

McCann & Lindor both sat for the second game, and the bench guys got it done in the nightcap on Wednesday. Nido, Pillar, and Villar combined for 6 hits and 6 RBIs. Pillar & Nido also combined for a great putout at the plate as former Met, Ali Sanchez, attempted to score on a single. 
Miguel Castro was used as an opener, but looked a little shaky, tossing 22 pitches in the 1st and not coming back out for a second inning of work. Jordan Yamamoto made his Mets debut, and looked decent enough, giving up 1 run over 2 and 2/3rd innings. Loup, May, Gsellman, and Familia were all effective in keeping the Cards from getting back in this one. 
It was nice to have a stress-free win for a change.

🟠 Thursday 5/6 at Cardinals - W 4-1 

The Mets got the series split with with a gem from Taijuan Walker. He went 7 innings giving up just 1 hit and 1 early run, while fanning 8. 
May followed him with 2 Ks in the 8th, and Diaz made things a little too interesting, but managed to work around 2 hits in the final frame. 
The offense didn’t quite get things going in this one, but they didn’t need to. As good as the Mets pitching was, the Cardinals were bad. They walked 11 Mets, including 3 with the bases loaded! The Mets left a club record 17 runners on base, and only had one hit with RISP. 
But we’ll take the W any way it comes, right?

🟠 Friday 5/7 vs Diamondbacks - W 5-4 

We got ourselves a potential pivotal win, folks! 
The Mets came back from being down 4 runs, Lindor hit a game-tying 2 run blast, and they walked it off in the 10th, but instead of that, everyone wanted to talk about a supposed confrontation between Lindor & McNeil. 
The Mets were forced to turn this into a bullpen game when Peterson lost his command early. He went just 1 and 2/3rd innings, giving up 3 runs on 3 walks & 3 hits. 
Gsellman, gave up a run in his 2 and1/3rd innings, but Hunter, Barnes, Castro, Diaz, and Loup combined for 6 scoreless innings, including a 10th. 
The bats shows some life in this one, as Villar & Conforto each had an RBI single. Lindor provided the fireworks with his game-tying HR. And last man on the bench, Patrick Mazeika, came up with the bases loaded in the 10th and sent a soft tapper to the 1st base side of the mound for a walk-off fielders’s choice. 
But as I mentioned above, there was some sort of incident involving Lindor & McNeil. Most of the dugout sprinted over to the tunnel, but whatever happened it was quickly resolved. 
The story got bigger than it needed to be when Francisco said he and Jeff were arguing over whether a small animal seen in the tunnel was a rat or a raccoon. The beat writers weren’t having it, and neglected to ask a single question about his offensive breakout, or the walk-off win.
They clearly want to keep the clubhouse dynamics within the clubhouse. Time to move on.

🟠 Saturday 5/8 vs Diamondbacks - W 4-2

In the wake of all weirdness, and with a good long stretch of games uninterrupted by postponements, the Mets went with a bullpen game. 
Tommy Hunter pitched 2 clean innings as the opener. Lucchesi struggled a bit, once again, but managed to make it through 3 and 1/3 innings giving up only 1 run. Familia continued to look strong, though his outing was prolonged by a few unlucky broken bat & bloop singles. Loup pitched the 8th, and gave up 1 run, but managed to contain any further damage. And with Diaz unavailable, Trevor May came in to close, and did so with no drama. 
The offense looked more alive in this one, with McNeil knocking a 2-run homer in the 3rd, and Lindor following that up by stealing 2nd base. The throw ricocheted off his foot and into no-man’s land, allowing him to sprint around 3rd and score. 
Later in the game, McNeil stole 2nd, and was driven in when Lindor singled. 
So it seems whatever happened Friday may have sparked these guys into more production.

 

CAUGHT IN A RUNDOWN 
All the news from this past week, which you’ve probably already seen by now.

🟠 Here’s the fallout from Alvarado’s nonsense. 

 🟠 Jake was named NL pitcher of the month for April. Who else, really? 🤷🏻‍♂️

🟠 A few roster moves for you 🔀

🟠 JD Davis was placed on the IL on Monday, retroactive to May 2nd. Trevor Hildenberger was called up to take his spot on the roster.

🟠 As mentioned above, hitting coach, Chili Davis, and assistant hitting coach, Tom Slater, were fired after the Mets excruciatingly slow start at the plate. Hugh Quattlebaum and Kevin Howard will replace them.

🟠 Jacob deGrom was scratched from his start on Tuesday, with tightness in his right side. An MRI showed muscle inflammation, but he’s not expected to miss more than one start.

🟠 In response to the deGrom news, Jordan Yamamoto was scratched from his start in the Triple-A Syracuse Mets season opener to be called up. Sean Reid-Foley, who’s pitched well out of the ‘pen, was sent down in a corresponding move.

🟠 New York, and more specifically, Citi Field, will be updating the COVID attendance policies soon! 🏟

🟠 Sean Reid-Foley was recalled to be the 27th man for Wednesday’s doubleheader.

🟠 On Wednesday evening Brandon Nimmo was placed on the 10 day IL, retroactive to May 3rd, as he rests up with a bone bruise on his left index finger. 
Minor League carcher, Patrick Mazeika, was called up from Syracuse to take his spot on the active roster.

🟠 After initial reports suggesting Carlos Carrasco might make his debut in the next week or so, it turns out, nope 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

TWEET THE METS

🟠 Always great to get your new boss’ approval right off the bat 👍

🟠 Even the Mets’ wives are heating up for the rivalry against the Phillies 💁‍♀️

🟠 Even though he’s starting the year in the minors, Yamz is pumped 🗣

🟠 Welcome to the funniest fan base in sports, Trevor 😂

🟠 Bench Mob gonna put the hit on ya 😎

 🟠 There are few new Mets who love being a Met more than Yamamoto. I love his exuberance 💙🧡 and even his pup loves the team too 🐶

 

🟠 The way these guys love & support one another is amazin’ 🥰

🟠 Words of wisdom from your Uncle Steve 🙏

🟠 The guys had some fun with the weird & wild win on Friday night 🙃🐀

🟠 And to close things out, a postgame word from Saturday night’s closer 🗣

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