Tonight started out good for the Mets as Curtis Grandson hit the second pitch of the night, a one strike fastball down the middle of the plate, into the centerfield bleachers off of Rich Hill. He has been cutting down on his swing and squaring up better in the past few games and is beginning to look like the Grandson we all are used to seeing. It looked like the Mets were going to take advantage of a Rich Hill who has had command issues with his best pitch, his curve ball. He was coming off of his worst performance in his last start and the Mets looked ready to bust out. Mets starter, Tyler Pill looked sharp in the first three innings giving up no hits and one unearned run after a throwing error by T.J. Rivera. Putting runners at second and third followed by a sacrifice fly by pitcher Hill.
Everything was looking ok, until the disaster that is the Mets 2017 season reared it’s ugly head. The forth inning saw four runs cross the plate for the very hot Dodgers. With Yasiel Puig blasting a three run home run to put the game out of reach early again. The Mets took exception to Puig’s admiring the flight of the ball and both he and Mets first baseman Wilmer Flores exchanged some colorful words as Puig passed first base. Then an exchange at home plate with catcher Travis d’Arnaud as Puig sneered back on his way to the Dodger dugout. The Mets had no choice but to stay with Pill. He was low in his pitch count and they needed him to eat up some more innings.
In the mean time, Hill found his curveball command and proceeded to begin to mow the Mets down. He left after five innings and eight strikeouts. The Dodgers added three more runs, two via homers by catcher Yasmani Grandal. All resulting in another loss for the boys from the east. The Mets have been out scored by the Dodgers 30 to 8 in the last three games. There is hope for them to avoid a sweep with Steven Matz going for them tomorrow. Only if they can score some runs. There seems to be a look of defeatism creeping into some of the Mets players.
My concern is the chemistry in the clubhouse. Tonight after catching a lazy fly ball in short left field, Yoenis Céspedes flipped the ball to Jose Reyes from is glove and hit Jose in the chest. Reyes was not too happy about that and stared Cespedes back to left field. Joking or not, when your team has been taking a shellacking in the last three days, that is not the way to loosen things up. There is a reason he has been on four teams in two years before finding a home in Queens. If the Mets are not winning, he becomes uninterested. This is becoming a bad ball club and it is not all about bizarre injuries.
And so as they sink closer to the bottom at 31 and 40, 11.5 games back in the division, they may be up for a fire sale in July. May as well start bringing up some prospects. There is not a lot down on the farm, but hungry young players may be what they need to spark some energy into what appears to be a team of beaten down players.