Mets blow a game late on the West Coast (sound familiar?)

New York rallies to take the lead late vs the Angels, then immediately coughs it up. Plus, talking about the all-too-familiar late night, West Coast heartbreaker.

Rich MacLeod

Aug 04, 2024

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

The Mets lost a tough game in Anaheim on Saturday night, falling by a 5-4 score (box)
DH J.D. Martínez hit what appeared to be a game-winning, go-ahead grand slam in the 7th inning with the club trailing 2-0
After two outs and nobody on, newly acquired RHP Huascar Brazobán allowed a three-run home run in the bottom of the 7th to flip the game back around
LHP David Peterson was solid in his start, allowing two earned runs on five hits with four strikeouts over six innings
The Mets offense went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position on Saturday, and are now 5-for-34 (.147) with runners in scoring position over their last four games
Following his dominant start on Friday, RHP Brandon Sproat (No. 5 prospect) was promoted to Triple-A Syracuse

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Playoff Race 🏁

The Mets fell back out of a Wild Card spot after Saturday’s loss. New York is a half game back of the Diamondbacks for the third Wild Card spot, a game behind the Padres and two games back of the Braves for the No. 1 berth.

The Mets have 52 games remaining.

Per FanGraphs, the Mets have a 46.7% chance of making the postseason.

New York has the 7th easiest schedule in MLB the rest of the way.

Tiebreakers:

vs. ATL: 5-5
vs. ARI: 2-2
vs. STL: 3-2
vs. SD: 3-0
vs. CIN: 2-1
vs. SF: 2-4 (finished)
vs. PIT: 5-2 (finished)
vs. CHC: 4-3 (finished)

Who’s Not Hot 🥶

Brandon Nimmo is hitting .161/.303/.177 with no home runs, one double, three RBI, 23 strikeouts and a .480 OPS over his last 16 games

Roster Moves 📰

LHP Jake Diekman released

Injury Updates 🏥

RHP Reed Garrett (right elbow inflammation) began a rehab assignment in Double-A Binghamton on Saturday

Down on the Farm 🌾

RHP Blade Tidwell (No. 10 prospect, Triple-A): 2.2 IP, 4 H, 6 R (2 ER), 4 BB, 3 K (loss)
2B Luke Ritter (Triple-A): 3-for-6, 2B, RBI

BOX SCORES

Single-A STL (PPD) | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG (PPD) | Triple-A SYR GM1 / GM2

Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (58-52) vs. Angels (48-63)

Where: Angel Stadium — Anaheim, CA

Starters: LHP José Quintana (6-6, 3.89) vs. RHP Griffin Canning (3-10, 5.25 ERA)

When: 4:07 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY

Late-night West Coast meltdowns, a tradition unlike any other… ✍️

Well that was annoying, wasn’t it? And if we’re being honest (which I always try to do here) pretty damn familiar, too.

Earlier this season, after a thrilling win against the Dodgers, I wrote about how the Mets managed to avoid something we’ve grown accustomed to over the last 15-20 years… the late-night, West Coast meltdown.

I mentioned the PTSD of years past and moments like Ryan Church missing third base, Edwin Díaz allowing a home run barrage to the Dodgers, Jeremy Reed throwing the ball away with a five-man infield. You know, the classics. But for that one weekend in April, it felt as if the organization had finally overcome that typical and expected bugaboo.

Fast forward to last night against a far inferior Los Angeles adjacent team, and things sure felt a whole lot like the old days.

After being largely ineffective at the plate on Saturday night, continuing a trend from the night before when the team went 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position in their 5-1 win, J.D. Martínez stepped up to the plate in the 7th inning with a golden opportunity. With the Mets trailing 2-0, their power-hitting DH came up to bat with the bases loaded and one out with a chance to turn a night’s worth of struggles around. For a brief moment, it looked like he did just that.

Like a bolt from the blue, Martínez crushed a go-ahead grand slam to left-center field and flipping the game on it’s head, giving the Mets a 4-2 lead with nine outs to go. For Martínez, it was his second grand slam in the last week.

With one singular swing of the bat, the vibes had shifted. There’s no way you’re losing a game after hitting a go-ahead grand slam in the late innings, especially with a newly revamped bullpen…

Right??

Well, it certainly was not to be as the newly acquired Huascar Brazobán struggled with his command in the bottom-half of that same inning. Despite retiring the first two batters of the inning, Brazobán was unable to retire Michael Stefanic and Nolan Schanuel – and yes, I promise these are real people and not computer-generated Triple-A baseball players in MLB The Show.

With his pitching count climbing dramatically, manager Carlos Mendoza kept Brazobán in the game to face Angels infielder Zach Neto, a decision that ultimately doomed the Mets. On his 37th pitch of the inning, Brazobán threw a cement mixer of a cutter to Neto who subsequently parked it into the bullpen in left field for a three-run home run. Just moments after the Mets had flipped the game on its head, the Angels managed to flip it right back.

And despite Mark Vientos leading off the top of the 8th with a double to represent the tying run, the Mets really never came close to rallying as the final six batters were retired with relative ease, leading to a pretty brutal loss.

It certainly won’t have the staying power that some of those games I mentioned earlier — it didn’t quite hit that level of drama — but you can certainly add this one to the ever-growing list of terrible West Coast losses over the last two decades. For the Mets, all they can do at this point is go out and make sure this is more of an inconvenience rather than one of those losses people look back on at the end of the year when things didn’t work out. They can do that by winning this afternoon and putting together a quality road trip over the remaining seven games.

By the way, since we’re talking about things that didn’t go well… While last night’s loss was certainly on the bullpen, one reliever in particular, there has been a growing issue in the background for this team.

New York went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position last night, with all four of their runs coming on that lone hit, after going 3-for-18 the night before. And while that may just look like a two-game blip, it’s actually a continuation of a problem that has been growing for several weeks now.

Since July 14th, the Mets as a team are 25-for-135 (.185) with runners in scoring position. It is the second-worst mark in the major leagues over that time span, trailing only the White Sox who are in the middle of a 19-game losing streak and are on pace to dethrone the 1962 Mets for the worst record in modern baseball history.

In addition to their new-look bullpen needing to get their act together, the Mets offense – which to be fair has been the number one strength of this team – has to find a way to get back to their clutch hitting ways of earlier in the season.

If neither of those things can happen, I fear that there may be some more after-midnight disappointment that lies ahead.

Around the League 🚩

Dodgers RHP Jack Flaherty looked impressive in his debut with the team, striking out seven over six shutout innings, while DH Shohei Ohtani reached the 30/30 mark in LA’s 10-0 win vs the A’s
Yankees OF Aaron Judge clubbed his 41st home run of the season in the club’s 8-3 win against the Blue Jays
The Phillies blew a 5-0 lead to the Mariners on Saturday and lost in extra innings after issuing a walk-off walk
Twins RHP Bailer Ober pitched his eighth straight quality start, sending the White Sox to their 19th straight loss – that is tied for the 7th longest streak of the modern era (1900s to present) and 12th longest of all-time