After a weekend when the Mets sought out and discovered multiple ways to lose in St. Petersburg, it was a pleasant change of pace to watch them figure out how to win one in St. Louis. They sat Pete Alonso. Given the Polar Bear’s roughly 2-for-a-thousand slump, they kind of had to. They inserted DJ Stewart in Alonso’s stead, and though Stewart is not a first baseman, he played first base without incident and knocked in the night’s first run, in the first inning. They stuck Jeff McNeil in left field, one of the positions he used to fill with a flourish, and he made a trademark Flying Squirrel ca ..read more

I don’t know if therapy rays are actually a thing (they probably are), but I’ve been to Tropicana Field, which has the affect of the world’s largest basement rec room and smells vaguely like pool cleaner, and the most interesting part of the stadium is the oft-shown pool where cownose rays swim around in a circle. You can reach in and pet the rays, and while I doubt it’s a fulfilling experience for them — this classic Onion bit comes to mind — I found it mildly diverting. Not mildly diverting? Sunday’s Mets-Rays matinee at the Trop — or, for that matter, the entire series. Or for that matter ..read more

A dozen or so decades ago, the toast of New York National League baseball was a teetotaler projecting such a wholesome image, he was occasionally referred to in the press as the Christian Gentleman, though more readily as Matty or perhaps Big Six. Mostly, he was recognized as the indisputable ace of the Giants. His Hall of Fame plaque identifies him as Christy Mathewson, “greatest of all the great pitchers in the 20th century’s first quarter”. If your current New York National League franchise is winding down the first quarter of the next century by promoting a pitcher who puts a person in min ..read more

Jose Quintana reported for work without any of the essentials, got bombed, and the Mets fought back gallantly but it wasn’t enough, the end. That would suffice for a bite-sized recap, I suppose — this felt like one of the 50 or 60 or however many it is games that you’re guaranteed to lose, with the only asterisk being that the Mets scored a bunch of runs. The rest? I had trouble coming to any firm conclusions, not that any baseball fan with any sense should draw even mushy conclusions from a single game. Quintana was bad; the last time we saw him on a mound he was good as he’s ever been as a M ..read more

Francisco Lindor didn’t start Thursday afternoon’s game, much as he didn’t finish Wednesday night’s. He was said to be suffering from flulike symptoms. As someone who’s been enduring some of those myself, I can relate. I don’t have a Joey Wendle standing by to fill in for me, however. Wendle was an All-Star as recently as 2021, Lindor not since 2019. Without knowing anything else about their respective skill sets, you’d have to say shortstop was in good hands despite Francisco’s absence. We know anything else. We know Wendle is…not an optimal infielder for nine innings this week, maybe not for ..read more

Pete was actually out, and no, Miguel Amaya wasn’t blocking the plate, or at least not sufficiently to arouse the ire of officialdom. And even if he had been blocking the plate, the Buster Posey rule is stupid. Good decision to send Pete — unfortunately Nick Madrigal made a perfect relay throw, and so he was out by an eyelash of a whisper. It happens. Boy, that was really exciting watching the Mets and Cubs stand around while umpires put hands over their earpieces and waited for other people to look at TV. They’ll be replaying that thrilling finish for years. On the other hand (or is it the ot ..read more

That DJ Stewart home run in the sixth inning was a thing of beauty. Soaring on a friendly trajectory. Pulled, but easily fair. For all the times fans overreact to any ball in the air, the crowd occasionally gets one that makes its Pavlovian anticipation worthwhile. Going, going…no doubt about it, it was gone. Stewart had hit a three-run homer up onto Carbonation Ridge, the Mets led the Cubs, 4-1, and if the relievers who followed Sean Reid-Foley — who’d followed five innings of Sean Manaea — could do their job, the rest of the way would be a breeze. One fine frame from Revelatory Reed Garrett ..read more

I know you don’t want to hear it right now, but that was a great game. It zipped along taut and tense, it featured a great pitchers’ duel and a brush with history, it turned on a player’s split-second decision, and it ended with a crushing reversal of fortune. If you were in the park — and I was — you got your money’s worth, even if the outcome wasn’t what you desired. It ought to say that on the back of the ticket: DESIRED OUTCOME NOT GUARANTEED. Luis Severino does not get tossed on the pyre with the other feckless nibblers in the Mets’ rotation. He was aggressive and confident as he stalked ..read more

Intrigue lurked here and there among the Mets and Cardinals for seven innings Sunday afternoon. So, frankly, didn’t boredom. As a baseball fan, you don’t want to dismiss a game with little scoring as boring; as a baseball fan, you are conditioned to appreciate tautness and tension, and there was a little much action between nothing happening to write this one off as action-challenged. Three fabulous catches by St. Louis left fielder Brendan Donovan reminded you of how Whitey Herzog’s Running Redbirds used to break our hearts. Conversely, Donovan couldn’t nab everything, and his teammates didn ..read more

Adrian Houser seems like a decent sort. And he pitched cromulently enough for the Brewers last year: eight wins, a 4.12 ERA, a 3.99 FIP that suggested he’d earned his more conventional numbers. Yet he’s the first 2024 Met I can’t stand. Houser’s been horrible, which he admitted after the latest debacle on Saturday, calling his pitching “pretty unacceptable.” He also noted that he’s been putting his teammates in a hole at the beginning of the game: Saturday saw Houser allow four runs in the first, which isn’t ever a good idea and particularly isn’t a good idea when the opposing pitcher is Sonny ..read more