Mets vs. Orioles

Buck last night said that "though people would not think so" Megill's was a step forward. The NY Daily News take is a common one: 

Megill lasted only 4 2/3 innings, exiting after giving up five earned runs on nine hits and striking out three.

The headline talked about his "struggles."  A manager often emphasizes the positive, but this is not a total sham job.  A back-end starter, call-up or not, will give up hits against the Baltimore Orioles.  He did not walk anyone.  Peterson did go a scoreless three, which was a glorified "opener" role, showing of late he has shown some improvement.  

Still, not exactly a charming game, though the optimistic will wait and see how Megill does against a team not sure of a juggernaut.  The top three in the line-up had all the offense until a hit in the ninth.  Nimmo, back from a few days out, tried to stretch a single into a double.  Just another "trying too hard" moment.  The no-name pen did okay with two runs.  

[Alonso does not truly seem "back" given his recent play.]

Nimmo and Marte (off all year) were back, but not for long. This was the Sunday line-up:

LF Jeff McNeil

SS Francisco Lindor

1B Pete Alonso

RF DJ Stewart

C Omar Narvaez

3B Mark Vientos

DH Brett Baty

2B Danny Mendick

CF Rafael Ortega

—

LHP Jose Quintana

This didn't go well on Mets Twitter.  There are a few moves that can be justified.  You are going to play your backup catcher sometime (he also got a hit in his first at-bat).  

Marte is obviously struggling.  Nimmo likely is not 100%, so he was rested for a day game after a night game.  Baty needs at-bats too.  Yes, you would like to see Alvarez, but is he hitting too well lately?  He seems to be not throwing out runners lately either.  He's the one person that you might want to see in the line-up but a day off is not stupid either.  

DJ Stewart clean-up is a bit curious though he has some potential.  The team is short on outfielders, so if Marte and Nimmo aren't playing, who else will play?  People want to see certain prospects but they are deemed not ready yet.  I think the struggles of Baty suggest speeding people along there is not a great idea.  And, partially for that reason, with "the beard" out and McNeil playing the outfield, yes you are going to see Mendick.  

So, yes, we are stuck with that line-up.  The fact one of the two reliable starters is available was helpful  You play some of your scrubs when you have a good starter.  Sunday games also normally have more of them.  Overall, the lineup is understandable, even though you want your best lineup out there in the middle of a long losing streak.  

Key players are hurt, struggling, or not ready yet.  The rotation is weak after two trades and you are not going to replace key arms until the off-season.  This is not really "tanking" but if you don't want to watch it, fine. The starter is the main draw.  But, there has been a lot of that this year.  

Scrubs have shown some life lately, including the Nats and Kansas City.  The Tigers beat the Rays last night.  So, the Mets -- as I have noted before -- should be able to show some life, even against the big boys.  Today?  Mr. Q. did very well.  A pair of single-run innings thru six.  It is "what if" if the Mets had their full rotation from the beginning along with Diaz.  

And, even then, at least one of those runs came off questionable defense. But, you are stuck with that at least at third base, which is a growing pains slot for both Baty and Vientos.  One was an inherited run given up by the pen, but even then, you come in with a guy on first and third, that's not a bad result. Toss in Ottavino, that's two runs in eight versus a top team in baseball.  Unfortunately, no runs for the Metsies.

Time for the stud closer. Score one for the Mets future with Vientos getting a double.  Baty couldn't advance him.  Nimmo pitch-hit with one out.  Fly out.  No advance.  Vogelbach.  Fan favorite! (Haha.)  Strikes out. Can we DFA him now?!  Oh well, the pitching was impressive.  And, the Baltimore starter only went 4.2.  So, Q. really won on points.  That counts, right? 

Seriously, the batters did show some life today (after Buck criticized them according to Gary Cohen), but Pete Alonso especially didn't show up at key spots.  If this team was clicking, and maybe if it had a real DH available off the bench, this was very well a winnable game.  Against a stud team.  

So, 0-6 is not a reason to feel good about yourself.  And, multiple players had bad moments.  But, this game did have a "moral victory" feel somewhat.  Anyways, I'm an Orioles fan, so basically happy they won.  

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I'm not a soccer person but women's soccer has a lot of fans.  Not a lot of scoring in the latest tournament with multiple games where no scoring took place.  Rather boring after a while in my view.  

It ended on kicks, which is rather unsatisfying.  Guess hope Sweden does well.  Got to love a chance to play an Abba song.  

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I noted that I'm on Bluesky thanks to Chris Geidner. He has a "substack," a media platform that sometimes has some good content from people of his ilk.  Geidner and Steve Vladeck both have good legal content.  

I signed up but don't know how much content I will have.  One useful thing is that it is easy to post an audio file and I actually don't sound too bad when I posted a bit of my voice. The sing-song quality is also sort of purposely affected.