This person showed up two hours late for a job interview. He went into the audition without even knowing his lines. This was to meet his future in-laws with insults rather than roses.
David Stearns/Carlos Mendoza The Mets put their worst foot forward and began their operation by stumbling.
After just three games, the 2023 Phillies, for example, started 0-3 and ended up back in the NLCS. But notice the word “return” in this sentence. It was a club with a track record of winning the National League. These Mets are still a mishmosh of multiple owners, GMs, and managers. These are visions that prioritize the future, with Steve Cohen and Sterns emphasizing that the playoffs are a goal for 2024.
We’ve learned not to judge a book by its cover or its 162-game season leading up to the first weekend. But as first impressions suggest, it’s clear they’re being dominated at home by a Brewers team that traded away their ace (Corbin Burnes) and will likely be without their No. 2 starter (Brandon Woodruff) this season. Obviously, he’s younger, so he won’t be able to completely fill the team. An already skeptical fan base with faith and trust.
Over three games in late March, the Mets promoted Reece Hoskins to Chipper Jones, produced as many hits as Jeff McNeil had unnecessary altercations, and couldn’t control the Brewers’ running game. (8-8 for stolen bases). Milwaukee outscored the Mets in every aspect of the 27 innings, including Sunday, when the Mets lost 4-1, and probably Tyler Megill as well.
Megill was ejected after the fourth inning when bench coach John Gibbons complained of tenderness in his shoulder area, which required an MRI scan (the results were not announced by the Mets). There, the replacement manager was explaining what happened to replace injured ace Kodai Senga at the end of the weekend, where the Mets went 0-3 and didn’t lead until the final 24 innings.
At some point this season, every team will lose at least three games in a row. But there’s something about an 0-3 game that stands out, like pink cargo pants at a black-tie event. Especially when you add injuries and the insult of a New York team escaping with a 4-0 record.
“I don’t feel good at all,” Francisco Lindor said. “It’s going to be a tough weekend for sure. We want to open the season with a win. We’re not in that column right now. We’d better get in that column sooner if we can.”
They missed out on a win Sunday as they were held to just one point for the second time in three games. Pete Alonso had two opposite field singles. Francisco Alvarez and Tyron Taylor had good at-bats. However, Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor, and McNeil fell to 0-for-12 and 3-for-36 in the series, leaving Mendoza winless as a major league manager. (He would have been awarded the win even though he was suspended.)
The Mets learned Mendoza had been suspended for one game about two hours before first pitch. If a pitcher is suspended for what is deemed to be an intentional throw to a batter, the manager will automatically be suspended. Johan Ramirez was suspended for three games against Hoskins that Saturday, but he appealed the suspension and actually pitched, facing Hoskins twice. The highlight of Sunday at a mostly serene, half-full Citi Field was Hoskins’ two fumbles with the bases loaded — one on a 1-2-3 double play, the other on a strikeout to Ramirez. was.
Hoskins was the only Brewer starter who didn’t make it to safety. But he’s already quite the chipper, making four runs on Saturday amid boos at being made City’s No. 1 villain. All of this was started by McNeil, with the exception of Friday’s game when Hoskins slid hard late in the game to move into second place. opener. However, this slide was deemed legal not only by the referees but also by the Mets. And McNeil’s explanation that Hoskins shouldn’t have slid the way he did because he didn’t have a shot for a double play falls apart because McNeil lost the ball on his throw to first base. The only clue Hoskins has as a runner is what McNeil is doing in front of him with the ball.
But all of that would be bearable if McNeil and the Mets were doing something with the bats. Instead, the Mets had a batting average of .202 and an OPS of .598 through three games. It’s a different story to be able to limit him to one hit and one run in six innings with the Brewers’ new ace, Freddy Peralta, and his dynamic pitching in an open game, but DL Hall didn’t have his signature fastball or control, and the experienced Colin – Ray held the Mets to 3 points. He gave up a run in the 9th inning.
And the Mets just couldn’t do enough in other areas to make up for it, and what’s more, they never won. Again, that was only his 3rd out of 162 games. In other words, the sky is not falling. However, the weekend certainly turned out to be cloudy and gloomy.
