Curtis Granderson rarely displays any displeasure on the field, but on Wednesday he became visibly upset on a balls and strikes call in a crucial early game situation.
With the bases loaded and two out, Granderson was called out on strikes on a fastball from Jordan Zimmermann on the outer edge up in the strike zone. Granderson aired his disagreement with the call to home plate umpire Mike Everitt, but none the less the Mets stranded the bases loaded in one of their only scoring opportunities of the night.
“I thought it was up. He said otherwise,” Granderson explained after the game. “I asked him if it was up. He said, no, he didn’t have it up.”
Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos did frame the pitch well to bring the location a little bit lower in the zone. At best, the pitch was borderline, and the call could’ve easily gone the other way which would have changed the game. Still, even though that wasn’t an area of the zone Granderson typically swings in, the pitch was a bit close to take with two strikes, especially with the bases loaded in a critical early situation.
It’s easy to Monday Morning Quarterback this situation because it didn’t work out, and that’s probably unfair given the length of the season. However, it’s these single moments in which games – and maybe the season – between the Mets and Nationals are going to come down to because the pitching is so stingy and the offense is going to be mostly scarce. It happened on Monday when the Nationals didn’t execute on defense, and it arguably happened twice to the Mets in the same inning last night with this pitch and Jacob deGrom’s failed bunt attempt a couple of minutes earlier.
Just Mets 