Just Mets

The Mets lost to the Cubs 2-0 at Citi Field tonight in 11 innings. Here are my takeaways from tonight’s loss…

An “el stinko” game.

What the heck do you say after something like that? The Mets offense was beyond anemic yet again, getting shutout by a mediocre Cubs pitching staff for the second consecutive night.

What a comedy of errors it was, too. In the bottom of the 8th, Daniel Murphy ripped a ball into the left field corner, but the slow-footed Ruben Tejada had to hold up at 3rd base. Still, that set up Darrell Ceciliani to be the hero with 2nd and 3rd and one out. Terry Collins, desperate for runs at this point, called a suicide squeeze, which Ceciliani naturally missed and Tejada was caught between 3rd and home, ran back to 3rd–now occupied by Murphy–and passed Murphy on the base paths in one of the, for lack of a better word, dumbest plays I’ve ever seen in a baseball game. The Mets lucked out, as the umpires only called one of the runners out rather than both, but Ceciliani could not drive the run home.

The Cubs had their shot at winning this game in the 9th after they got a leadoff double from Anthony Rizzo, who stole 3rd base later in the inning. With 2nd and 3rd and one out, just like the Mets in the half-inning prior, the Cubs were unable to get a run home as well, resulting in more exasperated sighs from Keith Hernandez in the television booth.

“Ma, keep the lights on,” said Hernandez as the scoreless game headed into extra innings.

In the top of the 11th the Mets once again couldn’t turn a routine double play, giving the Cubs an extra out. It looked like that may have become moot as on a single to shallow left field, the Cubs 3rd base coach opted not to send Anthony Rizzo home–“OH MY GOD,” Hernandez exclaimed–but Kris Bryant overran 2nd base and was tagged out. However on a two out, two-strike pitch, Starlin Castro tapped a ball to 3rd and beat out an infield single, scoring the first run of this game. The Cubs would add on in the inning, and that’s all she wrote.

Even had the Mets gotten out of the 11th just allowing a single run, expecting a rally from a run down by a team that hadn’t scored a single run in 19 straight innings was clearly too much to ask for. The Mets went down meekly in the bottom half of the inning and the scoreless streak wound up at 20 to end the game.

There’s a lot to say, but nothing I haven’t already been saying for weeks now. The offense is putrid, the defense is costing them games and the stellar pitching is being completely wasted. This team needs to make moves–plural–to add major league talent to this roster. It is completely unfair and quite frankly asinine to expect this roster to even compete right now.

Changes need to be made. The sad thing is, I’m not sure anything is coming at this point.

Other notes from Wednesday:

The Mets are now 0-6 against the Cubs this season.

Carlos Torres allowed three hits, a walk and two earned runs in the 11th, raising his season ERA to 4.60.

Lucas Duda went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts and is now hitting .255 this season.

Bartolo Colon pitched seven shutout innings and got the no decision.

The Mets suffered from their 9th shutout loss of the season.