I knew last night was going to be trouble when Glenny Balls said on his Twitch stream that taking Boston to win was a bad bet. I should have known because the Mets having their ace on the mound against a team they just whipped for two nights in a row seems too safe. Fans who have been around the block know that something screwy is going to happen.

We thought that the damage was done in the fourth inning when deGrom threw a fastball on the outside corner that looked a lot like strike three. Instead, Mitch Moreland got another chance and hit a double to center field that scored Rafael Devers, tying the score 1-1. Two wild pitches later — I am SO done with Rene Rivera — and Moreland was crossing home plate to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.

However, that speed bump was overcome when Brandon Nimmo homered in the fifth and Andres Gimenez hit an RBI triple in the sixth to put deGrom back in line for the win. Everything was right in Mets land again.

Not for long. Christian Vazquez homered off of reliable Seth Lugo in the seventh. In the eighth, Justin Wilson appeared to get out of a bases-loaded jam only for Moreland’s ground ball to dribble to the perfect spot on the infield. Vazquez struck next with a two-RBI single to make it 6-3 Red Sox.

And yet this is still a game the Mets would get back in their clutches only to let slip at the last moment. Cespedes homered in the eighth to make it 6-4. The next inning, Boston’s Brandon Workman walked Nimmo and Jeff McNeil before Pete Alonso doinked his fourth single of the game into shallow right field. Workman struck out Michael Conforto with the bases loaded, but J.D. Davis drove in a run with an infield single.

Bases still juiced, one out, Mets down by one and Cespedes coming to bat. If only Davis’s sharp ground ball got past Devers, the score would already be tied. Instead we got to watch Cespedes strike out on an admittedly nasty curveball and Robinson Cano hit a soft liner that didn’t make it over the shortstop’s head. Game over.

Both Cespedes and Cano had two hits in the game, so I can’t rag on them too bad, even if I think the Mets are just clinging to hope that each legend still has some of the old magic left in the bat. Last night the Mets outplayed Boston; New York had almost twice as many hits but had both of its home runs come with no one on base.

This team will continue to hit. The way Gimenez handled himself in his first major league start was super impressive and he gives the Mets another bat that they can’t fit in the everyday lineup. The way Wacha and Peterson pitched in their Mets debuts makes me think that the rotation won’t be a complete mess. Once the starters get stretched a bit more, it should take some pressure off the bullpen.

Or maybe COVID-19 will just ruin everything. The Marlins and Phillies still haven’t played since Sunday. Let’s just take it one game at a time. Steven Matz takes the mound against Martin Perez tonight in a battle of southpaws with the Mets going for the series win.