Inside Yolk

I’m starting to think that J.D. Davis might be my new favorite player. Not only is he a lovable goof who came out of nowhere to shine at the plate for the Mets last year, but in 2020 he’s continuing to hit line drives everywhere while sparkling on defense at third base.

Last night in New York’s 8-4 win over the Marlins, Davis hit a huge opposite field home run in the seventh inning that extended the lead from one run to three. It was a huge relief after the bullpen allowed a comfortable 4-1 advantage to become a 5-4 predicament. Davis also threw out a Miami batter from shallow left field on a ground ball. Clutch opposite field home runs and ridiculous throws from third base? Those are the things that David Wright is known for.

Calling Davis the next Wright is jumping the gun by more than a little bit, but I can’t stop myself getting exciting while watching him play this past week. If this keeps up, the trade that brought Davis to the Mets from Houston will probably go down as the only good move of the Brodie Van Wagenen era.

That 11-10 loss to Atlanta in which the Mets blew a 10-5 lead in just three innings was pretty bad, but I think last night’s debacle is the new leader for most Mets loss of the season so far.

With Miami’s roster depleted due to positive COVID-19 tests, the Mets had a chance to make up ground on the unlikely division leader. Of course, they did not count on (although many fans did) Marlins starter Humberto Mejia pitching striking out six batters in a little more than two innings. Mejia had not ever played beyond Class A Advanced, but the Mets only scored a single run against him on a Dominic Smith home run.

That wouldn’t have been too much of a problem, but Michael Wacha gave up a three-run bomb to Francisco Cervelli in the second inning, and the New York offense looked listless against the no-name Miami bullpen. When the Mets finally did break through for a crooked number in the eighth, they came tantalizingly close to tying the game only to fall one run short.

Even a brutal throwing error by Brian Anderson wasn’t enough to put the Mets over the edge. And of course, Edwin Diaz pitched brilliantly when it didn’t matter. At least we got another great defensive play by J.D. Davis, who might have to change his phone number to 877-GLOV-NOW.

Yeah, it was a pretty brutal loss. Considering the dire straits of the opposition, the fact that the Mets had to have this game, and the way they left the bases loaded while down a run in the eighth inning, it might be the worst of the campaign.

I knew it was smart leaving the door open for a Mets victory yesterday, and the boys pulled it off, defeating Max Scherzer and the Nationals 3-1 to split their two-game series in Washington.

Sure, the Mets caught a break when Scherzer sustained a hamstring injury and had to give way to Erick Fedde after one inning. But New York might have come out on top anyway because Rick Porcello was reunited with the Cy Young stuff that we thought was a thing of the past from watching his first two starts of 2020.

Slick Rick was hammering the lower part of the strike zone with his sinker and getting great downward on his changeup and slider. I didn’t watch a lot of Porcello before this season, but it’s clear to see why he was such an enticing young pitcher with Detroit and how he finally fulfilled his potential in Boston.

It also helped that the Mets played their finest defensive game of the season. We’ve talked before about how Porcello needs good defense behind him to be successful, and last night we finally saw a POSITIVE example of that.

Yesterday we found out that Robinson Cano, Jeff McNeil, and Amed Rosario would be out of the starting lineup when the Mets started a two-game series vs. the Nationals. So far, two of those players have avoided the injured list, but Cano didn’t at will be out at least 10 games with a left adductor strain. Hopefully that means that McNeil (intercostal) and Rosario (quad) will be back in action soon.

The Mets’ lineup could sure use the boost after it mustered just three runs last night with Brian Dozier and Ryan Cordell in the lineup. Those two aren’t a pair you want starting every day, but at least Cordell was just designated for assignment when the Mets traded cash to the Rangers for right-handed pitcher Ariel Jurado.

Then again, we have Billy Hamilton starting in center field tonight instead of Cordell. I’m not sure if that’s an improvement, but Hamilton more of an exciting player for sure.

That bottom half of the lineup is not great, but Gimenez is looking more and more like he’s going to be a mainstay. The kid has made solid contact so far and he can play good defense at third base or shortstop. He’s got wheels too, which is something the Mets have lacked in recent years. You can tell from Luis Rojas moving him up in the lineup that the Mets need Gimenez to step up with Rosario and McNeil sidelined.

I had a feeling that getting rid of that negative vibes machine Yoenis Cespedes would lead to good things for the Mets. It wasn’t just because Jacob deGrom was on the mound last night. Besides, there was scientific evidence that something had shifted in the Mets clubhouse, because they finally got some hits with runners in scoring position.

Michael Conforto, Robinson Cano, and Wilson Ramos all hit RBI singles in the third inning to spot New York a 4-0 lead. With deGrom on the mound, that was plenty. The back-to-back Cy Young Award winner was money as usual, completing six innings with 10 strikeouts, one walk, and two runs allowed.

However, the Mets came not-so-shockingly close to giving up the lead in the seventh when Atlanta loaded the bases against Jeurys Familia. Good thing the old standby sacked up and struck out Ozzie Albies or we could be telling a much sadder story. Justin Wilson came on and got Freddie Freeman to ground out to end the threat.

The Mets made a big change yesterday. After three straight days of losing game they should have won, they finally lost a game that they were supposed to lose. It was a welcome relief from watching the bullpen melt down night after night. In Saturday’s 7-1 loss to Atlanta, we didn’t need to worry about blowing any leads or Luis Rojas making any poor decisions. Instead, Michael Wacha gave up five runs in the first two innings, and that pretty much was that. Franklyn Kilome made his Mets debut and gave the rest of the team’s relief pitchers a rest while mopping up for four innings while allowing two runs.

The only real offense the Mets put together came in the fourth and fifth innings. In both frames, New York put the first two batters on base, but not much came of it. The Mets are now 3-6 after losing four in a row, tied for last place in the National League East with the 1-2 Phillies. Both Philadelphia and Miami haven’t played all week, but they will hopefully be back in action in the next day or so if MLB’s latest schedule updates hold.

MLB designed a system that was designed to keep baseball rolling despite a couple of positive tests here or there, but that hasn’t been the case. Besides the Marlins situation in which half the team tested positive, no other group has suffered what one would qualify as an “outbreak”. And yet, the Phillies, Cardinals, and Brewers, have all been shut down for several days. Not many fans are confident that MLB can complete its season, but getting all the teams back in action this week would be a big step towards that goal.