Not A Good Weekend Start For Mets

By William Coppola/ Contributing Sports Columnist Bronx Chronicle

Dodgers vs Mets. Clayton Kershaw vs Noah Sunderdaard. Western division champs vs a team with a legitimate shot at the wild card. So what is all the talk in the press box, around the batting cage and in the ballpark seats?

It was all about the home runs that the Mets and all of baseball for that matter, are hitting. So when J. D. Davis hit an 87 slider into the left field seats off of Kershaw with one out in the bottom of the first inning, every Mets fan in the stadium got what they came to see.

The loud contingent of Dodger fans who were in attendance also got their chance to be happy when second baseman Gavin Lutz, launched an 81 mph hanging curveball over the centerfield wall off of Syndergaard with two on in the fourth inning to give the former “Brooklyn Bums” a 4-0 lead.

The was a small group of people present who were not thrilled with all the home runs being hit. That would be the veteran major league scouts and media who have sore necks from watching literally thousands of homers hit this year. Over 6100 and counting. Is it the Ball? Is it the maplewood bats? Is it global warming?

All I know is that players who were line drive gap hitters like Jeff McNeil are hitting multiple home runs in games and launching some of them into the upper decks, some 450 feet with little effort. 

The fact that there were only three home runs last night had to be a big disappointment to the 36,097 in attendance. Even more disappointing is the 9-2 loss as the Mets fall to three games behind the Cubs for that last wild card spot with 15 games to play.

Having to face this powerful Dodger team again Saturday and Sunday is not going to be easy and then they are off to Colorado for three and then three with Cincinnati before coming home to end the regular season with the Marlins and Braves. 

I wouldn’t count them out just yet, anything could happen. They did get a good effort out of Jeurys Familia who worked two clean innings, facing six batters and yielding one hit. That’s a good sign. But the Mets need more than good signs. They needed Syndergaard to hold that one run lead and have this bullpen show that they can hold it at this time of the year. 

Louis Avilan in relief of Familia giving up a two run double to pinch hitter Chris Taylor and a run scoring single to Cody Bellinger just nailed the coffin shut last night. That is the kind of relief effort that gets you on the golf course in October.

If the Yankees had this rotation they would end the season with 130 wins and if the Mets had the Yankee bullpen, they would be leading the division.

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