OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: New season of plundering begins

[DJ Spinoza]

Yeah, Reynolds and Hayes didn't do much of anything, but Cruz has really had some horrible at-bats leading off games lately.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

That inning feels like the tale of a lot of the season so far:

Perez gets into a little bit of trouble with the double, but even without much of the swing and miss game is able to clamp down and prevent any damage.

Pirates get a golden opportunity with 1 out but can't do anything at all, not even a hard hit ball with RISP.

Houser looks really sharp tonight. The two-seamer is really moving.

 

[BusinessGoose]

As long as we keep holding fort defensively, we can try again next at-bat

 

[DJ Spinoza]

So weird, much better AB from Cruz there to just completely ignore all that movement way outside the zone.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Gotta punish these walks. Hit one over the fence.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Nice McCutchen knocks Hayes in.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Jack has had some great ABs tonight. Quintana again tomorrow... I'll be happy if I never see another opposing LHP starter.

 

[BusinessGoose]

Chipping away, chipping away

 

[DJ Spinoza]

I guess with a 3 run lead, you trust Perez, but this really feels like a situation where you go to the pen for a different look. They are squaring him up.

Have to hope for a lucky double play.

 

[BusinessGoose]

I guess with a 3 run lead, you trust Perez, but this really feels like a situation where you go to the pen for a different look. They are squaring him up.

Have to hope for a lucky double play.

Free runs for everyone!

Come on shelty, don't do this again

 

[OnMyOwn]

Well that was one of the dumbest things I’ve seen an outfielder do. wtf was that?

 

[WickedWrister]

Yikes

 

[BusinessGoose]

Don't do Pirates Brand shit, come on man.... Erasing a hard fought lead...

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Still a lot of game left but facing Nimmo here is maybe the worst case scenario. Somehow this felt like it was coming.

 

[OnMyOwn]

This is tied but feels like it’s over, haha. Just a comedy of errors this inning.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

In theory a battle of the bullpens should be ok for us, but I still don't have a lot of faith in Holderman here and the momentum just seems to be completely sapped after that Joe error.

This would be a bitter loss to take, because a win would have basically secured a fine trip at 3-4 and given us a strong chance to grab 4-3. I really don't like the idea of this lineup having to face Quintana tomorrow. 3-0 in the 6th is the kind of game you need to win.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

If we get this version of Colin Holderman back, then with Chapman, that would be huge. Still really feel like we need to gut this out.

 

[ChaosAgent]

Henry Davis experience tonight.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Ugly loss barring some kind of miracle. Only counts as one, but feels a lot worse and makes escaping Philly with the sweep that much more crucial. Stepping back a little, I think we just need 1 in this series. This one was in our grasp, but bad performance with opportunities, a huge error by Joe, and bad execution all contributed to just tossing it in the garbage.

In a way, the Mets have carried out the offensive gameplan that we have been pretty successful with for most of the season.

 

[BusinessGoose]

Thrown away

Let's see how they respond, so far this year, they've had short memories

 

[sovietsanta87]

Thrown away

Let's see how they respond, so far this year, they've had short memories

Especially Chapman who has forgotten how to throw strikes

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Don't want to go full doom and gloom, but getting a split to at least salvage a losing series might not be simple. I hate the idea of Quintana against this offense and it's also reasonable to expect that Jones won't continue to be so overpowering every time out. Even a solo shot or two might be enough to swing it, and then it's Falter again Wednesday.

I have to figure Cruz sits given how terrible some of his ABs have been, and I would hope that Davis might sit. I still have a pretty high degree of faith in him, but at the moment I really vacillate between thinking he's fouling balls off and about to snap out of it and thinking he's completely listless. It's funny to say this now but Joey Bart might genuinely be an x-factor in the series.

Just not a great feeling. I don't know if you can totally fault the slower hook on Perez, as it almost worked and the big downfall was on Joe, not him. With the Gonzales injury and Jones and Falter on deck, it makes sense to try and ride Perez. Just totally went from smooth sailing to utter shit in a few ABs.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Davis starting again and Grandal is beginning a rehab assignment. I sort of think that Bart should be getting some more looks, both because he isn't an automatic out so far and because we should presumably get a sense for how he'd do in more frequent playing time before making a decision.

The only caveat would be if this is essentially about giving Davis another week or so of games to try and turn the offensive part of his game around. Grandal has missed a lot of time, so maybe he will have a lengthier rehab to get up to speed, but we might be faced with a decision about trying to get Davis regular ABs.

I still have a high degree of confidence in his bat (probably too much so), but a series of factors make me think that a AAA stint might be the right angle. If he does turn it around quickly, I am not sure how infatuated I would be with losing Bart so quickly. It's been nothing in terms of a real sample size, but he has the pedigree and isn't really all that old, especially for a catcher. I'm not holding my breath for this, but it wouldn't exactly be the strangest thing in the world if he all of a sudden had a mini-breakout to be a competent and solid starting catcher in a new environment. If Davis needs a reset, we could at least do well to try and find out for a solid month or so before moving on.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Hayes scratched for "precautionary" reasons due to his back. That screams enormously bad vibes. This series/road trip just went from pretty bad to worse, I think. Hopefully it's nothing, but with Hayes, this has the ring of "he'll be off tomorrow to maximize the rest days", and then he'll be back on the homestand, not look good, and eventually go on the IL in a week and a half.

Makes tonight's game feel more magnified just to get some further stabilization. I have a bad feeling that Quintana is going to carve us up. Cruz, Williams, Davis all seem like auto-outs against him. I hope I am wrong.

 

[BusinessGoose]

Let's
Go
Bucs!