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Last night’s rally-that-fell-short temporarily blocked the harsh, blinding truth in Metsland like a dark cloud sliding across the summer sun: John Maine was horrible and he’s our number two starter.
Forget the comeback, the extra inning loss, the baserunning blunders – rookie thirdbase coach Chip Hale was in full disaster mode – and the major league debuts of three…count ‘em….three Mets rookies. The game to this veteran fan was John Maine’s – and he nibbled, hesitated, threw more balls than strikes, nibbled some more and then laid out flat fastball strikes that were hammered to the far reaches of Citi Field by the Marlins. Maine let up four runs and eight hits in five innings, and he could’ve given up more.
My 12-year-old and I were there last night, enjoying the vibe of Citi Field 2.0 (more on that later) – and we made some notes:
- Maine’s pitches were up and he was struggling from the outset; he looked uncomfortable, antsy, not happy with the vocal hometown crowd. In other words, he looked like Ollie Perez or Mike Pelfrey. Jason Fry said it best: “His location was hide-your-eyes awful, and he spent most of his time on the mound looking like a guy confronted by an overflowing toilet.”
- The Mets’ comeback is highly overrated (though exciting for hometown fans). Marlins pitchers couldn’t find the plate, walking nine. As Joe Janish said on Mets Today, the game was “so poorly played by the Marlins, it resembled a high school JV contest.”
- Jenrry Mejia made his major league debut and didn’t throw a ball under 95 miles per hour, save one 89-mph “changeup.” At 20 the youngest Mets hurler since Doc Gooden, Mejia threw hard and the Marlins hit it harder – he escaped with three hits and one run, but it could have been worse. My section was chanting “send him down!” Other debuts: Ruben Tejada popped out weakly in a key 9th inning at bat, and Hisanori Takahashi took the inglorious loss in the 10th.
- Jason Bay already looks like a terrific signing. He’s in a hitting groove early and looked very good in leftfield.
- Jerry Manuel is the doing the metaphysically impossible: out-thinking himself. His lineups these first two days have simpy strained baseball credulity. Batting journeyman Mike Jacobs in the clean-up spot ahead of Bay is quite literally crazy, in my view. And Rod Barrajas is enough of a threat to bat higher, with a speed guy ahead of the pitcher’s slot. Somebody buy our manager a vowel.
- Francisco Rodriguez looked sharp and fast; I’m a lot less worried about the end of the bullpen after seeing him pitch in person. That said, I’m much more worred about everybody else in the pen not named Pedro Feliciano.
So don’t make too much of the “gutsy comeback,” Mets fans. Maine was about as bad as we figured. On to Niese, Perez, and Pelfrey. We agree with Andrew Vazzano at The ‘Ropolitans: the Fish “were trying to hand the Mets the W on a silver platter. The Mets sent it back to the chef.”
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