After a terrific outing by Jacob deGrom where the New York Mets silenced the Philadelphia Phillies in a one-hit shutout, taking the game 5 – 0, the Mets fell to the Chicago Cubs on Monday in a 5 – 1 loss. It was the Chicago Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo who plowed a homer off Steven Matz to give the Cubs a 3 – 0 lead, which is really all they needed to snap the Mets’ eight-game winning streak against them that dated back to last fall’s National League Championship Series. Oh and Michael Conforto returned.
The Mets had six hits to Chicago’s 10, but the New Yorkers also did what they do best — and not in a good way — they left 13 men on base. Wilmer Flores pounded a homerun off Chicago’s Jon Lester, but it was a little too late. Matz got the loss and continues to struggle a bit. The Mets have hit 124 homers, the secondmost in the NL and the fifth-most in the majors. Cool stat, but without the runs who cares?
Michael Conforto was called back up from the minor leagues and rookie Brandon Nimmo was sent back down. If you recall, I wrote about his infectious energy and excitement for the game. He’s made some good plays for the New York Mets and batted .235 while he was here. I think the kid has something. His response to being sent back down:
“I know that I have a lot to work on and I can still do that in Triple-A,” Nimmo said. “I think right now they think that Conforto can really help out the team and I think that he can too. I hope that he’s healthy and good to go, and he can spur them on to a nice little winning streak that would be good here.”
Brandon, I hope he’s healthy too. But it’s not the last we’ve seen of you. I think you are a huge part of this team’s future.
But they called Michael Conforto back up. New York Mets manager Terry Collins also moved him to center field. The reasoning?
They want to spare Cespedes’ legs. Collins was quoted as saying, “We’re taxing his body pretty heavily by putting him in center field,” Collins said. “And we need him to hit. We need him to hit, and hit a lot. I just think if he’s in left field where he’s comfortable, and there’s not so much emphasis on the defensive side, that he’ll go back and do what we hope he can do — and that’s be a big production guy.”
Cespedes is tied for fifth in the NL with 21 home runs and is fourth the NL with a .577 slugging percentage
Michael Conforto’s response to being called back up: “I’ll be an athlete, I’ll go make plays and do whatever I can if they need me out there,” Conforto said. Um, yeah, you better. Otherwise there’s a kid in Vegas just waiting to take your spot again.
“I can play here,” Nimmo said.
Yes you can.
The Mets now sit in third place as they watched the Miami Marlins jog right by them. With a 49-43 record, and 6.5 games back of the division-leading Washington Nationals, the playoff picture is starting to look a little dimmer. The Mets need to win consistently and often. They can’t just depend on Conforto to perform or Cespedes to have good legs. They need to have a cohesive, healthy team who can get the guys home once they get on base.
Hopefully Noah “Thor”Syndergaard can do a little something something and perform well enough to give the team a fighting chance. Unfortunately, he’s probably still dealing with bone spur pain, so the Mets wanted him, to get as much rest as possible before he begins his second half.
Here’s a cool piece of New York Mets news: Curtis Granderson, a native of Chicago, and members of the Mets will host a baseball clinic tomorrow, July 19, for over 150 kids from the Chicago Park District Summer Camp from 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at Curtis Granderson Stadium at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Granderson, as part
of his Grand Kids Foundation, hosts clinics throughout the year.
