Jazzed

Here’s how I watched Saturday afternoon’s game. More in the Notes at the bottom of the post.

Here’s how I watched Saturday afternoon’s game. More in the Notes at the bottom of the post.

Marlins 3, Mets 0

(2-3)

Any Mets fan who has been paying attention to Jacob deGrom’s career can make some pretty accurate predictions about the games he starts.

-The Mets will have trouble scoring runs.

-They probably won’t get him a win.

-There’s a pretty good chance Edwin Diaz will give up a run or two.

-When it’s against the Marlins, you can even throw in a pretty sure bet that deGrom will end up with double-digit strikeouts.

All of those things happened on Saturday afternoon in deGrom’s first home start…but the unpredictable part was that the difference in the game would be the first career home run by a rookie second baseman.

I guess Jazz Chisholm’s homer wasn’t the only difference - the Mets also, for the third time in his young career, couldn’t get anything going against Trevor Rogers. (Another Mets truism: they struggle against starters making their debut - which Rogers did, against them at Citi Field last year - and often those pitchers continue to haunt them throughout their career.)

The Mets couldn’t hit a lick on Saturday afternoon, though, and the minor threats they did put together quickly fizzled.

They certainly have not been inspiring these first few games, which is too bad.

I want to believe they’re going to start hitting in deGrom’s starts. I want to believe this season has the potential to be something more.

But I’m going to need to see some evidence of that on the field soon in order to stop expecting the same old story from this team.

Notes: Francsico Lindor is exciting in the two spot in the order. In the first inning, after a leadoff double by Brandon Nimmo, he bunted (maybe ill-advised - but keep reading!) and the catcher made an error so it set up first and third with no one out. He was then thrown out trying to steal second, which obviously is not great, but he’s certainly a threat to steal, which is not common for the Mets…That first inning rally - and a couple of others throughout the game - featured a missed opportunity by Michael Conforto, who was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. He is struggling. Might be worth flipping him and Jeff McNeil in the order until Conforto figures out what he’s doing at the plate…That’s not to say Conforto was the only one with problems at the plate. The Mets struck out 13 times and getting timely hits continues to be a problem.

How I Watched: As you can see in that picture above, I did some yard work while watching the Saturday afternoon game. I am not trying to sell you a TV. I have no skin in that game. I am just speaking from experience. Consider this a public service announcement: Having the TV that connects to the wireless and therefore the MLB.TV app is a game-changer. Sure, it used to be that I could do yard work and listen to the Mets radio broadcast, but now I can actually see with my own eyes when the Mets fail to come through for Jacob deGrom. And on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, if I want to watch deGrom pitch, I no longer have to choose between that and yard work. I can do both.

What Else I Watched: Nothing else this afternoon, and on Friday’s off day the only game I watched was a little of the Phillies-Braves. It was a rematch of a game I had watched during the Mets opening series postponement - Zack Wheeler against Charlie Morton. Wheeler ran into trouble in the fifth inning, when two things of note happened: First of all, Ronald Acuña hit an absolute bomb of a 2-run homer to center field. Then, with two outs in the inning, Joe Girardi came out to talk to Wheeler, forgot it was the second dugout trip to the mound, and then was forced to take him out of the game. Shades of former Phillies manager Gabe Kapler there.

Notes From Around the League: Noooooo! I missed a no-hitter Friday night. And it was the Padres, a game I would have been watching!!!! I had gone to bed before the west coast games even started, and woke to see that Joe Musgrove had thrown the first no-hitter in Padres history…I’m sorry if that title made you think I was excited about this Mets result. I like to think after he does something like homer off Jacob deGrom, Jazz Chisholm goes around saying “You got Jazzed”, a la Jeremy Jamm from ‘Parks and Recreation’…And yes, I know I should do something than post a picture of myself watching the game for each game but I haven’t figured out what yet. And I figure, if I’m documenting the Mets in 2021, and my experience watching them, I might as well have photo documentation of me watching them so I remember what I was doing…Yes, I am a little afraid of what I’ve gotten myself into documenting this season. But they still have a chance to win their first series of the season on Sunday. It’s too early to panic.