Red Sox 2, Mets 1 and Red Sox 1, Mets 0

(9-10, 0.5 games behind Atlanta and Philadelphia)

I’ll start by saying that due to Major League Baseball’s blackout rules (and the fact that we no longer have cable and the Red Sox station) I could not watch these Mets games with the Red Sox.

But I could listen to them, and that’s how I spent the past two nights - Tuesday night building a bookshelf for my office with the game on (the bookshelf took exactly one baseball game to build, for the record) and Wednesday night partly in the car, partly at home.

And I’m glad I didn’t have to watch the Mets struggle.

It’s getting to be a tired excuse - the offense has had too many days off to find a rhythm - but I’ll still go with it, because it’s too early in the season to have such disruptions and a weird two-game series bookended by days offs is not ideal when it seems like the bats are just starting to settle into a groove.

But, on the other hand, it’s ridiculous what the Mets are putting Jacob deGrom through.

The Mets scored one run - on a Jeff McNeil home run - in the two games against the Red Sox.

And I don’t want to take anything away from the Red Sox - they played well - but they only scored 3 runs total. So it’s not like these were insurmountable games.

It’s just that the Mets can’t get a run to support deGrom, and that’s not the way it should be happening with this offense.

Sure, they have yet to click overall, but the fact that they can’t capitalize on a rally (Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor walked to lead off the game) or get anything else going is becoming a problem.

deGrom was actually not great, from the sound of it. For the first time this year he dealt with a lot of traffic on the base paths, and despite tying Nolan Ryan’s record for most strikeouts through his first 5 starts, he seemed to be laboring.

Which is part of what makes him so great - he wasn’t at his best last night, and it was still amazing.

The Mets offense hasn’t been at its best all year.

That needs to change as we move into May.

Notes: The Mets radio booth pointed out the number of close games the Mets and Red Sox have played over their previous 20-plus encounters. It’s kind of crazy (sorry I don’t have the numbers in my brain well enough to repeat here)…Also, I was listening to a Red Sox game over the weekend on a drive somewhere and they mentioned that Alex Cora had stressed cutting down on walks. Eduardo Rodriguez had responded in that game on Sunday, walking no one, and it seemed to carry over into the Mets series. Garrett Richards walked no one on Tuesday, and then after walking the first two batters of the game on Wednesday, Nick Pivetta had just one the rest of the way…There was a lot of talk all week questioning the 6:40pm start at Citi Field on Wednesday. The Mets radio booth explained it during the game on Wednesday - it’s something called the 2:30 rule, and it has to do with getaway days and flights out of town that exceed two-and-a-half hours. It’s probably too confusing to explain so look it up if you’re interested, but basically 6:40 was the latest the game could start. And now I’ll be paying closer attention to the dynamics of getaway days…Speaking of which, the Mets are en route to Philadelphia where they’ll play the Phillies again. Marcus Stroman starts Friday as the Mets try to salvage a .500 record for April.

How I Watched: I listened, detailed above.

What Else I Watched: I haven’t been watching a ton of other games, but I have been watching more SportsCenter than I used to. I treat morning exercises like I’m in the gym and the TV has ESPN on, so I catch highlights here and there. Also, I told you on Sunday I might stay up for Padres-Dodgers - I actually went to bed sensing a Padres comeback was in the offing, but I gave up watching and then just took a peek at the scoreboard every so often.

Notes From Around The League: The Kansas City Royals are 15-8 and in first place in the American League Central. I did not see that coming in this young season…Did you see this incredible catch by Clint Frazier from over the weekend? Amazing.