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Now?
what are we doing?
what are we doing? Go on.
That would be an amateur reader’s summary of what Taijuan Walker told Luis Rojas after the Mets pitcher raised his hands in the seventh inning as his manager walked towards the mound. The Mets held a 2-1 lead over the Giants. Walker had only thrown 74 pitches, he was absolutely rolling, and the two Giants who had just reached base did so on poorly-hit balls that should have been lined up successfully.
But Rojas wanted his brilliant southpaw Aaron Loup to take on left-hander Brandon Crawford because he thought it was the best matchup available for the Mets. The manager followed the book and ignored the game’s (and Walker’s) heartbeat. Wolf had allowed a hit in his last twelve appearances, and he hadn’t given a hit to a southpaw all season. On Wolf’s very first throw, a cutter, Crawford changed all that with a two-run double that became the match winner, and an angry Walker turned around and threw a water bottle in the shelter.
The starter, who looked like an incredulous Mets fan before leaving the mound, was now acting like an incredulous Mets fan with his two-shot night in shambles. People in the crowd started chanting “Fire Rojas” and an awful free fall (even by Mets standards) got a little uglier.
Yes, the Giants tried to give that gift back to the home side in the ninth, when two outfielders collided on Brandon Drury’s ball. No, the home team weren’t very interested in receiving it. Francisco Lindor picked up where he left off before his injury again, bringing up Jake McGee’s first pitch and earning boos from the crowd. Then, with bases loaded and two outs, home run champion Pete Alonso offered nothing more than a bloop at second base, sealing the Mets’ 10th loss in their 12 games against the Giants and the Dodgers.
This return to Citi Field was supposed to rekindle every chance the Mets had to come up that hill in NL East. Instead, Loup said, his team were “essentially booed off the pitch.”
Rojas paid the price, in Queens and on social media. He was all the rage on Twitter, which is never a good thing for a manager who held a four-game lead in the division on August 1 and now faces a seven-game deficit in the division on August 26. Rojas watched two of his baserunners, Javier Baez and Michael Conforto, got passed in line workouts, watched Wolf get laced on his first pitch, then heard fans calling for his job.
“They can say anything,” Rojas said. “We have a very passionate fan base. “
At the end of batting practice on Wednesday, the manager had discussed with a reporter on the pitch how much he wanted to permanently establish a winning culture and remove media and fan references to a Same Old Mets mentality. Rojas won’t be 40 until next week, and he has a chance to be a very good manager in the long run. But if he wants that future to be in New York City, the losses and bad baseball have to end much sooner rather than later. And days like Wednesday, which began with the hopeful sights and sounds of Jacob deGrom playing wrestling in the outfield, then taking up his old varsity job, the shortstop, during batting practice, can’t continue with so much negative energy exploding around the building.
The Mets were 45-37, with a four-game lead in the NL East, after deGrom pitched most recently on July 7. The Mets went 16-28 over the next seven weeks, while dipping to third place, a mile behind first place Atlanta.
After Rojas announced what he called “great news for us” – an MRI scan that showed enough improvement in deGrom’s elbow inflammation to allow him to throw a baseball – he was questioned on the damage that the absence of his ace has caused to his team, not only in a physical context, but also psychological.
“We have faced a lot of things this season, and the guys have taken it in the best way,” said Rojas. “They show up to play with the same behavior every day. … I don’t think the guys complained about themselves. … I don’t think from a mental point of view [deGrom’s absence] hurt guys. They showed up to play the same way every day.
Just not half as effectively.
Rojas needs to protect his players, and he can’t give them a reason to fail in a press conference response. But with deGrom’s return potentially on the horizon, his Mets are still a falling team. They have 14 games to come against the Nationals and Marlins, and they need to win 10 or 11.
Rojas pressed all the right buttons for three months, keeping his team in first place. He must rediscover these buttons as soon as possible.
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