Long Layoff; Questionable Managing Doom Mets On Opening Night
The New York Mets’ regular season opener started off well with Jacob deGrom on the mound, who went six innings, allowing just three hits, while striking out seven and issuing two walks. However, it did not have a happy ending as the bullpen squandered the lead away late — as we have become accustomed to seeing when deGrom exits the majority of his starts with a lead.
And while Mets manager Luis Rojas told reporters prior to the game that deGrom’s limit would be set at 100 pitches –this was not the case as he pulled his starter after just 77 of them.
As a result, this led to an eighth inning implosion via free-agent relief acquisitions Trevor May and Aaron Loup, who gave up five runs.
This also created a number of questions for the manager to answer after the game. But as it turned out, Rojas was actually not to blame as both he and deGrom cited the long 10 day layoff of not facing live hitters as the driving motive, which was a result of the club’s opening series being postponed against the Washington Nationals due to a Covid outbreak.
“You are throwing bullpens, but you don’t want to throw too many pitches in case we played over the weekend. We discussed it before (regarding) what was the right thing to do. (It’s a) Long season and talking to them (the coaching staff) coming in we felt like it was the right decision,” said deGrom.
Not only did the two-time Cy Young Award winner feel it was the right decision health wise, but he also didn’t feel quite right mechanically either.
“I felt like I was flying open a little bit. I was jumpy, and that’s when I fly open. I think there are some adjustments to be made, where I felt like my mechanics were off a bit. When you don’t face hitters for ten days after facing them every five, you don’t feel as crisp,” added deGrom.
When asked if he would’ve done things differently looking back on it, Rojas says they will continue to send May and Loup out to the mound in high leverage situations.
“We felt pretty comfortable with May and then having Loup come in to face (Bryce) Harper. Those guys are going to be used in those high leverage situations, we trust them,” said Rojas.
Specifically May, who the Mets signed to a two-year, $15.5 million deal this offseason as a key piece in the backend of their bullpen.
“You’ve got to trust a guy like May. The way he threw the ball for us in camp and how he has performed in recent years. He’s a guy whose going to be in those situations,” said Rojas.
May personally felt like he “pigeon holed” himself with his inability to rely on his breaking stuff, which got him into trouble almost immediately.
“I think we got a little bit too one dimensional. We need to establish the off-speed stuff earlier,” said May.
And as for the lineup, Rojas was also questioned regarding the decision to start Kevin Pillar in the outfield over Dominic Smith. Not only that, but when Pillar came to the plate in the fourth inning with the bases loaded — the Mets mulled the decision of whether to pinch hit Smith in his place.
Instead, Rojas decided to stick with Pillar, who grounded into an inning ending double play. This eliminated a prime scoring chance for the Mets to add to their 2-0 lead, which proved to be not enough.
The decision came back to bite Rojas and the Mets in the end. Despite a late rally, the Mets could only scratch across one more run as they fell 5-3 against the red hot Phillies.
The manager ultimately defended his judgement in sticking with Pillar instead of pinch hitting Smith in his place.
“We talked about it. The game was 2-0 because Pillar was in center field,” said Rojas, who referenced Pillar’s strong defensive play earlier in the game.
Rojas went on to add that he did not want to burn multiple position players that early in the game.
Pillar went 1-for-5 on the night with a run scored and he also made a solid play in center playing a ball perfectly off the wall, before hitting the cutoff man in Jeff McNeil, who gunned down Rhys Hoskins at third base. Unfortunately, his costly double play in the fourth was a crucial moment in the game, where the team needed to capitalize, but didn’t.
Looking ahead, Rojas and the Mets have one thing in mind and that is wiping the slate clean in order to bounce back quickly on Tuesday evening and snap the Phillies’ momentum (four game win streak to start the season) with Marcus Stroman on the mound.
“We want to win every game. We didn’t get a win tonight and are definitely disappointed. We are going to go ahead and re-focus. We’ve got to bounce back and we are going to do that tomorrow,” added Rojas.
The post Long Layoff; Questionable Managing Doom Mets On Opening Night first appeared on Metsmerized Online.