LFGR now, LFGM later (and also now)
Linda Surovich wants to keep watching the Mets during Rangers intermissions, which can only happen if the Blueshirts save their season in Pittsburgh; Colleen Sullivan takes a look at the Meh-riners
Willets Pen merchandise is now available with Kayla Pekkala’s fabulous logo! We’ve got t-shirts (they’re really soft!), hoodies, caps, patches, and mugs. Every purchase gets us that much closer to our ebook, and you get to look cool and have people ask you “What’s Willets Pen?” And then you can tell them. Plus, all purchases from the shop will get you a free month of premium Substack access (a full free month, starting when the paywall goes up). There also are some subscription perk deals available now that willetspen.com is fully up and running (if you’re already subscribed and interested, get in touch and we’ll figure it out). Check it out!
Trivia question: This weekend is the Mariners’ first landing on the shores of Flushing Bay since the final year at Shea Stadium, when R.A. Dickey’s seven brilliant innings for the Mariners in the 11-0 second game didn’t seem like such a weird thing at the time because the knuckleballer was still two years away from joining the Mets. The Seattle-New York series of 2008 was memorable more because Félix Hernández blasted a grand slam off Johan Santana — the only grand slam a Mariners pitcher has ever hit.
Right, none of that was a question. It leads to the question, though: can you name the two Mets pitchers to hit grand slams?
Hey, don’t take that, that’s my emotional support hockey team
By Linda Surovich
It is that excruciatingly brutal, high anxiety, I-am-going-to-vomit-and/or-pass-out time of year. It’s the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Rangers, being the Rangers, are taking full advantage of every bad emotion a person could possibly have in the span of three hours.
Sure, there have moments of unadulterated joy, up to and including Filip Chytil’s winning goal in the third period of Game 5 at the Garden on Wednesday night. With elimination staring them in the face, however, there is the sinking feeling of having just watched the Rangers squander the entire career of a generational talent, and now wondering if this is the start of them repeating the same pattern.
Going directly from Henrik Lundqvist to Igor Shesterkin is like if the Mets went straight from Tom Seaver to Jacob deGrom, only with no ring for Seaver. It’s now 28 years since the 1994 Cup, more than half the 54 years that brought us to “and this one will last a lifetime!” Sam Rosen didn’t have to be so literal, did he?
Of course there is the dread of a fun season being squandered yet again, but there is another real fear. The sheer terror that the only source of joy to rely on is the Mets.
THE METS.
Do you know what that is like? It would be like placing a glass of wine on a table and asking your cat to not knock it over. You know that eventually you’ll end up with the glass ever creeping towards the edge and by the time you realize and go to grab it, it will be far, far too late. In the end, you have a mess on your hands, ruined pants, and you’re frustrated and annoyed at yourself that you fell for it again.
This is what rooting for the Mets is like. AND YET. Just like having a cat, when they choose to love you back, it is magical. It’s usually fleeting and on their terms, but that’s what makes it all the sweeter.
While the Mets are good and fun now, every Mets fan knows June is coming and in Metsland, June is the cruelest month. So please, Rangers, I’m begging. I’m not ready to be left alone with the Mets just yet. And Mets, I am asking nicely. Please stop knocking over my glass of wine.
Behind Enemy (Base)Lines: Seattle Mariners
By Colleen Sullivan
After a quick trip to Washington D.C. to see the Capitol Building (and that terrifying Eagley mascot the Nationals have), the Mets have finally returned to Queens to face off against the Seattle Mariners.
2021: Drought
The Mariners entered the 2021 season with the longest active playoff drought in all four major professional sports. They were trying to make their first postseason in 20 years! They’ve never been to the World Series!
Spoiler: They didn’t make it to the postseason.
They finished second in the AL West, five games behind the Astros, but only after Seattle got super hot in the last two weeks, winning 10 out of 11 before dropping two games to the Angels on the final weekend when a sweep would have tied them for the final playoff spot. *sad trombone*
The Mariners’ 90-win season came in a year where they had a team slash line of .226/.303/.385, ranking last, third to last, and second to last in the American League, respectively. Their pitching staff had a 4.30 ERA, eighth in the Junior Circuit. Seattle got outscored by 51 runs, and that might be more indicative of where they really were than their fun differential.
2022: More drought?
The mariners added Robbie Ray and his very tight pants joined the roster with the expectation that he’d lead the staff, and revamped their lineup with Adam Frazier, Eugenio Suarez, and Jesse Winker, while banking on continued progress from Abraham Toro and (do we have to mention them?) Chris Flexen and (sigh) Jarred Kelenic.
The numbers for all those key players?
Ray: 3-3, 4.22 ERA, 4.15 FIP
Frazier: .270/.346/.377, 1 HR
Suarez: .202/.305/.430, 6 HR
Winker: .204/.311/.274, 1 HR
Toro: .150/.211/.310, 4 HR
Flexen: 1-5, 4.24 ERA, 4.62 FIP
Kelenic: .140/.219/.291, 3 HR
The offense is being led by J.P. Crawford slashing .333/.419/.533 and stud rookie Julio Rodriguez, who’s currently at .254/.315/.342 but sure looks like the real deal. Ty France is leading Seattle in RBIs with 24, and as a team the Mariners do rank better this year, eighth, fourth, and eighth, with their .230/.313/.371 line – a rare team whose numbers have gone up this season, which really tells you how bad they were last year, despite winning 90.
The Mariners are coming off a strange series against the Phillies, where Flexen got hammered in a 9-0 opener, and Ray outdueled Aaron Nola in a 5-4 contest on Tuesday. Emerging Seattle ace Logan Gilbert started Wednesday second in the league in ERA at 1.36, but it shot up to 2.13 with Rhys Hoskins’ grand slam, and the righty lost for the first time this year.
Conversely to their “improved” offense, the Mariners have dropped their staff ERA to 3.84, but now rank 11th in the league. They’re still getting outscored, by nine runs so far this season, but aren’t keeping up the fun differential, almost as if that’s not a repeatable thing.
Seattle isn’t using a closer this year, not only because they don’t have many chances to lock down a win, but because they just don’t have one. Diego Castillo, Andrés Muñoz, Paul Sewald, and Drew Steckenrider have claimed one save apiece, and yes, the Mariners rank last in the AL in that category with four.
Pitching: Scherzday
Friday’s series opener features Max Scherzer against Marco Gonzales. Scherzer suffered his first loss in 24 starts against the Phillies, of all teams, and despite giving up five home runs this season, he’s still an ace. Gonzales is 1-4 with a 3.91 ERA over 25.1 innings. Gonzales, who led the majors with a 9.14 strikeout-to-walk ratio in the shortened 2020 season, so far has punched out only 17 and issued 10 free passes… and also served up eight homers in 25.1 innings.
Saturday, we’ll see Chris Bassitt take the hill for the Mets against Westchester’s own George Kirby, a 24-year-old from Westchester – Rye, to be exact – whom the Mets did draft in the 32nd round out of high school in 2016. Kirby went to Elon University and was a second-round choice by the Mariners two years later… and made his major league debut on Sunday with six scoreless innings against the Rays. He has the typical arsenal that you expect to see: 4-Seam Fastball (59.3%) Slider (24.7%) Changeup (9.9%) Curveball (4.9%) Sinker (1.2%). Kirby had a 1.82 ERA in five starts with Double-A Arkansas before his callup, and his ERA has been under 3.00 everywhere he’s been (college, the Cape Cod League, every minor league level, and MLB) since a 4.70 in his freshman year.
Sunday for the close, it’s Cookie Carrasco against Robbie Ray’s Pants. I have no other notes at this time
Trivia answer: If you got this one… wow. Jack Hamilton was the last Mets pitcher to hit a grand slam, at Shea Stadium off Al Jackson of the Cardinals on May 20, 1967. Then he gave back all the runs over the next inning-plus, starting with an RBI single by Jackson, and the Mets went on to lose, 11-9.
The Mets did win the one other game in their history when a pitcher hit a grand slam, a 14-5 triumph over the Houston Colt .45s at the Polo Grounds on July 15, 1963. That was the first game of a doubleheader, and Carl Willey took Ken Johnson deep in the second inning of the rout… which the Mets, being the 1963 Mets, then followed with an 8-0 loss in the second game of the doubleheader.