MLC x GTB: Vol. 1, Episode 5

Let's write about baseball again, he said. It'll be fun, he said. Pennant race, he said. He's a jerk.

This Time in Red Sox

72-71
10 GB AL East (we should probably stop worrying about the AL East), 4 GB the last AL Wild Card

Chris Flexen is the very definition of a journeyman. The 30 year-old righthander has started 109 games over seven seasons (including three as a Met). He won 14 games for the Mariners in 2021, nearly half of his career total of 29. He sports a career ERA of 5.04. And this season, he's broken records as a member of the Chicago White Sox rotation. 

Going into today's game in Boston, the White Sox had lost 20 consecutive games when Flexen started. He's 2-14 with a 5.26 ERA and a 1.52 WHIP. There's an argument that he's been the worst pitcher in baseball this season. I think you know where this is going.

After winning the first two games of the series against Chicago, the Red Sox took a 1-0 lead into the sixth inning, where they promptly gave up two unearned runs. Wilyer Abreu tied the game in the bottom of the frame on a homer, and it stayed 2-2 until the top of the 9th. When the White Sox scored five times, two of those runs scoring on an - altogether now - error. 7-2 bad guys, while the good guys have fallen into sixth place in the American League, even as the gap to the final playoff spot has remained stubbornly constant.

Nineteen games to play, against the Orioles (3), Yankees (4), Rays (6), Twins (3), and Jays (3). Nine at home, ten on the road. Not that much ball left, and the target's annoyingly out of reach. Whitney rooted for the Sox in 2004 when it became apparent things weren't going the Mets' way. I'm not that far from breaking out my blue and orange stuff.

Right Now in Mets

78-65
7 GB NL East, Tied for Last NL Wild Card

Not so fast, my friend. 

What the last 24 hours in Mets Township have taught us is that anything can happen in baseball in a single game or a short series. 19 games is a season's equivalent of a short series. The Sox have 9 games against sub-.500 teams and 3 against a Wild Card foe. As Kate Bush sang to Peter Gabriel in 1986, Don't Give Up.

Meanwhile, the Mets' own n-n-n-nineteen games come against the Jays (3), Phils (7)(!), Nats (3), Braves (3), and Brewers (3). 7 home, 12 away. 10 games against division-leading teams assured of playoff spots, maybe runs. It's a stretch that leads off with a telling week in Toronto and Philadelphia. Yipes.

But let's take a quick second to pat the Metsies on the back. Putting together 9 victories in a row during a key turn in the season has proven absolutely vital. The Braves, our nemesis this year as in history, have won series after series, annoyingly so. But they dropped 3 of 4 to the surging Phillies, and that gave the Mets a chance to pull even in this sprint.

Francisco Lindor, please keep up this torrid pace. Need ya down the stretch. Pete, keep on clubbing it. Mark Vientos, stay the course. And to the pitching staff... please continue firing away. Build on the very good we saw lately.

Yesterday's smothering by the scrubby Reds and their so-so arms was frustrating, but I guess those games are just going to happen. Winnable losses are still something we are looking to dodge.

But let's face it -- the road to the postseason is fraught with potholes and landmines, darting squirrels and deer, slowing gravel and halting road signs. The Phillies themselves represent a scowling statey with flares checking for inebriated drivers. So let's not get too drunk on a great nine games. 

So much work left to do. But we are where we wanted to be when we began this sprint. LFGM.