The Mets take their act to Philadelphia with another embarrassment

Almost twenty-four hours after the manager and one of the starting pitchers bizarrely got into it with a member of the media, the Mets did themselves no favors as the sun rose on a new day. Before the game in Philadelphia, Brodie Van Wagenen recited platitudes and Mickey Callaway basically shrugged off his behavior. They wrote it off as a minor incident that had to be dealt with, never offering an apology. Jason Vargas also never issued an apology and refused to take questions.

Four people in total spoke about the situation: Brodie Van Wagenen, Mickey Callaway, Jason Vargas, and Jacob deGrom, who had absolutely nothing to do with the incident but volunteered to speak on behalf of the team. It was deGrom who came across looking the best out of the four.

It finally occurred to Callaway that perhaps he should apologize after all, so he rejoined the media to finally issue an apology. The whole situation was bungled right from the start and just continued the narrative of LOLMets, but nobody is laughing. It was a disgrace that the incident occurred in the first place but the non-apology-apology shows how cavalier and disinterested this organization continues to be when it comes to serious issues.

This train jumped the tracks awhile ago, but usually when that happens it doesn’t keep going. Somehow the Mets managed to chug right along when it was leaked that Brodie Van Wagenen sends orders to Mickey Callaway from home when he specifically denied that question only a few hours earlier.

All-in-all it was a banner day for the organization, and a game was left to be played, and boy did the play on the field reflect the circus off of it. There was bad pitching, bad defense, bad relief pitching, with a dash of good offense mixed in because in spite of it all, there is talent here that attempts to succeed in spite of its surroundings.

The Phillies’ offense had been struggling during their losing streak so naturally they exploded for thirteen runs against Mets pitching. Steven Matz has struggled in the past at Citizens Bank, and Monday night was no exception. He gave up seven runs in a little over four innings of work, and the bullpen poured it on. Recent addition Brooks Pounders gave up another five runs, two coming off the bat of old friend Jay Bruce, which was the most inevitable thing to happen on the night.

As for the offense, the home runs were flying out of the park. Todd Frazier, Wilson Ramos, Michael Conforto, and Dominic Smith all left the yard, but it wasn’t nearly enough to win the game. Both teams went back and forth with the lead, but once the Phillies put together a big inning against Pounders, it was all but over.

Fittingly, there was more double talk and clarification coming from the manager and general manager after the game. The two can talk all they want, but with the way they handled themselves, fewer and fewer people are listening.

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: Michael Conforto +26.4%, Wilson Ramos +22.3%, Todd Frazier +10.0%
Big losers: Steven Matz -65.0%, Brooks Pounders -22.9%, Robinson Cano -18.9%, Jeff McNeil -13.7%
Total pitcher WPA: -87.9%
Total batter WPA: +37.%
Teh aw3s0mest play: Michael Conforto home run in fifth
Teh sux0rest play: Maikel Franco home run in fifth