The World's Worst Sports Blog

Mets Game 2 Commentary: Sometimes, you just know. April 6, 2017

Hansel Robles entered last night’s game looking nervous. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and promptly gave up a tying run.

Hansel’s a tough pitcher to have in your bullpen, and we saw why last year and during the World Baseball Classic. Despite a thoroughly impressive outing in the Mets’ opener, he seemed easily shaken last night and allowed a Nick Markakis triple that turned into a run. He promptly walked Brandon Phillips, allowed an Adonis Garcia double on which Phillips was thankfully held at third, and then plunked Kurt Suzuki. Though Hansel has had his anger issues in the past, this one wasn’t intentional; Terry Collins removed him for Jerry Blevins because Hansel was having one of his trademark meltdowns.

You never know before the game which Hansel will come in, but he was visibly shaken when he got started. I’m starting to wonder, especially after the Mark Texeira incident, whether he should be on a beta blocker or something.

Despite a strong hitting performance by Jay Bruce (3-5, HR, 2B), 0-4s from Lucas Duda and Asdrubal Cabrera and 0-5s from Neil Walker and Curtis Granderson meant that the team couldn’t recover from Robles’ one run and Blevins’ cleanup. Though the backbone of the bullpen – Fernando Salas and Addison Reed – got us through the regular innings, lefty specialist Josh Edgin uncharacteristically had to work a full inning and the Mets went to erstwhile long man Rafael Montero. Montero was so-so, allowing three walks (one intentional) and three hits in an inning and 2/3.

Matt Harvey starts tonight against Jaime Garcia. Harvey has held Freddie Freeman to a .167 OBP in 18 plate appearances but has had considerably more trouble with Ender Inciarte and Jace Peterson. Curiously, Chase d’Arnaud is 1-3 against Harvey, but probably won’t be wedged into the lineup tonight. Meanwhile, Garcia has allowed OBPs over .400 to Lucas Duda (.750), Asdrubal Cabrera (.500) and Wilmer Flores (.429). Bruce has seen the most of Garcia but fared poorly – .224/.235/.306 in 51 plate appearances. It’s too early in the season to play mix and match, especially with Michael Conforto the main option to relieve Bruce against the lefty Garcia – not going to happen. I wouldn’t be stunned to see Ty Kelly start the game in the field, since he’s got a very good numbers in a small sample against left-handers (.368/.500/.474 in 12 plate appearances), but the blowback against that decision and the chance it would disrupt Bruce’s positive reception make that unlikely.