The Dodgers and Mets opened the second half of the season with a three-game series in New York. I got tickets months ago. My dad and I were going to the Friday night game. Of course, I was hoping to see Clayton Kershaw. Unfortunately when Kershaw was put on the injured list, he was guaranteed to be out until at least their Saturday game against the Mets. It sounded like he wouldn’t be on the injured list for an extended period. So I was going Friday, but I probably would have gone back on Saturday or Sunday if Kershaw pitched either of those days, but here we are in August and he’s still on the injured list. So I only went to the Friday night game. It turned out to be the only game in the series that wasn’t delayed by rain so that was good.
So I didn’t get to see Clayton Kershaw, but I found out before the game that Marcus Freeman would be throwing out the first pitch. We got to the stadium early and I walked around a little bit, but I wanted to make sure I was able to see his first pitch. He threw it down and away to a right handed batter, but it didn’t bounce. I’ll probably have some thoughts about the lamentable state of college football in my next post.
Usually I include a picture of the first pitch of the game, but I had to go with the ceremonial first pitch for this one. Unfortunately the Mets were wearing their stupid black jerseys so that’s what they gave to Marcus Freeman. 
We’ve played Shamrock Series games at Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park. We probably won’t ever play one at Citi Field, but I would be in favor of having a game as close to home as possible.
It was a Friday so I didn’t have any meat. I ended up getting mac and cheese empanadas. They were good, but I would have preferred just mac and cheese. The mac and cheese empanadas were one of three options at the empanada concession stand. I would have preferred a mac and cheese concession stand with different mac and cheese options. But it was a non-meat option and there wasn’t a long line so it got the job done. I got a can of Brooklyn Lager. Brooklyn Lager is always a good option when seeing the Dodgers play in New York. I just wish Citi Field had more good draft beer options.
As for the game, it was Julio Urias against now former Met Justin Verlander. It was 82° and drizzling a little bit at the start of the game, but it never got too bad. It started drizzling a little bit at the end of the game as well, but the game ended before it got worse. Brandon Nimmo led off the bottom of the first with a long fly ball to right center that was initially ruled a home run. I didn’t think it got out. I thought it hit the top of the wall and came back. It was reviewed and that was exactly what happened. So it ended up being a double. Despite the lead off double, Urias was able to get out of the first inning without any damage. For a while, that was the only hit in the game. By the top of the fifth, it was still scoreless and Justin Verlander was pitching a no hitter. He was walking guys and his pitch count was getting high so it definitely didn’t seem like he was going to last very long. Verlander walked three in a row in the fifth and then Mookie Betts got the Dodgers’ first hit with a line drive single and the Dodgers took a 1-0 lead. Freddie Freeman then drove in two more with a double. So Verlander only lasted five innings. Urias got through six scoreless and only allowed one hit and one walk. Miguel Rojas had an RBI single in the sixth. JD Martinez hit a solo home run in the eighth. JD Martinez is officially my least favorite productive player on the Dodgers. He’s pretty much only a DH and the DH is stupid and he took Justin Turner’s spot on the roster. Justin Turner has been good for the Red Sox, but Martinez has been better. So it was a good move by Andrew Friedman, but I can’t be overly excited about somebody who is only a DH and replaced Justin Turner. Anyway, the Dodgers added another run in the ninth when Will Smith grounded into a force out. Yency Almonte, Caleb Ferguson, and Ryan Brasier combined to pitch three scoreless innings without allowing a baserunner and the Dodgers won a 6-0 combined one-hitter.
So that was much more fun than watching the Dodgers lose back to back games against the Royals. Attendance was 40,503 and the game lasted two hours and 48 minutes. When my dad and I went last year, it was while the US Open was going on. One of the games we went to last year was a 4:10 game so we were leaving Queens around 7:30 and then you added in Met game traffic and US Open traffic and it was really bad. This time, it was really easy getting out of Queens. It was a big crowd, but there were fireworks after the game. We didn’t stay, but I guess a lot of people did because we didn’t have any trouble getting out at all.
Anyway, this year has been a disaster for the Mets. My feeling about the Mets under Steve Cohen was that they were like the Dodgers after Mark Walter, Magic Johnson, and everybody else bought the team. They were going to spend a lot of money and be good and eventually they would get over the hump and win the World Series. Last year it seemed that we were headed in that direction, but this year was a big step back. I was skeptical of the Mets this year because they were spending a ton of money on Verlander and Scherzer (a pitcher that’s older than me and a pitcher who is like six and a half months younger than me). Now both of those guys are gone and the Mets still have to pay them a lot of money. The Mets could get back on track in the next couple of years, but now I think there’s also a possibility that Steve Cohen could be like the Daniel Snyder of baseball. I mean that in like the least bad way possible, but any comparison to Daniel Snyder is still bad. You can spend a lot of money, but it doesn’t really matter if you’re not doing it wisely. Obviously I know a lot of Met fans so I would like to see the Mets win the World Series at some point (I mean, I want the Dodgers to win it every year, but I realize that they’re not going to run off like ten consecutive World Series championships). We’ll see what happens.
That was very likely my last Dodger game of the season, but they should be headed back to the playoffs this year. They’re clearly not as good as they were last year, but regular season records don’t mean much once you get to the playoffs. I’ve been skeptical of this team all season, but hopefully they’ll find a way to get it done in October. And hopefully I’ll get to see Clayton Kershaw pitch for the Dodgers next season.
No comments:
Post a Comment