New York Mets skipper Terry Collins got alarmingly outmanaged on Monday night in their 6-5 loss to Joe Girardi and the Yankees.
The New York Mets have issues, and Terry Collins isn’t helping.
The team’s skipper got alarmingly outmanaged by Yankees boss Joe Girardi, as the Amazin’s fell to 54-51 on the season, and failed to capitalize on a Marlins loss.
While it’s undoubtedly difficult to manage a professional team, sometimes the Mets’ skipper of five seasons makes it look impossible.
Fans have levied a plethora of unfair criticisms on the manager, but not on Monday night. Collins made a handful of critical moves down-the-stretch, and not one of them panned out.
Let’s start with the unusual decision to leave Jerry Blevins in to face just two batters. The problems with this are twofold: the Metropolitan’s entered Monday night’s game with an already-thin bullpen, so utilizing their dependable lefty specialist/inherited runner extraordinare on a mere two opponents seems iffy, and Addison Reed has thrived in his role as the setup man, which is why it’s unfathomable that he didn’t start the inning.
While other parts of his gameplan were also suspect, the choice to have Matt Reynolds bunt (which was followed by Alejandro De Aza getting hit by a pitch) to bring up Rene Rivera is also head-scratching. Not only did Reynolds piece together a couple of solid at-bats, but Rivera is a comically awful pinch hitter.
If the game would had advanced to the eleventh inning, the team would have been faced with a couple of ghastly options: continue to utilize the underwhelming Lugo, pitch Bartolo Colon on two-day rest, or say to hell with it, let’s bring in a position player.
What a BATTLE won by Didi. That situation was baseball at its finest. #Yankees tie the game at 5. #Mets pic.twitter.com/39E9LFxRvI
— Elite Sports NY (@EliteSportsNY) August 2, 2016
All three choices are cringe-worthy, which is why it’s hard to believe that Collins had much of a gameplan.
Let’s also recall the Yanks’ aggressiveness on the basepaths, which contributed to multiple runs. Although Collins had no option to send guys with such a slow lineup, Girardi did what TC should have done: he capitalized on a strength.
And let’s not forget that the Mets didn’t adjust to this aggressiveness, either.
Terry Collins had a bad night — a terrible night to be precise. With an anemic lineup, the last thing the team needs is to get mismanaged.
But that’s what happened on Monday night.
