Mets blow chance to win another series after cratering in embarrassing loss to lowly Nationals
NY Post
WASHINGTON — Woof.
It was all set up Thursday for the Mets to win a second straight series rubber game — an accomplishment for a team that has floundered for most of the last month — but somehow this underachieving bunch managed to flatline.
Pitching, both starting and relief, faltered.
Bats that earlier looked ready for a breakout afternoon fell silent.
Lowly or not, the last-place Nationals kept fighting, while the team allegedly competing for a postseason berth stopped.
The Mets took a three-run lead into the fifth inning then cratered, surrendering nine unanswered in a 9-3 loss at Nationals Park that sliced their lead on Cincinnati to a half-game for the NL’s third and final wildcard spot.
PORT ST. LUCIE — For now, Craig Kimbrel is choosing Mets purgatory.
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Zion Williamson is slimmer and healthier for his trip to MSG.
Don’t blame Mikal Bridges for his paltry stats. Blame the role.
Almost a year to the day after a goaltender interference call against Kyle Palmieri lost the Islanders a game against the Blue Jackets that started their season’s death spiral, they were on the wrong end of another controversial call against those same Blue Jackets that might have had the same effect.
On the Queens side of town, the reno began in earnest almost as soon as Francisco Lindor grounded into the 4-6-3 double play. That ended a 4-0 loss before a rare sizable crowd at Miami’s loanDepot Park last Sept. 27, all of them there to witness the final death rattles of an epic baseball calamity.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is being paid handsomely for his breakout season.
Next comes the harder part. Mostly because it can’t get any easier.
It was Kids Day at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, but for the Rangers, it’s been All About The Kids for months.
PORT ST. LUCIE — From the moment he was told he needed surgery on his left hamate bone, Francisco Lindor fixated on the recovery time. Trainers provided the Mets shortstop a six-week pathway to return to play, and Lindor was determined to hit every marker.
Dylan Garand knew the number off the top of his head. He knew that, between the regular season and playoffs, he’d logged over 160 games with AHL Hartford, and he was right. Before the Rangers recalled him Friday, Garand had served as the Wolf Pack’s goaltender 165 times.
SAN DIEGO — As you may have seen elsewhere in this newspaper (and also if you haven’t deleted me yet from your social media), I have a book coming out Tuesday called “The Bosses of The Bronx.” Much of it details the 37 years’ worth of antics, winning, losing, winning again and overall mania of George Steinbrenner’s time with the Yankees.
Don’t close the curtain on “Mean” Joe Greene.
The Knicks are on a five-game winning streak and flooded with concerns.