Alright everyone, welcome to the Trust Tree. This is a safe place where we're going to say some pretty wild Mets opinions in the heat of the moment and probably not mean them in a week or so. That being said, Opening Day was simply a Mets classic, and not in a good way. Look, we were all riding high. Mets have Uncle Stevie dishing out 341 Million Dollar checks over some ravioli's, we got the nifty black jerseys back, and our boy deGrom gets to face a guy who wasn't even good enough to pitch in the MLB last year instead of Mad Max Scherzer? What's not to love?!
The New York Mets took on the Philadelphia Phillies to start their 2021 campaign. The Mets had the upper hand with starting pitching matchup. CY Young Award winniner, Jacob deGrom taking on journey-man left hander Matt Moore. Honestly, anytime the Mets send Jake to the mound, they'll always have the upper hand in the starting pitching department. Jake was Jake. He was spectacular. 6 IP, 7Ks, 2 BB, 0 R on 77 pitches. Wait a second... did you say 77 pitches? Jacob deGrom threw 77 pitches over 6 scoreless innings and got pulled. Look, I get it. Jake hadn't seen hitters in 10 days and there was a lot of uncertainty going into Opening Weekend on when the Mets would actually play, but just because I can justify it doesn't mean I'm not frustrated by it. You're telling me Jake didn't have enough to throw 15 more pitches to end his day with 7 Scoreless innings at 90 pitches? Bananas. DeGrom also got the Mets their first hit of the season and drove in a run in the 4th inning.
DeGrom > Ohtani.
I've openly said before the season that my two biggest concerns with the 2021 Mets would be Luis Rojas and the Bullpen. Now, I'm not jumping off a cliff after opening night, but I am definitely aware that tonights issues can happen again. I won't hate on Trevor May at all. His stuff looked great, the Phillies put up great at bats against him. Aaron Loup? Well he just flat out sucked. He threw a clunker and it was costly. Hand up, when Loup was coming into the game I had pre typed a tweet out. It said "LOUP THERE IT IS!". He immediately hit Bryce Harper with a looping curveball. Hand up, I might've of jinxed us and I am sorry. This loss falls on the shoulders of Loup and Luis Rojas, not me. Don't blame me.
Luis Rojas made some interesting decisions today. The questionable decisions started before the Mets even took the field today with the exclusion of Dom Smith from the lineup. It didn't stop there though. Dom Smith didn't have a single at bat today. I'm not saying we should do anything drastic, but I am concerned that this roster will only be together for one season. Who knows what happens with Conforto, Thor, and Stroman in the offseason. We have one year with this special group of players and we need Luis Rojas to be the guy. Mets fans don't seem to be too pleased with how he handled Game 1 of 162...
At the end of the day, Mets are still the best Opening Day team ever (by winning percentage). Don't be too negative Mets fans. It's one game. We're ok. There's a reason why we play 162 games. Also, both years the Mets won their championships, they lost Opening Day. I'll take being frustrated on April 5th, if it means raising some trophies in October. We're just getting started.
LFGM.