Mets “Gutless” in Season-Ending Loss – Yankees Finish on Hot Streak

Mets “Gutless” in Season-Ending Loss – Yankees Finish on Hot Streak

Heat. Heat. Hello again everybody and welcome to the Mike Franca podcast part of the Bet Rivers Network and we join you as we conclude game 162 of the regular season in Major League Baseball and we know what that means. It means we’re going to recap. Okay. Uh, and one of them will not be a happy recap as they used to say in the old days. Now, before I get to that, let me get some business out of the way. Bet Rivers Football Squares. Players who place a qualifying same game, a poly of at least $10 on any eligible NFL and NCA football game will receive one standard entry into the weekly football squares. You can get two, you can get three, four. It’s fun way to play along. Winning standard squares will be awarded a prize of $20 bonus bet. See app and website for more details. And remember, you can sign up free for the Mike Francesa newsletter. Uh, you get all different things. Uh, go to mikefrontodcast.com, sign up, and it is all free. All right, let’s do the easy one first. Yankees went into today, and I’ll get to them in their matchup after I finish with the Mets. Yankees went into today knowing they needed Toronto to lose. I did not think Toronto would lose. Uh, I told people who Yankee fans who text me yesterday and different people, I did not think Toronto would lose. I thought Toronto would win. I didn’t know if the Yankees would win or not. I didn’t think it would matter. I thought they What if they blow the game open? They blew the game open and the Yankees still came from behind. Well, 2-2, won the game, used their relievers, and maybe it was important for them to finish the season with another victory. The Yankees won eight in a row to end the season. They won uh 11 of their last 13. I use that mark because their last 13 games, as I stressed to you, were against losing teams. Now, the Yankees are puffing out their chest now and everyone, oh Lord, the Yankees found their stride and they hit it great and they’re pitching great and they’re doing everything great. The Yankees in their last 13 games did not play a winning team. They played all losing teams. This team beat up on bad teams and did not beat good teams. I still question this team against good teams going into the playoffs, but we’ll get to that and the Red Sox in a minute and the matchups. First, the Mets came into today needing a very good Milwaukee team to care enough to beat a Cincinnati team that has been hauled along by a pretty good pitching staff and a brilliant manager. They were six games behind the Mets, I think, on Labor Day, either five or six. They had to win a lot of games. They really won this when they swept the Cubs four straight. They didn’t win today against Milwaukee. They did beat Milwaukee the first two games of the series. But if they lost today, it opened the door for the Mets. And what did the Mets do with that? They did exactly what you knew the Mets would do. And when you looked at the schedule, I told you a month ago, hey, Mets finish with the Marlins. You know what that can mean. You know what it has meant historically. You know what the Marlins will try to do. And the Marlins today after blanking the Mets who ended their season on a double play by Lindor. Okay. And apppropo. That’s the way it ended with their big guns waiting on deck with Alvarez breaking the bat across his knee in the eighth inning after swinging at ball four. that would have loaded the bases. The Mets could not manage a run against the Marlins today with their playoffs with an entrance to the playoffs on the line. And what it did, it culminated one of the really gutless performances, and this takes in a lot of ground. One of the real gutless performances in Mid history. And when you realize how the Mets were built, when you think back to the the ceremonial arrival of Wanoto and everything that meant, the owner demanding loyalty and that the fan base goes into its pocket. And they did. And they responded with enormous crowds all summer. And this team just did a slow, gutless dissolve over three and a half painful months. The Mets were 21 games over 500 early in the season. They were the best team in baseball two and a half months into the season. Yeah, they were pitching over their heads, but everyone knew this team had talent. No one could fathom this team wasn’t built for October. And the owner, hey, he did what you thought he would do. He went and stole Juan Sto from the Yankees. He did exactly what you’ve dreamt about your whole life. He never blinked when it came to doing something economically. And your brain trust, your baseball brain trust led by Sterns, remember he is there to evaluate where his team is and what he evaluated. Listen, he went out and no one can kill him for having bringing in a top reliever who could not handle setting up in front of Diaz. All right. Everybody liked the move of bringing him in. He was a major arm with major talent. No one expected him to be that bad. But there is no way to forgive Sterns for ignoring the issues that he had in the starting rotation, not only at the start of the season, but when he saw what was happening to his team during the season. He did a terrible job. He’s front and center on this. So is the manager who let’s say he’s a good guy and he’s a good baseball man and I don’t think he’s going anywhere nor do I think he should go anywhere but he had no clue what to do with this team and to do with this bullpen and to do with this team day in and day out. The pieces didn’t fit. This team never connected like last year’s team. Last year’s team had an amazing chemistry and an an amazing resilience. This team had none of that. Zero. The pieces never fit. It was almost like Sodto and whomever were never comfortable. I’m not knocking Sodto’s year, but everything didn’t work. Does Lindor have numbers? Yes. Does Sortto have numbers? Yes. Does Alonzo have numbers? Yes. And Alonzo had a terrific year. And let me say this about Alonzo. I don’t know if we just saw him play his last game as a Met or not. I don’t know what the future’s going to hold for him. But I will tell you this, he’s a hell of a baseball player. He cares. He shows up every day. He’s a terrific teammate. He battled to the end. He got a hit in his last at bat and he’s yelling, “Let’s go to the dugout as he goes to first base.” This guy is a gamer. He answered every critic. From the big home run he hit last year, right through every at this year when he was treated terribly in the off season, he responded in a huge way. If the Mets don’t want him, somebody’s going to get a really good baseball player. A really, really good baseball player and a good teammate and I think a winning player. But let’s be honest, what this Met team did to put to have this collection of players together and not make the playoffs after their start and to not make the playoffs in this expanded joke in terms of baseball playoff expansion joke. Okay, listen. I understand the economics of the postseason now in all sports. We all do. We understand how the game is played now. We understand what the regular season is. And more and more, even in a series and in a sport where you play 162 regular season games, it has become much more of a setup than it ever was. because now it is October that dictates in baseball. But you have to get there. And we all thought, and I listen, I’m at the top of the list. Did I think the Mets would make the playoffs? I never thought they’d win the division for months now, but I never thought they wouldn’t make the playoffs. I never thought they would be this gutless. I never thought that they would not figure it out to this extent. I never thought their pitching would dissolve as badly as it did. But not just their pitching, they were a topheavy lineup all year. They became a bad defensive team. They became a bad situational team and they became a bunch of gutless bums. That’s what they were down the stretch. There’s no other way to categorize it. That team has way way too much talent. You want to you want to look at their lineup or their roster against the Cincinnati Reds? Hey, the Cincinnati Reds has got a they got a couple of young good arms, but what they had was they had a cohesiveness and a toughness that was basically put into them by a manager who is as gifted as any manager of the last generation. is amazing what he’s able to breathe into a team. And I’m sure the Reds aren’t going to hang around very long. Going to play the Dodgers not going to be any fun. We know that Dodgers have big plans. They’re getting better. They’re getting healthier. They’re finding their stride just like it looks like the Yankees are. But I would be cautious. Well, I get to the Yankees, but I’d still be cautious about them. Some things still worry me about them. To me, they’re still the bully bunch they’ve been all year. And yeah, they beat the bad teams they always have. That’s why those last 13 games. And they won, they almost won all of them. They went 11 and two, eight in a row to finish the season. And it still didn’t yield them a division title. I didn’t think it would. I think they spotted them too many games. And it turned out to be the tiebreaker. That was the difference. Toronto rided the ship in time to hold the Yankees off. Now the Yankees will meet a familiar foe Tuesday night. And I understand I understand that it’s the Red Sox and that’s always a scary proposition. But to me, you know what? When you look at it, we know the Yankees if they play well or better than most of these teams. If they play well against teams that are good. Now, the Red Sox match up pretty well against them, but I’ll get to that. I want to get back to the Mets for a second because I don’t think the Mets ran a really weird curve this year. Their fans were so bolstered by Sodto leaving the Yankees for the Mets and what that signified for their franchise. And then the idea, the silliness of the season as to, you know, who is the team in town, who is the player in that’s all answered at the end of the season. It’s not answered in the beginning of the season. It’s not answered during the season. It’s answered now. That’s when it’s answered. And the Mets aren’t even going to take part. The fact that they are not in this postseason competition with that team with that talent is an utter disgrace. Those players better take a long hard look. And I’m sure this owner was going to get a little cranky here. But hey, he’s too smart a guy to do the impetuous thing. So, I don’t expect any craziness out of him. I know some people think heads are going to roll. I I I don’t know that that’s going to happen. Will it make him more aggressive? I think so. The bottom line is this is not the time to look at what the Mets have going forward. It’s about answering the question of why this group was such a gutless collection of underachievers. And this didn’t play out over a week or two weeks. This wasn’t a team that just hit the skids late. This was a slow drip that started in late June and never ever got solved. This was something they saw coming in July. Drip, drip. August, drip, drip. September, more of the same. It was there week after week, game after game when things never ever got back to where they needed to be. They played 38 and 55. 38 and 55 in their last 93 ball games. That’s almost twothirds of the season after a terrific first, you know, till June 13th, first two and a half months, 21 games over 500 to finish four games over 500 and play 17 games under 500 from June 13th, the fifth worst record in the sport. When you realize that in that group are the Rockies who lost 119 games and the White Socks who lost over 100 games. So you’re talking about those two shouldn’t even count. So that means they were among the three worst teams of what you would consider to be somewhat competitive teams in baseball. with that payroll, with those expectations, with that lineup, everybody should be looking in the mirror. Now, I just watched the manager talk and he said the things you would expect him to say and took the blame and said he has a lot of examining to do. And listen, I expect him to do all that. He’s a stand-up guy. He’s a solid baseball guy. He’s a stand-up guy. Did he do a good job? No. Because he couldn’t figure out how to plug these leaks. And they couldn’t figure out how to plug these leaks. And they wound up taking a pitching staff and watching it completely disintegrate to where the starters were so ineffective they ruined whatever you had in the bullpen. And then you tried to rely on a bunch of kids to take you home. It was really a ridiculous plan and it didn’t work. This is such a colossal failure. This is one of the great colossal gutless collapses that we have seen from a team with talent in a very long time. There are bad teams. That’s not them. They aren’t a bad team. They’re a gutless bunch of underachievers. That’s what they are. gutless to the core as a group. They should be ashamed of themselves. I understand that this is part of being a Met fan. Just like it’s the same old Jets all the time and we always hear the same stories and everything else. The bottom line is you thought that this team with this owner with their resources with their plans were not going to fall back into these kinds of performances anymore. You know what? despite all of Cohen’s money, despite all of his bravado and all the little bells and whistles around City Fields and all the different things that the Mets have put forth, including their astronomical payroll, still the Mets. They’re still the Mets. And that’s not good enough. Now to the Yankees. I have to tell you, I wanted the Yankees to play the Red Sox. I I admit it. Okay, I know the idea is for the Yankees to win the World Series. Everyone goes crazy. But you know what? I care about more the competition and the drama of it. I’ve seen a million World Series. I If I You know what? I want I want to see one that interests me. I don’t want them to be getting buys and I want them. I want them to face challenges and if they win, God bless them. I love that it’s the Yankees and the Red Sox. And I think the Red Sox are a bad matchup for the Yankees or d the better way to put it is they’re a dangerous matchup for the Yankees. Are they better? Oh, their lineup doesn’t compare. I mean, the Yankees, look how many home runs the Yankees hit. I mean, think about it. You go down the list. I mean, this is this is reminiscent of the 61 Yankees. I mean, when you think about it and you look at these final numbers, I mean, these numbers are they’re insane. Let’s be honest. I mean, you’re talking about you think about the 61 Yankees, man. Lamar’s hit had 115 home runs between them. Okay? We’ve never seen anything exactly like that. You know, that’s that’s something that, you know, you’re never going to see that kind of that kind of race again. But you had Men Maris and then you had a bunch of guys who could hit home runs. Scarin could hit home runs. Barer and Blanchett and Howard could hit home runs. Okay. And you had a whole bunch of guys and they hit a whole bunch of home runs. And that was in a different era. I know that was a year of expansion, but that was in a different era than we have now. But this year, Judge hits 53 homers. Gisham amazingly hits 34 homers. Chisum hits 31 homers and misses three and a half weeks. Bellinger hits and had a terrific year, hits 29 homers. Rice, I understand he doesn’t have a position, but boy can he hit 26 homers. Stanton in half a year, 24 homers. Wells, 21 homers. McMahon, if you count him as an input, hit over 20 homers. Vulpi hit 19 homers. They can home you to death and that’s how they win. Power pitching, power hitting. To the Red Sox, we’re going to come at you with pitching, some dominant pitching, dominant pitching, and they’re going to come at you with speed, which is going to impact, they are going to be the one team that is going to impact how you play your defense. They are going to impact that in a big way. And they have a tr I mean Crochet is an incredible pitcher and obviously I can the biggest thing that is stunning to me in baseball this year. Well, two things really. Riley’s home runs, which are, you know, crazy for a catcher. But Chapman’s performance at this stage of his career, was otherworldly. They can beat you with pitching. They can beat you with their manager. They can beat you with speed. And that speed’s going to put a real pressure on the Yankees right from the start. That’s going to impact how the Yankees put their team on the field because they can’t make a whole bunch of errors and they can’t have them running around the bases like nuts in this series. And remember, the Yankees didn’t beat good teams this year. If they had beat good teams, they wouldn’t have lost a tiebreaker in their division. We know that they got fat late. They got better late, but they got fat late on the easy part of the schedule. They didn’t lose these games. They finished with eight straight wins. They won 11 of the last 13. They won 30 of the last 45, whatever it was. They won a lot of games late. And now, yes, they’re home and that’s important. Okay. But these are tricky cuz you can get behind the eightball right away. I mean right away without any question. So with that being the case and we’ll wait a day, let the smoke clear, and then I’ll give you my predictions for each of the series. Uh, if you’re just wondering. Okay. And I don’t know. Let me see if they put the times in yet for Tuesday. I don’t think they did yet. You know, the Yankees are going to be at night, but uh I didn’t see the times yet for Tuesday. Let me see. The matchups are set, but I don’t think we are. Uh, Padres’s and Cubbies. Oh, yeah. We do have the time. Well, Padres’s and Cubbies is 308, followed by the Tigers and the Guardians. How about Cleveland making the playoffs? I mean, the Tigers didn’t have the complete total collapse. It was an amazing collapse, but not total. They made the playoffs, Red Sox and Yankees, and then the late game will be the Dodgers and the Reds. I’m figuring the Yankees are sometime around 6:30 or 7:00. I don’t I don’t have a time yet for the Yankees and I don’t have a time yet for the uh Tigers and Indians. I have 308 for the Padres’s and the Cubs. Then comes the Tigers and the Guardians. Then comes the Yankees and the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. And then comes the Reds and the Dodgers at 9:08. And I was watching the last two innings uh religiously because there were a lot of things going on. The Ryder Cup and what an amazing comeback. You know, if you watched the Ryder Cup and you saw how amazingly Europe played, how bad the United States played the first day, how amazingly Europe played the second day, probably played better Ryder Cup golf than any team has ever played ever. I mean there were teams like Sheffler and Dashbo lost a match a bet they lost a better ball match where they which is not the alternate shot. So they lost a four ball match where you play your own ball. They lost that match and they made nine birdies and lost. That’s almost hard to impossible to do to to uh Fleetwood and and Rose. But the Americans came back today with such an amazing comeback that they scared the heck out of Europe, which won it. I didn’t see the last point, but I’m pretty sure it’s they only had 14 and a half points overall. They got their 14 and a half. That’s when I turned it off. America played unbelievably and vindicated Keegan Bradley today in a big way. uh and really came back and that was very exciting on a day when the Giants start dot and actually win a game unfortunately lose neighbors and then we get ready for the baseball and you know Toronto had a lead the whole game they scored five in the first they got this 5-4 then they made it 6’4 84 13-4 and the Yankees went won want a game they didn’t have to win because Toronto was going to win that game uh so the Yankees knew they were going to get ready for the Red Sox on Tuesday, which will be a lot of fun. And hey, if you’re a Yankee fan, think about it. You’re getting ready for a game in the Bronx in October on Tuesday night. I understand you have to deal with Jewish holidays. Uh some some of the folks have to deal with Jewish holidays. Um, they’re getting ready for the postseason baseball. Yankees, Red Sox in the Bronx Tuesday night with a dream of maybe finally winning a World Series, overcoming last year’s terrible World Series play, finally vindicating that and winning a World Series, maybe this year. Okay, dream the dream. while the Mets whose fans all year were expecting to make a run, who had dreams of not only back-to-back playoff performances, which is so unmetike, but also making a big run. And now they’re going home because the Mets once again can’t measure up to the Marlins. the Marlins. I remember 07. I remember the I remember my monologue the next day when I said this Met team’s never going to win and I would separate the players now. And Met players got mad at me about that. one in particular and I said, “Hey, I’d break the team up.” That’s how little I thought of their finish that year. And I’ll tell you right now, I’d take a serious look at this team right now because there’s something. Listen, Sodto’s the foundation. You’ve made that very clear. I know they love Lindor. I’ve heard rumblings about Lindor and Sodto. I don’t know if they’re true or not. I don’t know. I don’t know. It could be just talk. I don’t know. But there is a serious serious lack of chemistry on this group. A year after there was an incredible chemistry in last year’s group and that matters down the stretch. So I was saying I watched the game and let me tell you something. If you’ve listened to me through the years, going back to when Keith started and Dog and I were Keith’s biggest proponents, fans of him getting on the air and we wanted him to be one of the broadcasters and there was a lot of back and forth in those days about that. And I thought he was terrific from the beginning and I’ve said many times those guys are the best broadcast team, the three of them together in baseball. It’s a perfect fit. Ronnie’s very intelligent. Keith’s a brilliant baseball guy and he was a brilliant baseball player. Gary is a great nuts and bolts broadcaster who has really learned to be a TV guy from having been, in my estimation, the number two radio guy in the country behind Scully when Scully was still doing it. But let me say this, you’re in New York. I understand you’re the Mets and it’s a tough day, but you got to know who the Yankees are playing in the postseason. You can’t get that wrong when Toronto’s up 13-4 and not know who the Yankees are playing in the first round. That’s crazy. That’s crazy. You got to know that. I understand you don’t care about the Yankees. I understand the Yankees is a dirty word, but still, you got you got to know who the Yankees going to play. I’m shocked. You know, I’m shocked that all three of those guys, they’re all stu smart guys. And like I said, they’re a great team. Great team. They’ve had a great 20 years. They’re the best. But I was stunned that they didn’t know who the Yankees were playing. I was really shocked by that. I expect better from. The Yankees are playing the Red Sox. And I’ll tell you for one, I’m looking forward to it. And for you Met fans, you have my sympathies. You showed up. You kept, in my mind, your owner kept his part of the bargain. Met fans kept your part of the bargain. Management and the players failed miserably. They owe you a lot more. They should all be extremely ashamed of what they accomplished or what they failed to accomplish. We’ll see you later. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Mike Francesa lambasts an expensive Mets team that failed to make the playoffs. The Yankees, on the other hand, finished with an eight-game winning streak, but that wasn’t enough to catch the Blue Jays.

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