And In The End...

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In their home season finale and Howie Rose’s last game behind the radio mic, the Mets lost to the Phillies 7-2. 

Jonah Tong couldn’t duplicate his lowkey successful performance from Monday. He started the game by walking Kyle Schwarber. Tong caught Trea Turner looking at a four-seamer before Bryce Harper singled, moving Schwarber to third. Luis Arraez lofted a sacrifice fly to put the Phillies on the board, with Harper bolting to second on the throw home. That led to another run when Alec Bohm hit a ringing single up the middle to plate Harper. 

Christopher Sanchez had been struggling lately, but of course he returned to his Cy Young candidate form for the Mets. Although the Mets had some traffic in the bottom of the second, they ended up doing nothing with it. Carson Benge and Francisco Alvarez stroked singles before Nick Morabito left them stranded by fanning on a sinker. 

Tong walked Schwarber again to start the top of the third. Turner doubled down the left field line to make it 3-0. Harper’s deep fly out to center (Morabito did a good job running it down) pushed Turner to third, who then scored on an Arraez single. 

Luis Torrens recorded a base knock to start the bottom of the third. After the scuffling Francisco Lindor struck out looking at a slider, Juan Soto ripped a single to right center that got Torrens 90 feet from home plate. Sadly, both Bo BIchette and Mark Vientos struck out. 

Tong, despite throwing 29 pitches in the first, made it to the fifth at least. He walked Turner, who was erased on a Harper fielder’s choice. Arraez lined out when Soto made a diving catch like he wants to be one of the psychopaths.

After Bohm hit a single, Tong’s day was done at 95 pitches. Jack Weisenburger entered the fray and coaxed Bryson Stott into flying out to left, keeping the score at 4-0 Philadelphia. Weisenburger stayed in to toss a 1-2-3 sixth.

Sánchez was rolling along until he ran into Bichette with one out in the bottom of the sixth. Bichette kept fouling off pitches until he smacked a slider deep to left for what turned out to be the last home run call Howie Rose would ever make. 

After Jefry Yan worked around a leadoff walk in the top of the seventh, the Mets made some noise in the bottom half of the frame. Alvy singled to left center with one out, ending Sánchez’s day (he wasn’t happy about it). Flamethrower Alex McFarlane came out of the bullpen, provoking Andy Green to pinch hit Morabito for AJ Ewing. Ewing delivered, singling up the middle. Brett Baty came up next to pinch hit for Luis Torrens. He smacked an RBI single to right to make it 4-2. But Lindor popped a 1-1 pitch up to the shortstop Turner, and Soto got beat on a 100 mph fastball. 

Kodai Senga needed some work, not having pitched since Tuesday, so he came in to pitch the eighth in a non-save situation. It was a disaster. With one out he walked Stott on four pitches. Brandon Marsh avoided the golden sombrero by singling. JT Realmuto drew a walk to load the bases for Justin Crawford. The speedster tripled in the left center field gap, scoring everyone but himself. Amazingly, Senga stayed on to walk Schwarber too. Then Green swapped him out for Austin Warren. 

Swaggy V doubled off Chase Shugart with one out in the bottom of the eighth. He was left stranded when Benge popped it up to the third baseman Stott on a nice play and Marcus Semien grounded out to first. 

The “combustible chap” Jose Alvarado took over for the Phillies in the bottom of the ninth. Down their last out, Lindor and his 299 career home runs came up with one on. How nice would it be if he hit #300 in front of Howie Rose and the super faithful fans who braved the rain to show up. Alas, Lindor’s fly ball landed snugly in right fielder Derek Hill’s glove for out number three. 

But that wasn’t the end of the story. The entire team, or at least most of the position players, left the dugout, walked behind home plate, looked up at the radio broadcast booth, and doffed their caps to Rose. Then, the Citi Field PA system played the conclusion of “The End” by The Beatles, Rose’s favorite band. The longtime broadcaster choked up as he acknowledged the applause from the crowd. It was an almost surprisingly note perfect gesture by the team. 

Anyway, the Mets ended up splitting the four-game series against the Phillies, which isn’t too bad, considering how the homestand started. Some light spoiling was accomplished, and only one Met had to be hospitalized. 

The Mets finish the season with a 36-45 record at Citi.

Because the weather forecast was bad and the sky looked ominous all morning, the Mets postponed Howie Rose’s pregame retirement ceremony until Opening Weekend 2027 (if there is a 2027 season.) Rose spun it beautifully, remarking that now, after the ceremony, he doesn’t have to go to work. 

When Rose was asked how he wanted to be remembered by Mets fans, he said as one of them. He’ll be missed. Who is going to refer to the Mets alternate uniforms as “schmookus” (probably spelled wrong) now?

A.M. Gittlitz interviewed Rose for GQ. Tim Britton ranked Rose’s greatest calls in The Athletic. 

Jonah Tong got stepped on Bryson Stott to end the first inning. He hobbled off the field but seemed fine later, except for the part about him giving up four runs, but that might have been in part due to the wet conditions. 

Mark Vientos came really close to hitting a three-run homer in the third, but it was just foul. 

Regarding his upcoming opt-out or not decision, Bo Bichette told Joel Sherman, “I really don’t know [yet]. I honestly have not had the conversations yet with the people close to me to decide.” 

Andy Green said they are hopeful Devin Williams (right shoulder strain) will get a "couple appearances" next week. 

The rookie dress-up theme this year is Sesame Street. The team posted a photo of seemingly the whole team - not just the rookies - as different characters, although there are a lot of yip yip aliens. It looks like Christian Scott is Elmo. It’s hard to tell who is who otherwise. 

The Triple-A Syracuse Mets dropped their season finale, losing 5-4 to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Phillies affiliate) in 11 innings. LF Jose Ramos went 2 for 4 with a home run, three runs scored, and two RBI. 2B Christian Cairo went 2 for 4 with an RBI and a walk. RHP Cameron Weston blew the save, and RHP Brian Metoyer was tagged with the pitcher loss. The Rochester Red Wings won, so Syracuse was technically eliminated from playoff contention before the 10th inning started. 

On this day in 1987, Darryl Strawberry joined the 30-30 club when he stole his 30th base of the season. Strawberry and Howard Johnson became the first teammates to each hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season.

25 years ago today, Mike Piazza hit a two-run home run to put the Mets ahead for good in the eighth inning against Atlanta. It was the first baseball game in New York City since the September 11th attacks. We talked about it before.

Happy 32nd birthday to Devin Williams!

Today is the final off day of the season. The Mets play the Texas Rangers in Arlington starting tomorrow night before facing the Washington Nationals in D.C.