Casual Diehard

The weird thing about the Mets getting one-hit by the Dodgers on Friday night, as we recorded this podcast, was that it really didn’t feel like they were having a one-hitter thrown against them. After all, Brandon Nimmo had led off the game with a home run… except, it was a double… and then there just wasn’t another hit.

That the game was scoreless when we started talking is unusual for this year’s Mets, who continue to dig themselves into holes, both on a micro and macro level. Here’s a chart that doesn’t need numbers (each axis goes from .600 to .950, for the record): OPS allowed in the first inning, and by starting pitchers overall. Being all the way to the right means that you’re putting yourself behind the eight ball.

Or, you can just see the Mets on the opposite side of a graphic with Atlanta and know exactly how things are going, can’t you? At least the Mets giving up runs in this game gave us an excellent moment of the crowd going absolutely wild at the mention of a train along the Grand Central Parkway. Let’s go!

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A correction from Jesse: The rainout in Baltimore was on September 29, 1999, bumping Mike Mussina’s last start of that season, not his final start as an Oriole, which would be the following year. Mussina and Scott Kamieniecki combined to shut out the Yankees in the opener of the following day’s doubleheader.

Everything else in this episode is, of course, completely factual and based in reality, including the invitation to Shaquille O’Neal to come on the show and talk soda and the Yankees’ former use of a bullpen Cadillac.

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First of all, the air conditioner commercial:

And now, the Starling Marte home run chain as he and the Mets both embark on what hopefully will be a happier second half of the season…

* Starling Marte hit his first home run off Dallas Keuchel, 7/26/12

* Dallas Keuchel gave up his first home run to Asdrúbal Cabrera, 6/23/12

* Asdrúbal Cabrera hit his first home run off Jason Hammel, 8/18/07

Hammel connects us Brandon Nimmo’s home run chain, as that’s who gave up the Mets leadoff man’s first home run, in 2016. Hammel was with the Devil Rays, in their final season as such, and Cabrera was a Cleveland rookie.

Cabrera moved on to Washington in 2014, then the Rays in 2015, before joining the Mets ahead of the 2016 season. Hammel, meanwhile, pitched one season for the (non-Devil) Rays before a couple of decent years in Colorado, Baltimore for 2012-13, and then the Cubs as a free agent in 2014. Traded to Oakland later that year in the Jeff Samardzija deal, Hammel returned to Chicago the following winter when he returned to free agency… and that brought him, as the owner of a World Series ring, to Flushing with the Cubs on July 1, 2016.

Jacob deGrom retired six of the first seven Cubs hitters that Friday night, and after Hammel set down the side in order in the bottom of the first, the Mets gave their ace a lead on back-to-back homers by James Loney and Cabrera. Loney’s two-run double the following inning made it a 4-0 game before Kris Bryant got the Cubs’ first hit, a homer off deGrom in the fourth.

Nimmo busted that game open with his first dinger, a three-run shot, in the bottom of the fourth, but the Cubs stuck with Hammel to give up two more bombs — a leadoff dinger to Yoenis Céspedes in the fifth, and then Cabrera’s second of the game, a two-run blast.

That was the last time that Cabrera got to face Hammel, against whom he had not homered since his first at-bat against him in 2007, having gone 1-for-6 with a double in the years between. It was also Nimmo’s only time facing Hammel. But Loney? Loney owned that dude — 16-for-44, four homers, 12 RBI, and a 1.083 OPS with only two strikeouts. Nobody had more hits against Hammel than Loney, and only Edwin Encarnación hit more homers, with five in 40 plate appearances.

Editor’s note: We Can Pod It Out will be off next week, but home run chains will continue along with other Willets Pen content. Please subscribe if you haven’t, there’s a button right here!

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We haven’t done the Jeff McNeil home run chain yet. Jeff went golfing and posted some video to Instagram over the All-Star break, so here’s that…

…and here’s his home run chain.

* Jeff McNeil hit his first home run off Tanner Roark, 7/31/18

* Tanner Roark gave up his first home run to Carlos Beltrán, 9/23/13

* Carlos Beltrán hit his first home run off Jaime Navarro, 4/10/99

* Jaime Navarro gave up his first home run to Joe Carter, 8/1/89

* Joe Carter hit his first home run off Frank Tanana, 6/28/84

* Frank Tanana gave up his first home run to Rick Reichardt, 9/9/73

* Rick Reicherdt hit his first home run off Joe Horlen, 9/15/65

* Joe Horlen gave up his first home run to Lee Thomas, 9/9/61

* Lee Thomas hit his first home run off Mudcat Grant, 5/25/61

* Mudcat Grant gave up his first home run to Bob Cerv, 4/17/58

* Bob Cerv hit his first home run off Bob Cain, 5/18/52

* Bob Cain gave up his first home run to Bob Feller, 5/13/50

* Bob Feller hit his first home run off Elden Auker, 5/24/40

* Elden Auker gave up his first home run to Goose Goslin, 8/24/33

* Goose Goslin hit his first home run off Red Faber, 9/21/21

* Red Faber gave up his first home run to Sam Crawford, 6/1/14

* Sam Crawford hit his first home run off Red Donahue, 9/21/99

* Red Donahue gave up his first home run to Henry Larkin, 5/6/93

* Henry Larkin hit his first home run off Adonis Terry, 8/25/84

* Adonis Terry gave up his first home run to Jim Clinton, 5/22/84

Adonis Terry and Jim Clinton, the Paul Sewald and Elias Díaz of the 19th century? Well, Terry went 19-35 with a 3.55 ERA as a 19-year-old for the 1884 Brooklyn Atlantics in the American Association, and blossomed into the No. 2 starter for the team that became the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in the National League in 1890, when he was 26-16 with a 2.94 ERA, teaming with 30-game winner Tom Lovett and the 23-11 Bob Caruthers to help the then-independent city bring home the National League pennant.

Terry was released in 1892 and signed with the National League version of the Baltimore Orioles, who traded him to the Pirates after one start, a 7-2 loss to the Washington Senators (again, early NL version), whose star player was the deaf Billy Hoy. Terry stayed in Pittsburgh for the rest of 1892 and all of 1893 before making just one appearance for them in 1894 and moving to the Cubs — then the Chicago Colts — and remaining there until one start, his final one, in 1897.

Clinton also played in Brooklyn, with the 1872 Eckfords in the National Association. His other teams? The 1873 Elizabeth Resolutes, 1874-75 Brooklyn Atlantics, and 1876 National League Louisville Colonels. Then… nothing from 1877-81… before returning with the Worcester Ruby Legs in 1882 NL. Clinton wrapped up with four years in the American Association, three with the Orioles, one with the Cincinnati Red Stockings, and all four of his career home runs — in 1,822 plate appearances — came with Baltimore in 1884.

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The National League won the All-Star game thanks to Rockies catcher Elias Díaz blasting a two-run homer off Félix Bautista of the Orioles, who had only given up three homers all season.

So, let’s do the home run chain for Díaz today… it started six years ago in New York!

* Elias Díaz hit his first home run off Paul Sewald, 6/2/17

And… Díaz is a chain-starter! That was the first home run that Paul Sewald allowed, after having started his rookie season out of the Mets’ bullpen with 14 straight homerless appearances, in which he had 24 strikeouts and four walks over 20.1 innings with a 2.21 ERA, holding opponents to a .621 OPS.

It all fell apart on a Friday night in Flushing, when Díaz had already put the Pirates ahead with a three-run double off Matt Harvey, but the Mets had regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth on a Michael Conforto homer, Neil Walker triple, a Gerrit Cole wild pitch, and Lucas Duda’s second home run of the game.

With the Mets up, 7-4, Josh Bell led off the sixth with a homer, and Harvey was pulled after walking Andrew McCutchen. Sewald came in, got tagged for a single by Jordy Mercer, and then served up Díaz’s three-run blast. It got worse for Sewald, as after he struck out Max Moroff, there was a single by Adam Frazier, an RBI double by Josh Harrison, and a single by Gregory Polanco. Sewald then hit David Freese with a pitch to load the bases, walked Bell to force in another run, and got charged for one last run after Neil Ramirez entered, as McCutchen hit a sacrifice fly.

Here are the highlights!

Díaz now has 51 career home runs, plus a really awesome one in an exhibition game. And the six runs batted in are no longer a career high: Díaz knocked in seven last year in Denver, capped by a walk-off homer.

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We’re all just racing for second place behind Max Verstappen and Atlanta, aren’t we?

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It wasn’t meant to be for Pete Alonso to win a third Home Run Derby title and tie Ken Griffey Jr. in the house that Griffey built. And while Julio Rodríguez eliminated Alonso with that SoDo Mojo, it was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who got revenge for Rodríguez breaking his single-round record by winning the final. So, let’s do Vladito’s home run chain.

* Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his first home run off Nick Vincent, 5/14/19

* Nick Vincent gave up his first home run to Jason Kubel, 7/3/12

* Jason Kubel hit his first home run off Jon Garland, 9/21/04

* Jon Garland gave up his first home run to Jermaine Dye, 7/4/00

* Jermaine Dye hit his first home run off Marcus Moore, 5/17/96

* Marcus Moore gave up his first home run to David Justice, 7/26/93

* David Justice hit his first home run off Mike Scott, 9/19/89

Mike Scott connects to the Domingo Germán (derogatory) home run chain, which in turn brings us back to the Francisco Álvarez home run chain. Now we understand the bad Mets vibes that much better.

And if you’re wondering, Iván Nova did give up home runs to both Vladimirs Guerrero, getting tagged twice by Senior in 2011 — the fifth-to-last and second-to-last of the Hall of Famer’s career — and for Junior’s third, in Chicago, three days after he took both Vincent and Reyes Moronta deep in San Francisco.

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We’ve been doing Mets home run chains here, and this weekend, as the Mets’ winning streak came to an end, a new chain began… for Matthew Batten of the Padres, who made his major league debut last season.

* Matthew Batten hit his first home run off David Peterson, 7/8/23

David Peterson gave up Joey Wiemer’s first home run in April, so this is another chain flowing from the Johan Camargo homer off Matt Grace in 2017. The way that this continues is that Wiemer and Batten go and hit the first homers off someone else, and off we go into the future.

And, guess what? That has happened. Wiemer homered off Carmen Mlodzinski on June 16, giving the Brewers a three-run lead in a game they held on to win, 5-4, over the Pirates. Mlodzinski hasn’t given up anyone’s first homer yet, so we’ll keep an eye on that in the second half of the season.

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This one doesn’t come with an extended accompanying newsletter because good gravy we’ve all had to type a whole lot extra this week, what with a new social media platform popping up every 12 hours. We’ve got a slightly less frantic atmosphere over at the Willets Pen server on Discord, where thanks to this episode we’ve created a #vroom-vroom channel — come join us!

Oh, also, Addy came across this Max Verstappen song… if it feels a little Narco, well, Blasterjaxx also brings that Dutch flavor to the table.

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The other day, with Tommy Pham’s home run chain, an interesting connection emerged. Parson Perryman, who gave up Elmer Smith’s first home run in 1915, gave up only one other major league home run, to Jack Fournier, who is part of Francisco Lindor’s home run chain, which we had not gotten to yet.

Lindor hit his 18th home run of the season last night, and 202nd of his career, off Ryne Nelson, as part of the Mets’ 9-0 victory in Phoenix, their fifth straight triumph.

* Francisco Lindor hit his first home run off Buck Farmer, 6/24/15

* Buck Farmer gave up his first home run to Travis Snider, 8/13/14

* Travis Snider hit his first home run off Kevin Slowey, 9/4/08

* Kevin Slowey gave up his first home run to Eric Chávez, 6/1/07

* Eric Chávez hit his first home run off LaTroy Hawkins, 5/15/99

* LaTroy Hawkins gave up his first home run to Harold Baines, 4/29/95

* Harold Baines hit his first home run off Jim Palmer, 4/19/80

* Jim Palmer gave up his first home run to Moose Skowron, 4/19/65

* Moose Skowron hit his first home run off Alex Kellner, 4/15/54

* Alex Kellner gave up his first home run to Yogi Berra, 4/26/49

* Yogi Berra hit his first home run off Jesse Flores, 9/22/46

* Jesse Flores gave up his first home run to Nanny Fernandez, 4/29/42

* Nanny Fernandez hit his first home run off Hal Schumacher, 4/17/42

* Hal Schumacher gave up his first home run to Don Hurst, 4/15/31

* Don Hurst hit his first home run off Red Lucas, 5/15/28

* Red Lucas gave up his first home run to Jack Fournier, 5/5/24

* Jack Fournier hit his first home run off Joe Engel, 8/7/13

* Joe Engel gave up his first home run to Donie Bush, 6/10/12

* Donie Bush hit his first home run off Ray Collins, 5/17/10

* Ray Collins gave up his first home run to Hobe Ferris, 7/30/09

* Hobe Ferris hit his first home run off Bill Reidy, 6/11/01

* Bill Reidy gave up his first home run to Mike Donlin, 5/25/01

* Mike Donlin hit his first home run off Bill Bernhard, 8/26/99

* Bill Bernhard gave up his first home run to Jimmy Williams, 7/24/99

* Jimmy Williams hit his first home run off Jack Dunn, 6/29/99

* Jack Dunn gave up his first home run to Cy Seymour, 5/6/97

* Cy Seymour hit his first home run off Bill Hoffer, 4/30/97

* Bill Hoffer gave up his first home run to Mike Griffin, 4/26/95

* Mike Griffin hit his first home run off Ed Seward, 4/16/87

As for last night, it was more than a Good Night for Lindor, it was a great one: 5-for-5 with a homer and two triples — the rare double shy of the cycle. The last time a Met was a double shy was last July 29, when Starling Marte had a single, triple, and homer in Miami. The only other time that a Met was a double shy of the cycle but had another, superior extra-base hit? Rico Brogna with two homers on May 11, 1996 against the Cubs. Shoutout to those who also, like Lindor, had two singles: Gary Carter (1985), Dave Magadan (1990), Damion Easley (2008), Travis d’Arnaud (2017), and Amed Rosario (2019).

Lindor is the first Met to finish a double shy of the cycle and have a five-hit game. That’s happened only three other times since Brett Gardner became the only player to do this against the Mets, in 2009: Eduardo Escobar (2014 Twins), Tucker Barnhart (2018 Reds), and David Peralta (2021 Diamondbacks).

The Mets’ record for triples in a game remains three, set by Doug Flynn in 1980. Lindor joins Joe Chrisotpher, back on August 18, 1964, in the Mets’ two-triples-and-a-homer-in-the-same-game club. Those hits were important as Christopher hit exactly .300 for the season, joining Ron Hunt as the Mets’ first pair of .300 hitters — Richie Ashburn set the early team record at .306 in 1962, and Hunt was the team’s batting champ at .272 in the 111-loss second season.

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