The last-place Arizona Diamondbacks finished off a three-game sweep of the New York Mets with a 9-0 victory on Thursday at Citi Field. The loss dropped the Mets to .500 at 57-57, and was their 11th loss in their last 15 games.
Mets manager Terry Collins met with the media after the game, and answered one question… before ranting for nearly four minutes and then storming out.
Terry Collins was asked 1 question postgame, talked/yelled for 3 mins, 40 seconds and then got up and left. It was great
— Ryan Hatch (@ryanhatch) August 11, 2016
Here’s more, from ESPN.Com:
“They are Major League Baseball players. I don’t care where they came from. I don’t care how they got here,” Collins said, simmering at the start of his rant. “The names on their backs and on the front of their uniforms say they are a Major League Baseball player. You come [here], you owe a responsibility to the fans, our fan base and the organization — to yourself — the respect for this game to grind it out.”
The last-place Arizona Diamondbacks rattled Noah Syndergaard with four stolen bases, then broke open the game with a six-run fifth inning to roll to a 9-0 rout of the New York Mets on Thursday.
“Starting tomorrow we’re going to get after it,” Collins concluded. “And those that don’t want to get after it? I’ll find some who do. Because in Las Vegas there is a whole clubhouse of guys that want to sit in this room. And that’s all I have to say.”“They got here because of the grind-it-out at-bats. That’s how they got here because that’s how this organization has been built the last few years. We know it’s possible,” Collins said. “And yes, some guys are having a bad time, but you cannot say ‘woe is me’ at this level. You cannot do it. Everybody is too good here.
And here’s video of the epic rant:
It’s certainly frustrating for Collins and the Mets, and when effort is questioned, that’s definitely a problem. But, the fact is that this is a bad lineup the Mets are throwing out there right now, especially with Yoenis Cespedes on the disabled list. On the pitching side of things, they of course lost Matt Harvey for the year and Noah Syndergaard (who took the loss on Thursday) has been very ordinary of late, with a 4.20 ERA over his last nine starts after a 1.91 ERA to begin the season. It’s certainly worth wondering if Syndergaard’s elbow issues are more than he was willing to admit.
The good news for the defending NL champions is that they’re still just three games back for the second wild card slot, and it doesn’t appear that any team will run away with that slot anytime soon. We’ll see if Collins’ message gets through and the Mets pick up their play in the coming weeks.