The Mets finally lost their first series of the season, an 8-7 loss to the Mariners Sunday giving Seattle two of three in the weekend set at Citi Field, and they lost three key players in the process.
One, RHP Trevor May, was already lost, but he was moved to the 60-day injured list to accommodate RHP Colin Holderman, who was brought up when RHP Tylor Megill was placed on the IL with right biceps tendinitis on Sunday. Oh, and that's not counting catcher James McCann, who was diagnosed with a fractured hamate bone in his left hand Friday, and will undergo surgery.
Still, the 23-13 Mets are in first place with the best record in the NL, and as manager Buck Showalter said after Sunday's loss, no one is going to take pity on them for a rough weekend.
"We knew stuff like this was going to happen, so it's not 'woe is me.' We're not going to wallow around in self-pity. We're going to look at it as an opportunity to shine," Showalter said. "I think we've been grinding since the first day of spring trying to hurry and get ready. You know, we lose Jake (deGrom), we lost (Sean) Reid-Foley, we lost May. It's part of it; other teams, if they haven't (had injuries), they will, and if they don't…I need to get some of that fairy dust."
Instead, Showalter looks at it the way backup catcher and Saturday hero Patrick Mazeika does: it's an opportunity for someone else to step up, the way Holderman did Sunday in pitching a scoreless ninth in his MLB debut to give the Mets a chance for the comeback.
"That was a big moment for him today," Showalter said of Holderman. "I just look at more as opportunities to find something that we think is going to be good and maybe it comes along at a faster pace. I know what these opportunities mean to those guys. You don't like for them to happen the way they are. But we knew stuff like this was going to happen."
And when it does, Showalter has a simple yet blunt synopsis of what it means:
"Nobody cares about your problems – they're happy you got them."
The Mets will need to figure out who will take Megill's place in the rotation, and do it soon, as his next turn was scheduled for Monday against St. Louis. Trevor Williams, who started one game earlier this season after a doubleheader situation and pitched 3 2/3 innings behind Megill in each of his last two outings, will make Monday's start, but the situation is fluid beyond that.
The Mets don't have an off-day until May 26, so Williams (or whomever ends up in that spot) will have to make at least one more start beyond Monday before Megill is eligible to return.
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