Friends of ours gave us Mets tickets for last night's game.
We are die hard Mets fans and have suffered with the rest of Mets fandom for decades. The Mets have just returned home after a 3 days losing streak to the division rivals, the Nationals, and our Mets pessimism had already set it, but Steven Matz, the understated rookie phenom, was pitching and we hadn't seen him yet so we decided it was worth the trip.
We left the house around 3:30 - with traffic, it can take 2 or more hours to get from our house to Citi Field and we wanted to have dinner before the game. And oh, what traffic we had, but we enjoyed a nice dinner in the air conditioned Promenade Club. Our daughter, another fierce die hard fan, took the 7 Line in and met us after work.
If the stadium wasn't sold out, it was pretty darned close. Empty seats, even in the rafters, were very rare, and the crowd was completely pumped, even though we were playing the Chicago Cubs who have the winningest record this season.
Steven Matz was good - he had been diagnosed with a bone spur on his elbow recently but, other than a couple of mistakes, seemed reasonably good. Cubs pitcher John Lackey was fantastic and capitalized on our recent hitting difficulties. By the 7th, the score was 3-0 Cubs and we were frustrated.
Then Yoenis Cespedes hit a homer that went into orbit. It landed on the 3rd level and it's unofficially rumored to be the farthest home run hit in Citi Field ever. 3-1 Mets.
A single by Travis d'Arnaud an a double by rookie Brandon Nimmo (4 days in the majors, this was his first RBI and the grin on his face was a sight I'll never forget) brought the crowd to their feet where we stayed for the rest of the game. Ninth inning brought out closer Jeurys Familia who managed to squeek get runners on 2nd and 3rd before finally striking out the side.
The energy in Citi Field was unlike anything I've experienced since the 1986 season - we have waited a long time for this! We spent a fortune on team apparel, as we often do. It's always hard to catch up after taking a few hours off, but last night was definitely worth it!
PS - The traffic was ridiculous and it took us nearly 3 hours to get home. Didn't care :)
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