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Four in a row, along with maintaining alertness, is the immediate goal at 9:40 PM EDT on SNY, with our Mr. Walker opposing their Mr. Darvish.

Thanks Padres for the extra half-hour of hopefully ending Snell.

The late night SoCal road show moves on to San Diego, Carrasco vs. Snell. First pitch on SNY is 9:40 PM. First “I'll just close my eyes for a couple of pitches…zzz…” is a matter of personal inclination.

Mets go with Trevor Williams for the series split. Julio Urias will start for L.A., at least until Dave Roberts can sneak Ron Cey onto the mound. 4:10 EDT on SNY.

The team that honored the late Gil Hodges 49 years ago versus the team that just remembered Gil helped them win their first World Series. David Peterson looks to overshadow Walker Buehler at 10:10 PM EDT on SNY.

Back to Gil…Vin Scully at 94 contributes to a Times piece on Hodges connecting a pair of franchises. The connective tissues stretch all the way across the country and back again, binding Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Queens. Through the years, through all the true bounces and bad hops and yellowed pages, the contents of this baseball triangle remain snugly bound. Main characters recede and others emerge, and then it repeats all over again. But the strongest and most consistent connection between the Dodgers and the Mets remains Gil Hodges, the late, newly elected Hall of Famer whose No. 14 will be retired by the Dodgers here on Saturday night. The Mets retired the same number for Hodges in 1973. “He was, indeed — I was going to say the thread, but he wasn't the thread, he was the iron steel cable,” Vin Scully, the legendary Dodgers broadcaster, said on Thursday during a rare telephone interview. The Mets franchise and Dodger Stadium both sprang to life in April 1962, and the former is beginning a 10-day western swing this weekend with four games in Chavez Ravine. It is a star-studded matchup of the top two teams in the National League, but the clubs will briefly set the competition aside to honor Hodges, a player who meant so much to both sides. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/04/sports/baseball/gil-hodges-jersey-retired.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/04/sports/baseball/gil-hodges-jersey-retired.html

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Is this the Rob Thompson who used to play second base for the Giants? Different dude, spelled Thomson. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Thomsonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Thomson

Mark Singer was often Roger Angel's baseball-watching companion over the past 45 years. He recounts an episode from Spring Training 2017. Needing more biographical detail, Roger insisted upon a between-innings sortie to the press box for the up-to-date lowdown. Cane in hand, and my eighteen-year-old son at his elbow, he attempted to board an elevator but was stopped by a security guard demanding his credentials. “Not only am I the oldest person in this ballpark, I'm also in the Hall of Fame,” Roger said, and up they went. I do believe that's an all-time flex. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/watching-baseball-with-roger-angellhttps://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/watching-baseball-with-roger-angell

Francisco Lindor is your National League Player of the Week.

Medina up in Dom's stead.

Only the second 13-5 win in Mets history, the first since August 3, 2003 over STL at Shea.

The Cubs have DFA'd the former Met.

Miller died in St. Charles, Ill., for those who Ultimately track such data. https://ripbaseball.com/2022/05/29/obituary-bob-g-miller-1935-2022/https://ripbaseball.com/2022/05/29/obituary-bob-g-miller-1935-2022/

Lopez, unsuspended, optioned. Plummer recalled.

Splendid gesture.

Huzzah!

Lopez isn't suspended until his appeal is denied (if he appeals and it's denied), so until further notice, the full reliever-heavy complement of 26 should be available.

OF Travis Jankowski has been placed on the 10-day IL, retroactive to May 26, with a left 4th metacarpal fracture. He underwent surgery today at HSS. A general timeline for an injury of this nature is 6-8 weeks. LHP Thomas Szapucki was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse on May 25. RHP Yoan López has been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse. RHP Steve Nogosek has been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse.

One new transaction of distressing note… OF Travis Jankowski has been placed on the 10-day IL, retroactive to May 26, with a left 4th metacarpal fracture. He underwent surgery today at HSS. A general timeline for an injury of this nature is 6-8 weeks. LHP Thomas Szapucki was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse on May 25. RHP Yoan López has been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse. RHP Steve Nogosek has been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse.

TJ won't be punch-running anytime soon. OF Travis Jankowski has been placed on the 10-day IL, retroactive to May 26, with a left 4th metacarpal fracture. He underwent surgery today at HSS. A general timeline for an injury of this nature is 6-8 weeks. LHP Thomas Szapucki was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse on May 25. RHP Yoan López has been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse. RHP Steve Nogosek has been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse.

The Mets, in the form of a digitized version of this oil painting… http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/wp-content/uploads/A7F812FE-825F-4F7A-B386-D997D49317E5.jpeg> …are headed for the Moon. Details http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2022/05/27/moonstruck/here.

“I had tickets to see the Mets, who George loved, to play the Dodgers, who he hated.” —Jerry Hamza, manager of George Carlin, regarding the game of May 4, 1982 at Dodger Stadium, where Carlin experienced symptoms of what turned out to be a heart attack, from part two of the documentary George Carlin's American Dream, which premiered on HBO, May 21, 2022, and was directed by Mets fan Judd Apatow. Game footage that illustrates the segment, if one is inclined to look closely, isn't from the night of May 4, 1982, despite it being implied that it is. We see Bob Bailor sliding into second base, which only happened once at Dodger Stadium when he was a Met, on May 17, 1981 — a day game, as opposed to the night game when Carlin experienced his episode. Also, the Dodgers are wearing their Los Angeles centennial patches in the blend of day game and night game clips used, and those were worn in 1981. Later in the documentary, a stagehand wearing a Mets cap is seen setting up in advance of Carlin taping his 1992 HBO special Jammin' in New York at Madison Square Garden's Paramount Theatre.

I'd like to think word of Gil's election got through to Piggy, but given his dementia, it was no sure thing. Then again, in Joe's mind, I'd bet Gil was a Hall of Famer in every sense. From 2021: THE FIRST TEAM casualty to COVID-19 came in May. Nancy Pignatano was terrified of getting sick. She was living in Florida with her husband Joe, the Amazin' Mets bullpen coach. She was following the precautions. They stayed indoors, had their groceries delivered and limited her outdoor trips to grabbing the paper and the mail. But she caught COVID anyway and died in May at the age of 86. For months, Joe didn't understand that she was gone. He has dementia. His family would tell him that she was out golfing with friends, and he'd smile and be OK. Their younger son, Frank, still lives in Brooklyn. The last words he heard from his mom were over the phone. "Frankie, I love you," she told him. "I can't talk." Frank is the one to pass along the memories now. He was 12 years old that season -- his nickname was "Little Piggy" -- but he speaks as if it was his best year too. The Mets kept a tomato garden in the bullpen during the '69 season. Joe found the wild plant, and instead of ripping it out, he watered and tended to it. "He was a Brooklyn Italian," Frank says. "You give them a patch of dirt and they plant tomatoes." Joe's very best friend, Frank says, was Gil Hodges. They played together for the Brooklyn and L.A. Dodgers and the 1962 expansion Mets, then started coaching together in Washington in 1965. They'd be at the ballpark all day, then meet for cards later with their wives at night, the room a chain-smoking haze of crab claws, mixed nuts and banter. "I tell my kids it was a simpler time," Frank says. "You could have a house and a car in the garage and have kids on one salary. You can't do that today." Hodges was a Marine during World War II, but he always downplayed it. He used to tell his son Gil Jr. that he worked behind a desk. It wasn't until the boy was older that he found out that his father was a gunner in the 16th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion, fought in Okinawa and was awarded a Bronze Star. He played with Jackie Robinson in 1947, the year Robinson broke the major league color barrier. Hodges was a straightforward man with little ambiguity, but he was also a dreamer. Just before Game 1, 19-year-old Gil Jr. was sitting in his dad's office, marveling over the Orioles' stat sheet, when he asked him what the Mets were doing on the same field with Baltimore. Hodges got up, closed the door and sat next to him. "Listen, son," he told him, "I have 25 guys out there who think we can win. That's all that matters." The Mets had back-to-back 83-79 seasons after the World Series, and Pignatano kept tending to the tomato plant. They had high hopes heading into '72, a season that was delayed by a players' strike. During spring training -- Easter Sunday -- Hodges and his coaches spent a morning playing 27 holes at a golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. Pignatano was putting his clubs in the trunk, Frank says, when Hodges suffered a heart attack, fell backward and smacked his head on the sidewalk. Pignatano held him as he was dying. Hodges was 47 years old. For years, Pignatano blamed himself. He was right next to him. If he hadn't turned around, he thought, he could've caught him. But Pignatano couldn't have done anything. Hodges' son tried to explain that to him many times. "When you love someone like that ... " Gil Jr. says, "you will always feel like you could've done something. But it was out of his hands." Pignatano has a picture of Hodges in the house, and he'll point to it and always says the same thing. "That's my best friend." https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31317684/friendship-memories-year-1969-new-york-metshttps://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31317684/friendship-memories-year-1969-new-york-mets