Benjamin Grimm wrote: I was as dismayed as everyone else when deGrom was pulled, but I'm not sure it's why the Mets lost. I had expected that deGrom would pitch the 7th and that Rojas would go to May for the 8th. If that was going to be the case, then Castro's scoreless inning just replaced deGrom's scoreless inning, and the implosion would have happened anyway. However, if deGrom could have gone 8 innings (and he really might have been able to) then that's a different story entirely. Rojas definitely did screw up. But the screwups by May and Loup were what really responsible for the loss. I don't think the decision to pull deGrom alone was what cost the game. There were just so many mistakes. By my count: g t 1. The decision to sit Dom in favor of Pillar. Dom was our best hitter last year, and is better against lefties against Pillar. Pillar also had bad numbers against Moore. 2. If you're going to play Pillar for defense, play Dom anyway and sit Nimmo. I like Nimmo a lot as a player, but Dom is better. 3. And certainly don't put Pillar at leadoff. This is dumb. This is the old "our CF hits leadoff cuz he's fast" philosophy. 4. Argue balls/strikes. The first call to Lindor was atrocious. It kept going from there. He also squeezed deGrom, especially on his AB to Harper. Get on him. If he keeps it up, get thrown out. This is one of the main things a manager is supposed to do. 5. PH Dom for Pillar in the 4th. Of course this is an issue because not only did you play Pillar, you batted him leadoff. PH with Dom and blow the game open. You still have Almora for defense later. 6. Leave Jake in the game. Duh. Maybe his pitch count wouldn't even be 77 if you barked a bit at the ump. 7. Leave Castro in the game. Looked sharp. No need to go to the "8th inning team" just because you want to show off your fancy new bullpen. 8. Lucchesi over Loup. First of all, he's the better pitcher. Secondly, he's better equipped to face the righties behind Harper. That righty, of course, singled to tie the game. 9. All of this leads to the game being tied with only one out when Guillorme throws home. He tries to put too much on it, which causes it to sail a bit. Which normally wouldn't be an issue except... 10. Terrible footwork by McCann at the plate. Gotta make sure of one there. If he fields that like a 1B, we get the out, and the next ball is an F9. Of course, he's thinking two as well. Rushes to meet the throw and is not in a position to stretch properly. All this and we were still a few feet from taking the lead in the 9th. Fire the manager. Score some runs. Win tonight.