Worst part of the Mets London Series wasn't the starting pitching performance

Ah, the London Series is over. Both teams won a game. The ugliness of the New York Mets starting pitching performance on both days aside, it wasn’t such a bad two games against the powerhouse 2024 Philadelphia Phillies. Sean Manaea and Jose Quintana put on a masterclass of how not to win a game. It was a poor presentation for the Brits who like their television series over and done with after about six episodes and two seasons at the absolute most. Maybe throw in a Christmas special.

Sure, the Mets got lucky as the recipients of a Phillies meltdown. Several Mets deserve a ton of credit for the gutsy win. Carlos Mendoza hit a lot of the right buttons. Luis Torrens’ defense on the final play is going in the video yearbook. Mark Vientos came off the bench ready to play.

Equally as important to the victory was the performance by Jeff McNeil. His first game in a week, he also happened to be involved in the worst part of the win.

Who is this Mets player named Jeff O’Neil anyway?

Slip ups happen. To err is to be human. At least this is proof Michael Kay isn’t an artificial intelligence. Calling McNeil, one of the longest tenured players on the Mets roster by the wrong name confirms Kay bleeds blood. It’s still silly for a guy who goes on New York sports radio to get the name wrong when he undoubtedly has covered him plenty in the past.

But it’s not just Kay who made the London experience less pleasurable. Saturday’s pregame was ridiculously awful.

In no atmosphere would it make sense to showcase a different upcoming game. Fans were furious, especially when nothing useful was added by Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, or Derek Jeter in a segment on how to “fix the Mets.”

Meanwhile, TNT Sports presented its viewers with Darren Fletcher whose final call received nothing but praise. Known for football (the other kind) and boxing, his delivery of the last play was brilliant.

The London Series wasn’t about the Mets or Phillies much at all. It’s a problem with any national broadcast. We’ll endure our next requirement on Sunday Night Baseball on June 23rd when the Mets visit the Chicago Cubs. It’ll be a week of bad national games with TBS, Amazon Prime, and AppleTV+ coming immediately after and an FS1 broadcast the day prior to the ESPN exclusive one on Sunday. Luckily the TBS and Amazon Prime games will also be available on SNY. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Darren Fletcher will be in the States.