If you think Buck Showalter overachieved with this team or worked wonders, then, by all means, feel free to go to another website. I understand Buck can’t bat or pitch or even spot when a player is cheating, but he is the face of the Mets, and that was troubling regarding the Joe Musgrove situation.

When every available umpire checked Joe Musgrove’s ears, mitt, and whatever else. The game was already over. The Padres pitcher was dominating, and this was Buck’s last-ditch, embarrassing effort to try and get him out of the game. Maybe a change in the lineup or pinch-hitting anybody could have helped. But he took this route. It started earlier in the game when the ball boy gave two baseballs to Buck, and ESPN captured that. This was a failed plan by Buck early in the game. Musgrove said “this lit a fire under him” and the rest of the league was laughing at the Mets. Not the way you want to go down in the playoffs.

Now to Max Scherzer. We will never know if he was battling the oblique injury. Only Buck knows. There was a video of him warming up and having issues. Then he went out and gave up four home runs. Some fans thought Buck couldn’t bull Scherzer. He’s a future Hall of Famer, how dare you pull him. That is a manager’s job. It was clear Scherzer was getting smacked around, and Showalter left him in too long. That’s literally up to him and Jeremy Hefner. Same with Chris Bassitt. It was clear runs would be hard to come by. No quick hook, and Tajuan Walker was fresh, and the next pitcher in was David Petersen.

Edwin Diaz. Why was he put out there in the seventh inning in Game 2? Was it to keep the Padres at bay so the offense could score? Ok, good move Buck. But it was also to keep the newest Mets killer, Trent Grisham who homered off of deGrom earlier, from homering again in this game. Except, Grisham batted in the ninth, and Diaz was out of the game, so what was the point?

The Mets September flop was allowed to happen because Buck never tried to close out the season early so he could head into Atlanta with no chance of the Braves trying to win the division, which they did. That happened with pitching matchups and experimenting with the bullpen including the misuse of Tylor Megill against the Braves.

Lastly, why did Luis Guillorme get only one at-bat in the playoffs? He was a big reason the Mets went on a roll. He’s a lefty and could have done better than Daniel Vogelbach did. Vogelbach never got a hit. Why did Francisco Alvarez only get one at-bat? Buck said he didn’t play against Snell because he didn’t want the pitcher to take advantage of him. How exactly? How about taking a few shots with those bench players instead of going down with just one hit in a game? Having 100% loyalty to those players wasn’t going to help the Mets in Game 3.

Should I talk about Michal Givens? Never mind. Hopefully, Buck learned a few things about himself in that series. Bob Melvin schooled him with the batters stepping out on his former pitcher Bassitt, and a few other things.