Good Morning,
After an off day on Thursday, the Mets return to action in the shadow of Disneyland against the struggling Angels, who finally snapped their franchise-worst 14-game losing streak with a 5–2 win over the Red Sox last night.
Today is a good day because it’s Friday and because the Mets get Tylor Megill back. The upstart right-hander will look to pick up where he left off when he was placed on the IL on May 12 with bicep tendinitis. Following a theme of “next man up”, the Mets have gone an impressive 17–10 since losing Megill. However, the rotation has seen their ERA ranking drop from the eighth best in baseball to 21st overall during his absence, which also includes several weeks without Max Scherzer.
Speaking of Mr. Scherzer, we received good news about him yesterday. According to Pat Ragazzo of Sports Illustrated, the veteran ace has started throwing bullpen sessions “at low intensity recently.” The report indicates he could potentially begin a rehab assignment by late next week, which could put him in position to return to the rotation by early July.
While the Mets were regrouping in the Southern California sun, the Braves won their eighth straight game last night. They have sliced four games off the Mets’ lead in the standings over the past 10 days, shrinking a 10.5 game gap to only 6.5 games. Meanwhile, the Phillies are also trying to make up ground, as they have won seven in a row since firing manager Joe Girardi.
🔨 NO THOR: Sunday’s game was moved to primetime earlier in the season so ESPN could possibly showcase Noah Syndergaard pitching against his former team. And everything was lined up for that to happen until (ahem) the Angels balked at the idea, pushing out his next start to Tuesday to “give him an extra day of rest.”
That means Patrick Sandoval (3–1, 2.81 ERA) will get the ball on Sunday and Michael Lorenzen (5–3, 3.69) will pitch Saturday, with no starter named yet for tonight. The Mets will counter with Megill (4–2, 4.41), Carlos Carrasco (7–1, 3.52) and Taijuan Walker (3–2, 3.28).
🍎 ROSTER MOVES: New York will need to make a roster move to activate Megill from the injured list later today. They will also have to decide whether Pete Alonso and/or Starling Marte require a short stint on the IL, or not. They are playing two short of a full roster if they keep Alonso/Marte active without them being available to actually play.
📺 APPLE TV: I can already hear you grumbling. Tonight’s game is on Apple TV+, the second time the Mets have appeared exclusively on the streaming service. Apple just announced their schedule for next month, which will include the Mets again on July 1 against the Texas Rangers.
HOW DO I WATCH? In case you aren’t a streaming expert, you don’t need a subscription to access the Mets game tonight. The game is streaming for free. You can launch the Apple TV app on your phone or smart device. Or you can simply navigate to tv.apple.com in your computer browser to watch. While you don’t need a subscription, you do need to create an Apple ID to log-in and view the game.
WHO ARE THESE ANNOUNCERS? Since the Mets are playing on the west coast, they will have a different announcing crew than the Apple TV broadcast from April. Stephen Nelson (play-by-play), Hunter Pence (analyst) and Katie Nolan (analyst) will make up the three-person booth, with Heidi Watney working as a field reporter.
🎧 LEARN MORE: If you want to hear why Katie Nolan is in the booth and talking like it’s a podcast instead of a baseball game, you can listen to her interview with Sports Illustrated Media Podcast host Jimmy Traina from a few weeks back.
So you know the Angels just went on an epic losing streak. But you might be wondering why? Let’s give a quick overview of their recent fall from grace.
▪️ FINALLY, A WIN: Let’s start with how the Angels finally broke their 14-game losing streak because it has a tie to the Mets. Shohei Ohtani became the first pitcher to hit a go-ahead home run while his team was trailing in the fifth inning or later since Noah Syndergaard did it for the Mets at Dodger Stadium on May 11, 2016.
Ohtani’s power and seven brilliant innings on the mound finally put the Halos in the win column and snapped the Red Sox own streak of seven consecutive wins.
Ok, so how did we get to this point?
▪️ FREE-FALLING: It was only a little over two weeks ago when Noah Syndergaard pitched eight innings of one-run ball and the Angels beat the Rangers for their third straight victory and improved their record to 27–17, only one game back of the first-place Astros. Syndergaard was 3–0 with a 1.48 ERA at the time. The Angels were off to their best start in nearly 20 years. And Mike Trout was hitting .329 with 12 home runs and 26 RBIs.
Since that night, everything has turned on its head. The Angels went on to lose 14 games in a row, dropping an eye-popping NINE GAMES back of Houston. Trout is hitting just .152 over his past 13 games, including a career-worst 0–26 hitless streak, and injured his groin earlier this week. What once appeared to be the start of a promising season has turned into an absolute disaster.
▪️ MADDON GONE: As a result, GM Perry Minasian (who replaced Billy Eppler) received owner Arte Moreno’s blessing to fire manager Joe Maddon, naming Phil Nevin as the interim skipper for the rest of the season.
There are reports that Maddon was already on a short leash before the losing streak, having been hired before Minasian arrived and having demonstrated what many in the organization believed was questionable judgement, both on the field and as a clubhouse leader, such as discussing the possibility of Trout moving to a corner outfield position (something the organization was considering internally) before reaching out to Trout first.
Maddon also seemed to be at odds with the emphasis the Angels placed on analytics, telling The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, “I’m into analytics, but not to the point where everybody wants to shove it down your throat.”
▪️ PITCHING: You can’t talk about the Angels without diving into their pitching. It has been the Achilles’ heel that has kept them from being competitive over the past decade despite having some of the game’s best players.
Through their first 44 games, it appeared as if the Angels had finally put together a formidable rotation, led by Shohei Ohtani and Patrick Sandoval, who, along with Syndergaard and Michael Lorenzen, were a combined 15–7 with a 2.68 ERA.
During their 14-game losing streak, Angel starters went 0–7 with a 6.29 ERA. Combine that with an offense that ranks 29th in wRC+ during that time, and a bullpen that can’t hold a lead if their life depended on it, and you have a recipe for losing, and losing a lot.
▪️ INJURIES: Mets fans don’t want to hear about another team’s injuries, but the Angels have been particularly snake-bitten of late, losing Anthony Rendon (wrist inflammation) and Taylor Ward (strained hamstring), on top of the recent injury to Trout, which doesn’t appear to be serious.
It’s difficult to turn things around without a healthy lineup.
🔻 BOTTOM LINE: The Angels lost seven one-run games during their losing streak, including two 1–0 heartbreakers to the Red Sox this past week. The bullpen has blown seven late leads during that span.
It’s Murphy’s Law: anything that can go wrong has gone wrong for the Halos. They have tried everything to break the slump, including walking up to Nickelback songs, a band the Mets’ social media account used earlier this season to troll the Nationals.
They finally broke through last night. And perhaps it works out for the Mets — How many teams are going to lose 18 in a row? That said, the Amazins could be facing a team ready to re-position themselves in the standings after a dreadful few weeks. This weekend won’t be easy.
◾️ This is fun: In yesterday’s wild Dodgers x White Sox game, Tony La Russa made the questionable decision to intentionally walk Trea Turner with a 1–2 count to face Max Muncy, who abruptly made him pay for that choice with a three-run homer, and had some choice words after rounding the bases:
🔗 Inside the free-agent flurry and new hitting emphasis that turned the Mets offense into one of baseball’s best, by Joel Sherman, NY Post: “Eppler emphasized on-base percentage, defense, versatility and players with strong reputations as good teammates. And he wanted to work quickly. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that MLB would lock out the players on Dec. 2 and that the freeze could go on for a while. Eppler wanted to avoid having to do too much in what was sure to be a transaction frenzy when a new collective bargaining agreement came. So this was the moment to table a manager search and employ aggressiveness and Cohen’s money to begin to change the quality of and tenor around the roster.”
🔗 Don't overlook the key to Escobar's cycle, by Anthony DiComo, MLB.com: “I asked Keith Hernandez, who is one of the 11 players in Mets history to complete a cycle, and he said he felt far more confident about his because he came to the plate in the 12th inning needing only a single. Rather than try to “do too much,” in the parlance of another baseball cliché, Hernandez simply waited for an outside pitch and punched it into left field. Had he needed a home run to complete the cycle, Hernandez said, “I would have had such a negative thought in my mind, it never would have happened.”
📺 Who should Mets target to fortify their pitching staff? SNY’s Baseball Night in America: “Jim Duquette looks at some possible pitching targets for the Mets, both in their rotation and bullpen, over the next couple of months. Pirates reliever David Bednar has caught the attention of both Jim and Dan Graca while some big-name starters like Luis Castillo or Frankie Montas are also potential targets. Arizona's Merrill Kelly and former Yankee Corey Kluber could also be options.”
And we leave you with more incredible power from top prospect Francisco Álvarez…
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When did it become "fasionable" for players of all sports to call out the oppsing team's Managers and Head Coaches ? Its disrespectful, sets bad examples, and downright disgusting. In this case (Muncy who i never have heard of before) hit a HR - isnt that enough - have some class please !
Here’s hoping Tylor Megill is back to early season form. We could really use a good Start. And could the Braves and Phillies maybe lose once in a while?