☀️ GOOD MORNING:
The Dodgers are in the midst of playing 29 straight games against teams with winning records. They are about halfway through that stretch now, having played Arizona, Cleveland, the Yankees and the Mets.
If I was writing Dodgers Fix this morning, I would be noting how the Mets might be the toughest competition of the lot. As Steve Cohen dreamed, everything the Dodgers have become, is what the Mets are becoming — a franchise that spends money, attracts the biggest stars and turns reclamation projects into success stories. On that final point, you could argue David Stearns is already better.
Griffin Canning walked into Dodger Stadium on Wednesday night, saw the World Series banners, the MVPs from Shohei Ohtani to Mookie Betts to Freddie Freeman, and he didn’t blink.
That nasty changeup to Ohtani, with the bubble-gum confidence as he walked off the mound, was one of 19 called strikes Canning earned on the night. When you can command the strike zone and unleash a slider that got nine whiffs on 22 swings, you’re going to put up zeroes on the scoreboard. Canning shutdown the best offense in baseball for six innings, allowing only three hits and one walk, and struck out seven.
Pete Alonso did the rest. And the Mets have won four of six from the Dodgers, taking the season series and making it clear they are going to be a tough out if these two teams meet again in October.
👍 MORE GOOD NEWS: We also received a positive update on Mark Vientos. His hamstring injury is being classified as a “low-grade” strain, which will allow him to return to baseball activities in 10-14 days.
☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!
🤖 RBI MACHINE
Before we talk about the Polar Bear, I appreciate everyone who reached out yesterday to offer their thoughts on the AI graphics. Pablo Picasso once said, “Art is the lie that allows us to realize the truth.” It’s also what makes us human. I will tread carefully in using AI to enhance the graphics, while refusing to ever use it to replace the words and emotions you read everyday in this newsletter. The graphics in today’s issue were designed by yours truly.
⚙️ Pete Alonso put the offense on his back on Wednesday, clobbering two home runs to drive in five of the Mets’ six runs. It was his 22nd multi-homer game as a Met, tied with Darryl Strawberry for the most in franchise history. And it puts him only 12 away from reaching Strawberry atop the club’s all-time home run list.
Alonso’s five-RBI night gives him 53 on the season, short of only his 2022 campaign (57) for the most through the first 62 games of a Mets’ season. He is tied with Seiya Suzuki for most RBIs in the National League and only one shy of Rafael Devers for the major-league lead.
The Mets’ first baseman opened the scoring with a two-run blast to right field. Alonso hit seven opposite-field dingers last season, he already has five the other way this year. That heroic home run against Milwaukee is still reverberating in his swing.
To put a bow on the night, he hit his longest bomb of the year in the eighth inning, a 447-foot moonshot to double the lead to 6–0.
It made it an easy, fun-loving night for the Mets, who had Luisangel Acuña wearing a catcher’s mask and playing a simulated game in the dugout, before Juan Soto stole the show in a game of bottle flip:
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