Cards deal a bad hand

Morning Dose: Monday, May 5

☀️ Good Morning:

The Mets have owned the Cardinals and usually do very well in doubleheaders, so you knew something had to break on Sunday.

Entering Sunday’s twin bill, the Amazins had won nine straight against the Red Birds. Meanwhile, they have played more double dips than any other team since 2021 (34), and before yesterday’s debacle, they had only been swept three times.

If you want to add another streak to the mix, as Blade Tidwell took the mound for his major-league debut, the Mets pitching staff had gone 33 consecutive games allowing four runs or fewer, the longest such streak in the National League in 125 years!

It all came crumbling down on Sunday.

Tidwell allowed six earned runs before the end of the fourth, the Cardinals plated six more runs in the second game, and the Mets got swept.

It was the team’s sixth loss in the past ten games, with five of those losses by one run.

To make matters worse, the injuries are starting to pile up, as we will talk about next.

There’s no rest for the weary. The Mets left St. Louis last night to head west to Arizona where they begin an important three-game set tonight.

☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!

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🩼 Walking Wounded

After losing two starting pitchers and their starting catcher during spring training, the Mets seemed to hold their breath and keep everyone healthy for most of the first month of the season.

The injury bug has struck again.

We will talk about Danny Young in a bit. Sunday brought another injury.

Jesse Winker was forced out of yesterday’s afternoon game with a right oblique injury. We don’t know the MRI results, but the plan is for him to go on the IL on Monday. For a while, Mets fans thought Starling Marte might have also been injured after he exited the second game, but manager Carlos Mendoza said the plan was to pull Marte early since he was seeing his first action of the season in right field.

Who should they call up?

The most obvious candidate to slide into that role is also battling an injury. Brett Baty has been held out of the Triple-A lineup since last Thursday with a sore big toe. However, he is supposedly healthy enough to play. My quest to give Baty Winker’s left-handed DH at-bats will probably come to fruition.

If Baty can’t answer the call, Jared Young would make the most sense as someone on the 40-man roster who could immediately join the team in Arizona.

One thing we have learned is Luisangel Acuña can seemingly play anywhere. He got a shot at third to start the first game on Sunday and immediately made a sparkling play. His ability to move around the diamond (as he later did on Sunday) allows the team to be less selective in whom they call up to replace Winker, or in thinking about their roster flexibility in the future.

🤔 The right time for Tidwell?

The Mets are a franchise defined by pitching. They have obviously pitched well this season, but have done so, as in recent years, relying mostly on free agents and reclamation projects. Which is why the emergence of any new homegrown talent invites so much anticipation and excitement.

Unfortunately, for Blake Tidwell, his debut was a dud.