☀️ Good Morning:
The Mets weren’t supposed to win last night’s game.
Not when you get stuck on the tarmac the previous night and don’t get home until 5:00 am.
Not when you find out before the game one of your rising young pitchers has a UCL sprain.
Not when you go 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and load the bases twice with one out and come away with zero runs.
Not when your bullpen is taxed and you have to ask Jake freaking Diekman to pitch to Aaron Judge in a one-run game in the ninth inning.
No, you’re not supposed to beat the big, bad Yankees at Yankee Stadium like that. And some of these problems will linger ahead, but like gulping a tall glass of whiskey, they were forgotten in the moment.
The Amazins used a Jeff McNeil home run and Jake Diekman save to beat the Yankees for the third straight time this season. If that’s not the most ironic one-sentence recap of the 2024 season, I don’t know what is.
☕️ We have a lot to talk about this morning, so grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!
💡 The Decision
Readers of this newsletter who are privy to the bullpen chart knew the situation in front of manager Carlos Mendoza last night. As I wrote in yesterday’s newsletter:
“The cost of Edwin Díaz making the 9th inning an adventure on Monday is that he will probably be unavailable tonight. It’s hard to see José Buttó pitching for the third time in four nights after throwing two innings yesterday. Adrian Houser was also recently used for length.”
That left the bullpen three arms short. Mendoza used the arms he had left, including the recently called up Alex Young, to navigate a razor-thin margin in the Bronx.
The game reaching its climax with Jake Diekman asked to pitch with a one-run lead in the ninth. The veteran lefty entered the game having allowed 10 earned runs in his previous seven games. Right-handed batters have hit four home runs off him this season and carry an .889 slugging percentage against him during the month of July.
Forgive Mets fans for wanting to turn off their televisions.
Those brave enough to watch saw Trent Grisham send a fly ball to the warning track for the first out, before Juan Soto walked on four pitches. It set up a match-up against Aaron Judge, who the Mets had pitched around all night and had already walked four times.
Do you pitch to Judge in the ninth with the tying run on first base?
As I said in the moment in the chat, I pitch to Judge. I get that they had asked someone else to beat them all night, even walking Judge in the seventh as the go-ahead run. But there was an open base in the seventh. Walking him in the ninth would mean pushing the tying run into scoring position. As dangerous as Judge is at the plate, I rather get beat on an extra base hit than help the Yankees tie the game in the final inning on walks and an excuse me single.
Nobody hits more home runs than Aaron Judge. He has 35 on the season, which is five more than the next closest player, Shohei Ohtani. When it’s the ninth inning and Diekman is on the mound, it’s easy to believe Judge is going to hit another one.
While Mendoza admitted after the game his decision to pitch to Judge was based mostly on feel, the numbers remind us that it’s not impossible to get him out in that situation.
Judge has had 59 plate appearances in “late and close” situations this year (batting in the 7th inning or later with the game tied, within one run or with the tying run on deck). Yes, he has three homers, but he is also batting .216 in those key moments, with 21 strikeouts.
So it’s not impossible to get him out, but it’s usually an assignment for someone, anyone other than a pitcher like Jake Diekman. Judge had only faced a lefty in a high-leverage situation this season six times heading into last night. He was 2-for-6 with a homer and two strikeouts in those match-ups.
How do you get him out?
For Diekman, the key was throwing Strike 1.
“After four straight balls to Soto, [the mindset is to] see a pitch, see where he’s at with his command and then from there go to work,” Judge told reporters after the game, via MLB.
A first-pitch strike allowed him to get ahead in the count after missing on a changeup but getting Judge to foul off another down in the zone. Diekman went back to his fastball inside for Ball 2, before throwing his best pitch of the season, a 96-mph four-seamer that dotted the inside corner for a called Strike 3.
📚 Put it in the books! The Mets win! Just how they drew it up, right?
🏥 A sprained UCL
Keep sipping that whiskey from last night’s win before reminding yourself Christian Scott was placed on the IL with a sprained UCL in his right elbow.
Any time you read UCL next to a pitcher’s name, it’s not good. The Mets have not revealed the severity of the injury, waiting on “multiple doctors” to read the results of an MRI from Tuesday.
Depending on those results, Scott could require surgery. It comes down to whether he has a full tear, necessitating Tommy John surgery.
“It’s too early to tell,” Mendoza said of Scott’s diagnosis, via MLB. “I’m not going to sit here and speculate when we don’t have all the facts and all the information. We’ve got to wait till the doctors and all the people that have to read the MRI and all that, and then we’ll make that decision.”
I would say Mets fans can’t have nice things, but this is the disease across baseball right now. Organizations bend over backwards to handle young arms with kids gloves. The Amazins have certainly done so with Scott, reducing his workload this season to avoid added stress on his arm as he adjusted to a new schedule.
Yet, here we are. Waiting on what feels like inevitable news that he could be sidelined for the next year.
✍️ Depth Signing
Remember when Jackie Bradley Jr. was all the rage on the free agent market? Around the same time Sandy Alderson signed James McCann to a contract the team is still paying for. Well, Bradley is now a Met on a minor-league contract. He will report to Triple-A Syracuse.
Bradley clearly caught David Stearns’ attention while playing nearby for the Long Island Ducks where he was in the middle of a franchise-best 28-game hitting streak and batting .400 with 12 home runs and 35 RBI over 40 games this season. The former Gold Glove winner last played in the majors for the Royals in 2023. He was released midway through the season after struggling mightily at the plate with 29 strikeouts to only 14 hits in 113 plate appearances. He played previously for Stearns in Milwaukee during the 2021 season.
Signing Bradley gives the organization outfield depth in the wake of Starling Marte’s lingering injury. The Mets have major-league depth in Harrison Bader, Tyrone Taylor and Jeff McNeil, not to mention DJ Stewart and Ben Gamel. However, there is not many experienced outfielders behind that group. Yolmer Sánchez has major-league stripes, but has struggled to hit Triple-A pitching. Carlos Cortes has hit the ball hard and could warrant a look, along with Rhylan Thomas, but neither have played a Big League inning. Drew Gilbert needs more time in the incubator.
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🔥 ON FIRE: Not to be lost among the late-inning bullpen tension, Jeff McNeil hit another home run on Tuesday, his fourth in his last five games. This one off former Met Michael Tonkin gave his team a 3–1 lead in the sixth inning, allowing Dedniel Núñez, Phil Maton and Diekman the opportunity to close out a win.
🔻 RISP: The Mets are 3–2 since the All-Star break, but they are a pitiful 4-for-39 with runners in scoring position during that time. When you can win games with those numbers, it helps explain why the team is 30–15 in their last 45 games.
📝 ROSTER MOVES: By placing Christian Scott on the 15-day IL, retroactive to July 22, the Mets were able to call up left-hander Alex Young before his 15 day optional assignment was up.
👍 READY TO GO: Kodai Senga feels “100% ready” as he nears his return to the rotation on Friday against the Braves.
Meanwhile, Sean Reid-Foley will start a rehab assignment with Brooklyn on Friday. And Reed Garrett is “progressing well” after throwing from 100 feet on Monday.
🚜 DOWN ON THE FARM: Brett Baty had himself a night for Triple-A Syracuse, playing in Buffalo. Playing third base and batting thrid, he went 4-for-5 with two home runs and a double, driving in three. He has hits in back-to-back games after recording only one hit in the previous nine games.
Looking at players in the minors who are hitting the ball hard right now, Baty’s name floats near the top, behind Austin Allen and Mike Brosseau. As mentioned earlier, both Carlos Cortes and Rylan Bannon are making solid contact.
🗓️ UP NEXT: The Mets will look to sweep all four games against the Yankees this season with Sean Manaea (6–4, 3.73) on the mound against Gerrit Cole (3–1, 4.60).
The bullpen remains taxed, but everyone should be available except Phil Maton and Jake Diekman tonight.
🕷️ Find headlines for all of your favorite teams at SportSpyder, the number one source for sports news links.
◾️ Mike Trout was removed after only two innings in his first minor-league rehab game on Tuesday due to soreness in his surgically repaired left knee.
◾️ Phenom Paul Skenes lost his first game in 12 major-league starts despite allowing only two runs and pitching within two outs of a complete game.
◾️ Jordan Montgomery allowed one run over five innings in his return from a knee injury that had kept him sidelined for one month.
🔗 Mets lineup much deeper than Yankees heading into stretch run, by Jon Heyman, NY Post: “The previously slumping former batting champion Jeff McNeil is downright hot now, which gives the Mets a chance to have about the deepest lineup in baseball. One through nine, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza can write a bona fide threat into every spot in the order, at least on days when Jose Iglesias is playing and not singing.”
🔗 Mets’ Luis Severino returns to Yankee Stadium healthy, confident in new training methods: ‘I got a whole different routine here’, by James O’Connell, NY Daily News ($): “They have different machines up there that we were working with,” Severino told the Daily News. “I don’t want to spill any secrets, but since spring training I got tested with this machine for my [body’s] strain. Based on that strain, I’ve been doing some exercises based on that, so that’s one of the main things that have [made me get] stronger.”
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A great win last night! In my humble opinion one of the best wins of the year. Despite the travel & rest issues the Mets still found the resolve & fight to prevail over the Yankees! This way of winning an important ball game isn't going to happen every night but when it does happen like it did last night it is time to rejoice and take pleasure in it. Here's to hoping the Mets can complete the season sweep of the Yankees tonight! Great win and great credit to the whole organization from Cohen on down for finding a way to win last night's game!
Great summary of last nights game - like a movie out of Hollywood LOL. Good for Jeff McNeil. That took GUTS on the desicion by Mendoza.