☀️ GOOD MORNING:
The script was written.
This is how the 2025 New York Mets are supposed to win important baseball games, let alone mid-week August contests against the pitiful Braves.
Kodai Senga pitched 5.2 solid innings. The offense used aggressive baserunning and timely hitting to take a late lead. The super bullpen is supposed to shut the door.
Everyone followed the script except one of the key trade deadline acquisitions.
Forget Hells Bells, Ryan Helsley is like a flag-bearing Aaron Rodgers, promising glory, only to fall apart four batters later. That’s what it took for a 3–2 lead to turn into a one-run deficit on Thursday.
The Mets have now lost five consecutive series, seven straight on-run games, and have dropped 13 of 15, their worst 15-game span since 2018.
▶️ It doesn’t get any easier with the Mariners coming to town. You figure the Brewers will eventually lose again, but they could help the Mets this weekend against Cincinnati. Nothing matters until the Amazins find a way to start winning baseball games again.
☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!
😈 HELLSCAPE
I’m normally skeptical of trading for relievers. They are a temperamental bunch, as anyone who has spent time in a bullpen in any level of competition knows.
But adding the likes of Tyler Rogers and Ryan Helsley felt right. If there are any guys you can count on to consistently do their job in the late innings, it’s these guys.
Helsley arrived to Queens in the middle of his fourth straight campaign in which his ERA was on pace to be below three runs. Most importantly, for a high-leverage reliever, he has amassed an incredible number of shutdown innings, while minimizing his meltdowns. In fact, since 2022, there are only 16 pitchers with at least 100 shutdown performances, and before he was traded, nobody had fewer meltdowns than Helsley.
After the lastest implosion, the 31-year-old already has four meltdowns with the Mets. He had five over the entire 2024 season, six in 2023 and four in 2022.
His fastball is fast, but nothing else. Hitters are clobbering it. And he has no reprieve with his slider when he throws it down the middle of the plate.
“The pitch to Michael Harris, you know right down the middle, breaking ball, and he put a good swing on it,” Helsley said after the game. “The pitch to Albies was actually a ball, a couple balls below the zone, and he put a weird swing on it but ended up a good result. Just got to keep working and try to figure it out.”
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