Hey Siri, give me pitching & speed
Morning Dose: Tuesday, April 8
☀️ Good Morning:
You know it’s too early to get too excited about a baseball team when they are rescheduling start times because it’s too cold outside, but how about this Mets’ pitching?!
No, they aren’t sending Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman out there. There’s no Doc Gooden, or a healthy Jacob deGrom. There’s no This Guy is Pitching Today Day, like Harvey Day.
There’s Kodai Senga giving five workman-like innings, a day after David Peterson battled into the fifth, after Griffin Canning and Tylor Megill before all of them.
Nobody is dominating, but somehow everyone is dominating.
The Amazins have allowed two or fewer runs in each of their past four games, helping them win five in a row. Combined with a bullpen that refuses to budge, they have the lowest ERA in baseball, a 1.72 ERA (17 ER/89.0 IP) that is the second-best mark in franchise history through the team’s first 10 games of a season (since 1968).
A 7-3 start only keeps pace with a competitive National League that has the 9-3 Dodgers waking up in third place in the NL West. There are five teams in the Senior Circuit who have started the season with three or fewer losses.
It’s going to be a fun summer! Whenever the warm weather finally gets here.
☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!
🚄 Speed Kills
We could start pretty much every newsletter this season by talking about the pitching, but let’s discuss the other key to last night’s win, speed.
Inserted as a pinch runner in the eight, Jose Siri demonstrated his value in a tight 1-0 game by using his legs to secure an insurance run.
He stole second to put himself in scoring position with one out.
He then scored a run that only he would have scored on a Tyrone Taylor base hit to center field.
Siri has reached base four times this season, only once on his own hit, and he has scored four runs.
The sign of a good baseball team is one that can find ways to win in both low-scoring and high-scoring environments.
The top of the order showed life last night — Francisco Lindor had three hits (which we will talk about in a bit), Juan Soto finally delivered a game-changing double, and Pete Alonso keeps hitting.
But it was speed and timely hitting from the bottom of the order that gave the team extra breathing room on a night they needed it.
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