Light at the end of the tunnel?

Morning Dose: Thursday, July 3

☀️ GOOD MORNING:

Baseball has a funny way of working things out.

Leave it to the Mets and their offense to wake from a three-week slumber in a game they used a you-have-to-be-a-fan-to-know reliever as an opener against the hottest young flamethrower in the sport.

Jacob Misiorowski had allowed three major-league hits in his first three starts before meeting a slightly tweaked New York lineup that exploded for five runs by the end of the second inning.

As ugly as the first game looked, the second game reminded everyone what this team can look like when it’s clicking again. The energy at Citi Field was palpable, the Amazins built on their franchise-best start at home, Francisco Lindor found his groove after earning his first All-Star appearance as a Met, the bullpen was strong and Edwin Díaz put an exclamation mark on the night.

You never know when the tide will turn in baseball. After a dreadful June, the Mets enter July hoping the moon is finally pulling things back in their favor. Sean Manaea threw 60 pitches in his next-to-last rehab start. Kodai Senga continues to make progress in his return. If the major-league club can start hitting and receiving the kind of effort they did in yesterday’s nightcap, there could be some light at the end of what has been a dark tunnel.

🤓 At least we’re not the Braves or Yankees? A good lesson in life: no matter how much you think you are struggling, there is always someone suffering more. The Braves lost another starter to injury, placing Spencer Schwellenbach on the IL with a fractured elbow. And the Mets’ next opponent, the Yankees, erased an 8–0 deficit only to lose for the third straight time to the Blue Jays, falling in a tie for first place. The Bombers have lost 13 of 19. They are 1/2 game worse than the Mets.

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

---

Game 1 | Game 2 | Full Standings

---

🍎 ALL OF THE THOUGHTS

There’s a lot to cover, so I’m going to go in rapid fire and organize my thoughts in terms of the things I know about this team, and the things I am worried about. Hopefully, this provides a level set of where I think things stand as we head into the 4th of July weekend.

🔹 THINGS I KNOW

- I knew coming into the season this team wasn’t a juggernaut. The projection models felt right, a 90-win club. No matter how good David Stearns’ group looked over the first few months, a regression was eventually coming. The talent (or lack thereof in some places) told us this. Nobody expected it to come all at once. But here we are. FanGraphs still projects them to win 89 games. That’s still a playoff team. It’s not about how you start, how you play in June or July, but how many games you win overall, and of course, how you finish.

- I know Juan Soto is a generational hitter. He will continue to do Juan Soto things and be a key piece in this lineup.

- I know Francisco Lindor is going to be streaky, but will ultimately do his part to help this team win games. Lindor’s toe injury has clearly impacted him at the plate. He has been dreadful since the middle of June, or when this dreadful losing stretch began, hitting .133 (8-for-60) over that time before the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader.

In a nod to how things started to turn around last season, Carlos Mendoza moved Lindor in the lineup to try to shake things up, and wa-lah it helped! After 191 consecutive starts in the leadoff spot, Lindor batted second and Brandon Nimmo hit first. The two combined to go 5-for-9 with seven RBIs, highlighted by back-to-back home runs, including Nimmo’s grand slam in the sixth.

“Whatever it takes to win,” Lindor said. “I don't have to hit in one place. I’ll hit wherever the team thinks is the best thing.”