Not the same ol' teams

🎧 Mets Fix Episode 49: Citi Field Magic

☀️ Good Morning:

It’s not very often the Jets and Mets are both relevant in September, which frankly says more about the football team than our favorite baseball club, but as I walked into MetLife Stadium last night, passing fans in Jets jerseys and Mets hats, it felt like a new day was upon us. 

After being tortured for decades by division rivals, Patriots fans in #12 jerseys, Braves fans making a ridiculous chopping motion through our televisions, Phillies fans being Philly fans, perhaps, just maybe, the world is starting to spin our way.

There was a time when a pitcher like Taijuan Walker, mired in a horrific slump, would have returned to Citi Field to find his best self and shutdown the Mets in a critical game.

Not anymore. In fact, the way things have been going, it feels like he would have pitched better had he still been under the tutelage of pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and wearing an orange interlocking NY. 

On a night Shohei Ohtani invented the 50/50 Club and drove in 10 runs, the Mets scored 10 runs for the third consecutive game, a first in franchise history. And a feat they accomplished without Francisco Lindor. Although, I should note the Dodgers would have still scored 10 runs on Thursday even without Ohtani’s big day (🙃).

Since I was a bit distracted last night, I will let Peter Kauffmann, who was at Citi Field, breakdown last night’s big win in a conversation with Blake Zeff on the latest edition of The Mets Fix Podcast.

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Box Score | Full Standings

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🎧 Mets Fix Podcast

Peter joins Blake from Citi Field after a thrilling victory. The two discuss the incredible vibes surrounding this team, the atmosphere at Citi Field, and the playoff push ahead.

Make sure you’re subscribed to the Mets Fix Podcast on your favorite platform (Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud).

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🔋 POWER DISPLAY: The Mets have looked like the Phillies with their power display over the last several days. After Mark Vientos and Pete Alonso opened up the scoring with back-to-back homers in the first, Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Álvarez joined the fray a few innings later.

• Vientos joins Darryl Strawberry (1983-1986), David Wright (2005-2007),

  Michael Conforto (2017), Pete Alonso (2019) and Francisco Alvarez (2023) as the

  only players in franchise history age 24 or younger to have 25 or more home runs

  in a season. After falling into a dreadful slump that saw him go 3-for-38 after his game-winning home run a few weeks back, he has recorded two hits on back-to-back nights.

• Nimmo appears to be returning to form after hitting home runs in back-to-back games.. He has four homers, three doubles and 13 RBI over his last 14 home games. Overall, he has a hit in each of the last six games, with 9 RBI during that span.

• Alonso is also heating up at the right time. He has hits in seven straight, smacking three home runs and batting .393 over that stretch.

• Álvarez has found his power stroke. Last night was his fourth homer in the last eight games.

😱 OMG: Mr. Everything Jose Iglesias extended his hitting streak to 13 games with two more hits filling in at the top of the order for Lindor. The veteran middle infielder is batting an eye-popping .396 at Citi Field this season. And in 26 plate appearance in the lead-off slot, he has 11 hits and seven runs scored.

🏎️ NEED FOR SPEED: Luisangel Acuña continues to open eyes after his recent call-up. He recorded another hit and RBI on Thursday, bringing fans to their feet with a triple in the seventh. His 11.21 seconds getting from home to third was the fastest of any Mets player in 2024.

⏳ WAITING GAME: Francisco Lindor is “slowly getting better” but there is still no timetable for his return. He is considered day-to-day as the Mets wait for him to wake up and roll out of bed with a little less back pain.

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✉️ Mailbag: Who starts against the Braves?

Greg asks, “Out of curiosity, how do you envision the rotation lining up for the next couple series? I thought they had adjusted the rotation last week so that Peterson, Sevy and Manaea would face the Braves but that means skipping Quintana, who is on fire.”

Great question! Last week, the Mets adjusted their rotation to have Severino, Peterson and Manaea lined up for the Braves series, which made complete sense at the time. But with Quintana extending his scoreless streak to 22.1 innings, it makes you wonder if he deserves a start in Atlanta.

Both Severino and Quintana have made two starts each against the Braves this season, with Severino performing better, holding them to two runs over five innings each time, both at home. Quintana faced them twice early in the season, so it's harder to gauge his results relative to how he is pitching now.

A key factor is the fact Severino is a righty. The Braves rank 22nd against right-handed pitching (with Michael Harris and Matt Olson the only two regular lefties in their lineup), versus sixth against left-handed pitching.

After another solid outing by Severino on Thursday, I think an argument could be made for skipping Peterson, who has a fairly strong split advantage against lefties, making the rotation against the Braves look something like this:

• Tue at ATL: Quintana (five days of rest)

• Wed at ATL: Severino (five days of rest)

• Thu at ATL: Manaea (four days of rest)

And thus, the rotation against Milwaukee like this:

• Fri at MIL: Peterson (six days of rest)

• Sat at MIL: Megill (five days of rest)

• Sun at MIL: Quintana (four days of rest), and everyone on deck if this is a must-win game

This could also set the Mets up to start Severino and Manaea in Games 1 and 2 of the Wild Card Series.

If you have more faith in Severino than Quintana to help secure a playoff spot, you could flip-flop his place above with Quintana so Severino would pitch Tuesday and Sunday, while Quintana would gain an extra day of rest and pitch on Wednesday. Quintana has a 2.96 ERA with five days of rest, compared to 5.29 ERA on regular rest. That could be a factor for that final start on Sunday, even though everyone would be available in a must-win game.

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🗓️ UP NEXT: After a favorable pitching matchup to open the series, it will be a bit more challenging on Friday. In a battle of southpaws, David Peterson (9–2, 2.85) will take on Christopher Sánchez (10–9, 3.24), who has allowed only three earned runs over his last three starts (20 innings). Keep in mind tonight’s game is on Apple TV+.

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📸 WILD CARD SNAPSHOT: The longer the wild-card standings remain the same, the better news it is for the Mets. They have maintained a two-game lead on Atlanta and a tie with Arizona for the past few days. Since New York holds the tiebreaker over Arizona, they would secure the second wild-card spot if they remain deadlocked in the standings.

San Diego has a real chance to separate themselves with three games against the lowly White Sox before a three-game set with the Dodgers in a last-ditch effort to make the NL West race interesting.

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🕷️ Find headlines for all of your favorite teams at SportSpyder, the number one source for sports news links.

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🔗 Inside the Mets’ revival: Grimace, OMG and a turnaround no one saw coming, by Tim Britton and Brittany Ghiroli, The Athletic ($): “While Grimace is the totem of a turnaround, the reasons for the Mets’ unexpected revival, from 11 games under .500 to 15 over with a week and a half to play, from spring irrelevance to fall legitimacy, are difficult to count. There’s the kid from Manhattan who grew up to run his favorite baseball team. There’s the manager from across town whose belief in himself and his players never wavered. There’s the utility infielder who moonlights performing postgame concerts. There’s player after player who has improved as the season has progressed. There are immaculate vibes everywhere.”

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