Nutty Finish: The Squirrel Delivers

Morning Dose: Wednesday, June 11

☀️ GOOD MORNING:

We knew Juan Soto would eventually get hot. We knew Francisco Lindor would be a big part of the offense. We’ve seen what Pete Alonso is doing.

What we didn’t necessarily expect is a resurgence from Jeff McNeil.

The squirrel delivered a walk-off single on Tuesday to give the Mets a come-from-behind 5–4 victory in extra innings. He also drove in the team’s first run in the second inning. He has now reached base safely in each of his last 13 games, batting .319 (15-for-47) with nine RBI and an OPS of 1.025 during that span.

McNeil has tried to adapt his swing to pull the ball in the air more, failing on several adjustments along the way. But he has found his way recently, focusing on driving the ball and attacking pitches he knows he can hit.

McNeil’s heroics came after Soto and Alonso drove in three runs to tie the game. The Nationals jumped out to an early 3–0 lead off a regressing Griffin Canning. But Canning allowed only one extra run over his final few frames and the bullpen shut it down from there, tossing 4.2 scoreless innings, striking out seven along the way and receiving an impressive debut by Justin Garza.

⚾️ DIVISION RACE: While things keep looking up for the Mets in front of a rocking Citi Field crowd, the opposite is true for their division rivals. On the same day the Phillies learned Aaron Nola will be out longer than expected, old friend Taijuan Walker served up a decisive home run in his first high-leverage relief appearance in an 8–4 loss to the Cubs. Obviously the Nats lost. And the Braves dropped a 4–1 contest in Milwaukee. The Amazins lead on Philly has grown to five games, with everyone else double digits behind.

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

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🍎 JUAN SOTO IS HITTING

Yeah, that’s a headline. Juan Soto, a generational hitter, is doing what we knew he would eventually do, but weren’t exactly sure how quickly he would do it after signing a record-breaking contract.

It took all but 45 days or so, but the swagger is back. We saw it on his third-inning home run, when he took a MacKenzie Gore slider the other way for a long ball, watching it sail through the Queens sky before offering some words to Gore as he rounded the bases.

“We were saying ‘Hi’ to each other, that’s it,” Soto said of his exchange with Gore.

😅 MISTAKES: In a 2–2 count, Gore was hoping to place his slider down and out of reach of Soto, but he cast it over the middle of the plate. Soto made him pay. He did the same thing to Jose A. Ferrer in the eighth, turning a similarly misplaced 0–2 slider into an RBI double.

Soto contributed on both sides of the ball, gunning down José Tena from trying to score in the second inning. It was his fifth outfield assist of the season. Combine that with a hot streak that has him hitting .341 with eight RBI and an 1.225 OPS over his last 12 games, and no wonder the Mets are playing winning baseball.