Good Morning,
The Reds stink. I think we’ve established that. We knew it before David Bell brought his last-place team into Queens, and it was confirmed seeing them up close and personal over the past three days.
I’m sure you can relate to Cinci fans; the Amazins have played a million meaningless games over their 60-year history. It’s not fun. Steve Cohen has changed that. In a league that separates the haves from the have-nots perhaps as much as any other sport, the Mets are rich with talent and resources.
After sweeping the Reds to extend their winning streak to six games, they are 34 games over .500, seven up on the Braves in the standings and on pace to win 106 games, second only to the ‘86 championship team.
New York has been purely dominant over the past week, winning each of the past six games by at least three runs, and having never trailed in any of those games.
When you’re playing this good, you almost don’t want an off day, but New York could use one during a stretch in which they are scheduled for 27 games in 26 days. After some R&R, they will welcome the Phillies into town, winners of seven straight and a completely different team since firing Joe Girardi.
Let’s get you caught up on yesterday’s news.
▼ IN SHORT: The Mets pounded out 13 hits and plated 10 runs, receiving multi-hit games from five players in the lineup, as Taijuan Walker rebounded from his last dreadful start and the Amazins won in a cake walk, 10–2 [Box Score].
🚶WALK THIS WAY: After allowing eight earned runs in his last outing, Walker responded with a six-inning, two-run performance on Wednesday. However, he still thinks there are areas where he can improve:
“I was working on the slider so much that I kind of lost focus on my splitter, and my splitter is my best pitch,” he said, via Newsday. “This next week, I got an extra day, so I’m really going to hammer it and try to get it back, because it is my best pitch.”
The tall, right-hander improved to 10–3 on the season with a 3.43 ERA. Not bad for technically being the team’s fifth starter!
⚾️ HIT BY PITCH: We know the Mets are no stranger to being beaned at the plate. But yesterday, it was a pitch that hit Joey Votto that caught the team’s attention. Votto appeared to lean into a pitch with his arm protection, loading the bases in the fifth during Cincinnati’s only real threat of the day.
“(Votto) had two hits off me, so you’d think he would want to swing,” Walker said after the game. “But it is what it is. We got out of it and won the game, so.”
🍎 IMPRESSIVE: Another day, another multi-hit performance by Daniel Vogelbach, who has six since arriving in late July. The left-handed slugger is batting .391 over his last seven games, amazingly only a slight tick above his overall .341 average as a Met.
He’s not the only newcomer who continues to shine. Tyler Naquin added two more hits yesterday to raise his average with the team to .367 (11-for-30) in ten games played.
It’s not easy living up to the expectations of being the first mega-contract that Steve Cohen handed out as owner of the team. We all know Francisco Lindor had his struggles last season. But this year is a different story.
His RBI-hit in the second inning yesterday tied him with José Reyes for most RBIs by a Mets shortstop in a season — and there are still 40 games to play! He has also scored in 13 straight games, the longest streak in the majors this season and tying him with David Wright for the longest streak in Mets history. Since July 11, Lindor is batting .374/.457/.606 with five home runs, 24 runs scored and 21 RBIs. The Mets are an incredible 20–6 during that time.
“Whenever you can do something cool, it’s a blessing,” Lindor said after the game. “Being next to Reyes, someone I grew up watching, it’s great. But I’m here to try to win a World Series. That’s all I have in mind.”
Mr. Smile has the seventh highest WAR value among major league hitters this season, ahead of players like Mookie Betts and Mike Trout. His positional adjustment helps that, he’s not only hitting 30% above league average, but he is doing so as a shortstop. He’s made his share of errors (8), but he makes up for it with consistent play. Statcast’s Outs Above Average metric places him in the top 4% of shortstops.
He is doing all of this while improving his leadership skills, as detailed in Will Sammon’s recent piece with The Athletic:
“I’m getting better at understanding what people are going through, what people are working on, and then saying sometimes that, you know what, ‘I can’t help you with that.’ Or, ‘When you want to talk about this, come talk to me about it,’” Lindor said, via The Athletic. “Or now if I walk by you, you’re talking about it, it’s, ‘Hey, you don’t mind me sharing something?’ Because I can’t tell you to work on your head when you’re working on your heart. It’s just not fair. We as humans are not wired like that. We can’t work on so many different things. We got to work on one thing and then move on to the next thing.”
When he’s not helping others, he’s focused on his game. I love this anecdote via David Adler of MLB.com:
“I remember [one game] we had a relay that was a little off. I think it kept him up for two days,” Showalter said. He recalled how, hours before Lindor hit home run No. 20 on Tuesday off Mike Minor, he spotted the shortstop sitting alone in the corner of the team dining room. Lindor was on his iPad, watching every pitch Minor threw in his last outing, studying the Reds left-hander.
I know a lot of articles are coming out today to put Lindor’s season in context with his $341 million contract. I’m not going to do that here. Let’s enjoy his recent play and we will take a look back at the value of the contract when we there’s more than 20% of it ticked off.
Some more news and notes from yesterday…
🚺 CELEBRATING WOMEN: Before yesterday’s game, the Mets hosted the first Women’s Day at Citi Field. As part of the celebration, the Mets picked walk-up songs by female artists.
Click on the tweet below to see a thread of each player’s walk-up song. Most entertaining, Daniel Vogelbach walked up to the song, Milkshake, as requested by his teammates. “All the boys wanted me to do it,” Vogelbach said. “The boys want, the boys get. I did it for them.”
🚜 DOWN ON THE FARM: Top prospect Brett Baty recorded his first Triple-A hit last night, reaching base three times and finishing 2-for-3 in his second game with Syracuse.
💍 WEDDING SONG: A couple will use Edwin Díaz’ now famous walk-out song at their wedding after receiving over 3,900 likes on this tweet:
🗓 UP NEXT: After yesterday’s matinee, the Mets receive a rare break of nearly two days without baseball. Buck Showalter plans on using it to veg out:
“You know what a lot of people do when they get time like this? Nothing. They just go, ‘I’m going to wake up, not have anything planned, no structure.’ I might want to sit there and watch ‘The Honeymooners’ reruns.”
After catching up on TV shows, the Mets will host the Phillies over the weekend, as they continue a stretch in which they play the Braves and Phillies 16 times in 18 days.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson responded to Keith Hernandez’s recent comments about his team playing poor fundamental baseball: “I mean, he’s a good baseball man and I respect his opinion, but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with it, because I don’t.”
◾️ J.D. Davis hit his third home run in seven games for the Giants yesterday.
◾️ The Tigers fired longtime general manager Al Avila on Wednesday. The team has finished in last place in four of the past six seasons he has been GM, and they are on pace to finish in last place again.
◾️ The Field of Dreams Game will be played tonight between the Cubs and Reds. It’s worth reading this thread by Joey Votto about the experience:
🔗 Mets’ Francisco Lindor feeling more comfortable, sharing more insight, by Will Sammon, The Athletic ($): “Lindor is a star player who wants to win, wants to help. But just as he’s improved his productivity in what’s been a redeeming second season with the Mets, Lindor has refined how he communicates. He has learned to pick his spots. He said he’s been better for it. So have the Mets.”
🔗 Is Francisco Lindor now ... underrated? by Mike Petriello, MLB: “He’s been one of the best players in baseball, too. He’s been so good, in fact, that if it’s possible for a four-time All-Star signed to the biggest contract in team history to be "underrated," he is indeed that, because when you think about the success of this year’s team, you might think about names like Alonso or Scherzer or Díaz or now deGrom before you think about Lindor. In fact, the Mets had four All-Stars this year (Alonso, Edwin Díaz, Jeff McNeil, and Starling Marte) and Lindor was not among them.”
🔗 Mets trade deadline acquisitions are thriving, but not the only reason the club is dominating, by John Harper, SNY: “In short, if the 2022 Mets are exploding into a full-blown juggernaut, as it appears, it’s because of an all-around performance that speaks to both their stars and their depth, as well as a level of professionalism that reflects well on manager Buck Showalter.”
And we leave you with another great moment from Keith Hernandez…
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Yesterday was a lot of fun at the ballpark (although Citi Field needs to upgrade stadium staff). I knew the Mets were going to win when Nimmo led off with a HBP. HBP is the new walk. Anyway, watching the Mets score 10 runs was delightful. Bring on Philly - the Mets are ready.
A shame that the last CBA was such a total failure in terms of real change. In the NL this year, I count a total of six teams actively trying for . . . six playoff spots. The Brewers traded away their closer. There have always been huge gaps between the best and worst teams, but never in my recollection have so many teams been punting the entire season. There is a point where the overall product suffers. I didn't see a single Reds pitcher who looked impressive. Not one. It's a little better in the AL.