☀️ Good Morning:
In the words of Harry Dunne:
Just when I think you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this…
After squandering two late leads earlier this week to fall four games back of the final wild-card spot, the Mets put themselves back in the win column on Thursday, taking two of three from the Diamondbacks, while gaining a game on Atlanta, who blew a 4–0 lead in Philadelphia last night.
How do we take stock of this team right now?
On the one hand, despite a promising night, they are still three games back of the Braves, every good game seems to be followed by a bad one and FanGraphs only gives them a 18% chance of making the playoffs
On the other hand, should they sneak their way into the postseason tournament, we just saw the recipe that could catapult them on a magical run, winning four of seven from two of the hottest teams in baseball.
We’ve talked about “vibe” games. Thursday was a vibe game. It gave the Mets a series win over Arizona and Edwin Díaz a redemption outing after back-to-back disasters.
Having survived the toughest stretch of their late-season schedule, they are rewarded with a date against the White Sox, while Atlanta remains entangled with the Phillies.
I know what you are all thinking: the typical Mets will turn around and lose two of three to Chicago. Just when I thought they couldn’t possibly be any dumber… Let’s keep the vibes positive this morning!
☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!
❶ Winning Plays
Taking two of three on the road against a team like the Diamondbacks requires you to make winning plays. It doesn’t mean you have to play perfect; in fact, it’s about responding to the opposite. It means you pick up your teammates and reduce the cost of inevitable mistakes, while coming through in clutch situations.
🔷 Take the 7th inning of yesterday’s game. With the game tied at two and David Peterson cruising along, Eugenio Suarez reached on a harmless single that turned into a dangerous situation when Jeff McNeil made an error on the next play, allowing Suarez to reach third with one out.
Behind 2–1 in the count, Peterson executed on a sinker down in the zone, inducing a ground ball to the left side that turned into an inning-ending 5–4–3 double play.
As I said in the chat, the excitement of turning a late-game double play to escape a jam feels like when someone hits a home run. Fist pumps all around!
🔷 M-V-P. David Peterson and his infield defense had a chance to protect a tie game in the seventh after Francisco Lindor homered on an 11-pitch at-bat in the previous frame. The star shortstop fouled off three fastballs and a changeup that leaked out of the zone before turning Ryne Nelson’s sixth offspeed pitch of the match-up into a no doubter:
It was only the second offspeed pitch from a right-handed pitcher that Lindor has turned into a home run this season. He is hitting pretty much everything that comes his way lately, good for a .719 slugging percentage over his last 15 games.
🔷 Taking the lead. Jesse Winker hasn’t completely found his rhythm since being acquired near the trade deadline, but he is making his hits count. Two weeks ago, he conducted a walk-off homer against the Orioles in one of the most exciting finishes of the season; yesterday, his double in the ninth inning gave Jose Iglesias a chance to be the hero.
That’s a 102-mph fastball near his eyeballs that Iglesias muscled into center field. But my favorite moment was the reaction by Mr. Winker from the dugout (Tyrone Taylor pinch ran for him after the double):
These are winning vibes.
❷ Unsung hero
What more can you say about David Peterson?
He’s far from flashy, but he keeps getting the job done, one of the unsung heroes of the season. With Thursday’s win, the Mets are 13–3 in games Peterson starts. As I like to remind you after each of those wins, that is a stark contrast from previous years, and one of the key reasons Carlos Mendoza’s group remains within striking distance of the playoffs.
Facing a Diamondbacks’ lineup that ranks fifth in wRC+ against left-handed pitching, Peterson let one pitch escape the ballpark, but otherwise kept the ball on the ground, using his snap pick-off throw to work out of trouble (twice!), completing seven innings with only two runs on the board.
Leading with his sinker, as usual, his slider looked as good as it has all season, inducing three whiffs and earning him six called strikes.
❸ Redemption Story
Edwin Díaz had seen two sliders turn into decisive home runs this week. Francisco Álvarez wasn’t about to let that happen again, with his teammate clinging to a one-run lead and given the chance to put those two losses behind him.
The Mets’ closer threw 18 pitches on Thursday — 17 of them were fastballs.
“I just follow my catchers always. Alvy, the fastball today he was calling it, so I just followed him,” Díaz said after the game.
Different from Wednesday, he was able to command his fastball in the strike zone, getting ahead 1–2 on each of the three hitters he faced, striking out two of them on pitches touching 98/99 mph darting on the edge of the zone.
This doesn’t solve whatever mechanical problem is causing his slider to float up in the zone, but it was an important bounce-back outing.
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🤕 INJURED: Dedniel Núñez is back on the injured list with “right forearm tightness” after making only one appearance since returning from the IL for the same injury. The reliever will head back to New York for an MRI. In the meantime, the Mets will use his roster spot to add Tylor Megill back to the rotation.
If Núñez can find his health, he can technically return from the IL on September 10 since the Mets backdated his IL date by three days.
🚜 DOWN ON THE FARM: Drew Gilbert hit a home run on Opening Day (March 29) and after missing some time due to an injury, did not hit another one from July 11 to August 21. He now has four homers in his last eight games.
⚾️ BULLPEN HELP: If Steve Cohen is willing to flex his financial muscle, David Stearns could find some relief on the waiver wire after the Giants placed Taylor Rogers on waivers. The former All-Star closer is in the second season of a three-year, $33 million deal, which any team claiming him would have to absorb. Buster Olney names the Mets as a “team interesting to watch,” along with the Red Sox, on the Rogers front. The 33-year-old has a 2.45 ERA in 54 relief appearances this season.
🗓️ UP NEXT: The ‘62 Mets! If anyone is going to break the record for most losses in a season, it is this White Sox team, who has lost seven games in a row and has put their team name on the winning side of the ledger only four times since the All-Star break.
“It’s shattering when it’s happening to you,” ‘said Jay Hook, one of the nine living members from the ‘62 Mets team, “and I’m sure the White Sox are feeling that right now. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. You don’t like to go through life thinking you were part of the worst team of whatever you did.”
📚 LEARN MORE: White Sox might break record for losses. How should the 1962 Mets feel about it? by Tim Britton, The Athletic ($)
📸 WILD CARD SNAPSHOT: The Mets, Cubs and Giants will try to make up some ground on the Braves over the weekend against beatable opponents. Overall, the road ahead is most challenging for San Francisco, who have dropped two in a row and face a significantly tougher schedule than the teams ahead of them in the wild-card standings.
🕷️ Find headlines for all of your favorite teams at SportSpyder, the number one source for sports news links.
◾️ Old friend Rich Hill came on in relief for the Red Sox on Thursday, becoming the only active player to appear in a major-league game in each of the past 20 seasons.
◾️ The Angels announced left-hander Sam Aldegheri will start against the Mariners on Friday. Aldegheri will become the first pitcher born and raised in Italy to play in a Major League Baseball game.
◾️ The Phillies demoted former Met Taijuan Walker to the bullpen in response to his struggles. He has not won a game since May 22.
🔗 Francisco Lindor Q&A: The Mets shortstop on his team’s season, Juan Soto pursuit and more, by Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic ($): “Q: How would you describe the Mets’ season? A: It has been … bumpy. It’s one of those years where coming in, you know you have something special. Obviously, we’ve all got to build to get to the place we want to get to. It didn’t click right away. Then we started clicking. Then we started playing better.”
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I really like Iglesias. He is quite versatile and seems to be quite clutch as well. I hope they bring him back next year. Just a quick thought on Soto. While I wud love the Mets to get him, I believe he is going back to the Yankees. However, Cohen's money is going to make them break 2 banks for him :)
One supremely positive thing coming out of this season is David Petersen. I have always believed he could be this pitcher. My question would be is how long was he dealing with that hip problem and who was giving him medical advice to keep pitching through it if this was what was going to be on the other side by him feeling better? That Dr. should have his license revoked. The way he’s pitching pencils him in for #3 easily next year. I’m also for giving Manaea his money and bringing him back. That’s a pretty good top 3 with Senga. I’m sure Sevy wants to come back and I’d be open to it on a short term deal. His injury history scares me still. Nice bounce back by Diaz but he can’t live the rest of the season throwing only fastballs. He needs to get right and fast with that slider. Can’t say anything more on Lindor with what he doing and his importance to the team. MVP in my mind but Ohtani will win because the sports writers fawn over his every at bat. Yes, he’s doing incredible things but not being in the field is a minus to me. He’s also not the leader Francisco is. Surely, I’m biased too but I have Ohtani burnout.