☀️ GOOD MORNING:
A weekend against the Rockies will make any team look good, but the positives we saw from the Mets extend beyond the past three days.
Juan Soto reached base six times for the first time in his career and for the first time by a Mets player since 2019; he also has a 1.250 OPS over his last 10 games and seems to be finding his confidence at the plate. Jeff McNeil had three extra base hits on Sunday, including two home runs; he also has the second highest OPS on the team (.888). Pete Alonso continues to clobber baseballs, passing David Wright on the Mets’ all-time home run list; I don’t have to tell you he’s been doing this the entire season.
The starting pitching? It wasn’t the toughest assignment to keep the Rockies at bay; but taking a wide-angle view, the Mets have four starters with sub-3.00 ERAs through the first 65 games of the season for the first time since 1985, when a few fellas named Doc Gooden, Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez and Ed Lynch did it.
🍎 MEET THE METS: There’s been few moments like this as a Mets fan. Everything seems to be going right for your favorite team, while it’s going to hell for everyone else. The Phillies were swept by the Pirates, losing each game 2–1, and have lost five straight and nine of their past 10. They’ve been held to a single run in four of their past five games. The Braves are taking gut-punch after gut-punch, being walked off on three consecutive nights, before losing another one-run game on Sunday. They have dropped seven in a row and find themselves 14 games out of first place.
It’s June 9, there’s plenty of baseball to play. But a peek at the standings shows a Mets team looking down at a struggling group of division foes and tied with the Tigers for the fewest losses in baseball.
☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!
It was a busy weekend, so let’s dive into the key takeaways…
💥 CRACK OF THE BAT
When Ronny Mauricio goes boom, he goes BOOM!
Playing on the same team as Pete Alonso, Mauricio took out the measuring tape and somehow marked the team’s longest home run of the season. His insane ability to make loud contact is what excites everyone about his potential.
After going hitless in LA (sounds like a song title), the 24-year-old infielder recorded a knock in each of the three games in Colorado, while playing three different positions — shortstop, third base and DH.
🧩 THE PUZZLE: Manager Carlos Mendoza has a good problem to have with Mauricio, McNeil, and Starling Marte hitting the ball well right now. That leaves Brett Baty as the obvious candidate to lose reps between third, second and DH. If the trend continues, it becomes more complicated when Mark Vientos returns. For now, Mendoza is doing a good job juggling the lineup to get everyone at-bats, playing the match ups, and we will see where things stand after a larger sample.
📉 RUN PREVENTION
We’ve spent plenty of time talking about hitting with runners in scoring position, focusing on the offense, but the key to the club’s success this season has been their ability to keep opponents from capitalizing on situations with runners ready to score.
BEST IN CLASS: The Mets rank second in holding opponents in check with runners on second and/or third base. They are allowing a dismal .215 batting average against. Two of the stingiest with runners in scoring position are Kodai Senga and Clay Holmes, whom only the injured Corbin Burnes ranks in-between for the lowest opponent batting average in such situations (of 115 qualified pitchers).
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