The Metropolitan: Are the Mets actually good? \_(ツ)_/¯
The offense is still asleep. The defense inconsistent. The team is in first place.
Good Morning,
This weekend was an emotional roller-coaster as the Mets looked unstoppable (Friday), depressingly horrendous (Saturday) and solidly competent (Sunday). They ultimately took 2 of 3 from the Nationals, on the strength of their pitching — with Jacob deGrom historically nasty on Friday night (much more on this in a bit).
But first, let’s recap yesterday’s action.
⚾️ IN SHORT: Taijuan Walker threw seven scoreless, Albert Almora Jr. flashed some serious leather in his first centerfield start, and the bullpen was spotless, as the Mets rode homers from J.D. Davis and Pete Alonso to a 4-0 victory over the Nationals.
🔑 KEY MOMENT: With the Mets leading 4-0 in the 6th, one out and runners on first and third, Kyle Schwarber blasted an apparent extra-base hit to deep centerfield… until Almora, Jr. tracked it down just before the wall. Instead of a 4-2 game with a runner on 2nd or 3rd and 2 outs in the 6th, the inning ended with the Mets up 4-0, and they’d never look back. After one start, Almora has established himself as the best defensive outfielder on the team (yes, we know that’s a dubious honor).
🔑 KEY MANAGERIAL CALL: After Walker barely escaped the 6th unscathed (thanks to the aforementioned Almora grab), and with Aaron Loup and Miguel Castro both warm, Luis Rojas opted to bat Walker for himself in the bottom of the inning, and let him stay on to throw the 7th. The move worked out when the right-hander held the Nats scoreless for another inning.
3 TAKEAWAYS
❶ STARTING PITCHING DEPTH: For the first time since 2018, the Mets recorded two shutouts in the same series. This speaks to the depth of the rotation. Obviously, they’ve had talent at the top over the years, but they haven’t always had consistency from their the 3rd or 4th spots. Walker picked up the pieces from Saturday’s poor showing to pitch 7 shutout innings and lower his ERA on the season to 2.14. As the team awaits the return of Carlos Carrasco and Noah Syndergaard, they’ve gotten some quality starts from unsung heroes.
❷ DEFENSE: It’s no secret that team defense has been one of the glaring weaknesses of the season so far. But there was some stellar defensive play on Sunday. Pete Alonso looks like a different player at first base, diving to turn line drives into outs. And following a shaky performance on Saturday, the team responded with several nice plays yesterday, highlighted by Almora’s grab above.
❸ BIG HITTERS: While his defense remains a problem, J.D. Davis is trying to prove he is a net positive player by hitting everything in sight. With his 3-hit day against Patrick Corbin (whom he owns), Davis is now hitting .414 on the season (12-29) with a 1.175 OPS. Meanwhile, Pete Alonso, who launched another bomb, has continued to hit everything hard and is batting .333/.448/.708 over his last 7 games. Besides Nimmo (and deGrom), they are the only guys consistently hitting!
🧑🏫 SOUND SMART: Walker has not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his last ten starts, dating back to last year. He’s also allowed four hits or fewer in all four of his starts this year.
⏭ NEXT UP: The Mets have a day off today, before hosting a two-game set with the Red Sox, and then taking another day off on Thursday. If nothing else they should be well rested to start the month of May. Tomorrow’s matchup is expected to be southpaw David Peterson (1-2, 6.75 ERA) versus righty Garrett Richards (0-2, 6.48 ERA).
SEEKING REDEMPTION: Peterson will look to rebound from a tough outing against the Cubs in which he ran into trouble in the fourth inning and couldn’t complete the frame. For his part, Richards struggled with command in his last outing, walking six and surrendering four runs over 4 2/3 innings vs. the Blue Jays.
🗓️ FROM THE WEEKEND: Before taking yesterday’s rubber match 4-0, the Mets opened the series on Friday with an all-time Jacob deGrom masterpiece. As you likely know, he struck out 15 (his career high), surrendered two hits and no walks, and logged his first shutout of the year, en route to a 6-0 win. Oh yeah, he also had two hits and plated the first RBI of the game. He now has the Major League record for most strikeouts in a pitcher’s first four appearances of a season (50).
Saturday was, um, not as good. Marcus Stroman fell victim to death by singles, with the Nationals dropping in bloopers and grounders, and capitalizing on an early Michael Conforto error. Stephen Tarpley faced 4 batters in relief and didn’t retire any (time to call up Jerry Blevins?). And the Mets’ bats remained Rip Van Winkle, as the team fell 7-1.
In other news….
🔫 COLD BLOODED: J.D. Davis is a Patrick Corbin killer, having swatted four home runs off the Nationals’ lefty, more than he has against any other pitcher.
3️⃣ THREE DOWN: The Mets have now won three series and lost two. And they’re 2-1 in rubber matches.
🍬 SWEET SUGAR: Edwin Diaz is looking good, allowing no earned runs over his last six appearances (spanning 6.1 IP).
🦸♂️ THOR ON THE MEND: RHP Noah Syndergaard reportedly looked great in a rehab game in Port St. Lucie, Fla., facing live hitters for the first time. “I actually watched Noah pitch today from a live feed that we have here from Clover Park,” Rojas said. “He pitched an inning today, faced batters, looked really good from what I saw.” He’s expected back in June, now just a little more than a month away.
🍪 COOKIE CRISP: Not to be outdone, RHP Carlos Carrasco also took a major step forward in his rehab, throwing four innings at the same facility. He could return from his hamstring injury sometime in May.
⛑️ QUELLIN’ BETANCES: RHP Dellin Betances was placed on the 60-day injured list over the weekend due to a right shoulder impingement, which means the earliest he could return is early June.
Jake takes us Back to the Future
🧓 by Jeffrey Bellone
For all the superlatives from deGrom’s incredible performance on Friday (and there were plenty), the simple joy of watching a starter pitch a complete game shutout in 2 hours and 37 minutes might be the most significant.
Baseball has a way of mirroring life and its reflection has at times appeared awkward and unrecognizable, like our daily routines as we Zoom and mask our way through a global pandemic.
More than snapping a 3-game losing streak or adding to a resume that is quickly becoming Hall-of-Fame worthy, Jacob deGrom reminded us how the game was once played.
He took us back to the days when pitch counts were descriptive instead of prescriptive and when “up-and-downs” didn’t dictate when to go to the bullpen, they were what you did if you bought a ticket next to a group of fans who happened to drink their weight in beer.
Friday night wasn’t about vertical or horizontal movement, it was about time and feeling.
For 2 hours and 37 minutes, it didn’t matter whether you needed a vaccine or negative COVID test to enter Citi Field, the atmosphere of the stadium felt real again.
For 2 hours and 37 minutes, whether you were listening to Gary, Keith and Ron on your televisions, or Howie and Wayne on the radio, the game being described felt like one you might have followed as a kid, when baseball was all that mattered to you.
Being a Mets fan isn’t easy. We have learned that the hard way. But being a Mets fan also privies you to nights like Friday night. Whether you became a fan watching Tom Seaver turn a bunch of lovable losers into winners, or watching Keith Hernandez and Doc Gooden lead a group of misfits to prominence, or maybe it was watching a lefty bend the baseball toward the franchise’s first no-hitter; for all the losing, you’ve been rewarded with pitching performances that momentarily have made the Mets seem invincible.
Jacob deGrom struck out 15 batters, lowered his ERA to a microscopic 0.31, delivered two more hits at the plate... yeah, he did all of that. But what he really did was remind us how to feel normal again, remind us what baseball used to be. And remind us why we root for this incredibly frustrating team that on a few occasions does something Amazin’.
⚾️ Arizona pitcher Madison Bumgarner threw a no-hitter on Sunday — sort of. It was a seven inning game due to the new doubleheader rule, and therefore may not officially count as a no-hitter (the ruling is reportedly still being discussed). Since Bumgarner allowed no hits in a complete game, we feel comfortable calling it at least a “casual” no-hitter.
⚾️ Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani delivered the eventual game-winning home run yesterday, crushing a 440-foot blast off Astros righty Luis Garcia in the 8th inning.
⚾️ Rays mega-prospect Luis Patino fanned three over 2 2/3 scoreless innings yesterday in his Rays debut against the Blue Jays. The main piece that came over in the Blake Snell trade, he allowed just one hitter to reach base.
🔗 10 Mets takeaways after 10 percent of '21, by Anthony DiComo, MLB.com: “Officially, the Mets completed the first 10 percent of their season with a 4-0 win over the Nationals at Citi Field on Sunday… They are 9-8. As that record attests, things haven’t always gone smoothly for the Mets, who endured weather and COVID-19 issues that not only upended their schedule, but also -- they feel, at least -- affected their consistency… There are indeed plenty of reasons for the Mets to be content upon reaching the season’s one-tenth marker. Here are 10 takeaways from that 10 percent.”
🔗 deGrom’s greatness is second only to Seaver in Mets history, by Anthony Reiber, Newsday: “On July 22, the Mets are planning to dedicate a statue to Tom Seaver outside Citi Field. Hopefully, they will leave room for another one that will need to go up in about 8-10 years. For Jacob deGrom.”
🔗 Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo, wanting another weapon in his arsenal, dove into head-first slides, by Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic: “Even now, Brandon Nimmo is a little sheepish talking about it. “I’m a major-league baseball player, and I hadn’t head-first slid ever,” Nimmo said. “How is that even possible?” Mets manager Luis Rojas had asked him during the shortened 2020 season about changing from feet-first to head-first slides on attempted steals. Then one day early in camp, as the Mets prepared for sliding practice, he told new first base coach Tony Tarasco he wanted to make the leap, literally.”
🎧 LISTEN: Jay Horwitz speaks to former Met Michael Cuddyer for the Mets Alumni Podcast about the 2015 World Series squad, why Cuddyer really retired before his contract was up and growing up with David Wright.
And… with respect to GKR, we leave you with the absolute best way to watch the Almora grab:
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