The Metropolitan: Stroman for the win
Plus: The Mets’ bats come alive
Good Morning,
Today we’ll talk about Marcus Stroman’s impressive first start and preview today’s rubber match against the Phillies. But first: If you enjoy this free newsletter, please consider sharing it with others:
And with that, we start with the news.
🍎 Recap last night’s game…
⚾️ IN SHORT: Marcus Stroman returned to the mound after sitting out last season, and pitched six innings of 1-run ball, as the Mets used 2-run homers by Dominic Smith and Pete Alonso to power them to an 8-4 victory over the Phillies, their first of the 2021 season. [Box Score]
✅ THE BOSS APPROVES:
🔑 KEY MOMENT: After being (controversially) glued to the bench during the season opener, Dominic Smith hit a home run off a pitch that is rarely ever taken deep, to give the Mets an early 2-0 lead. It was the highest located pitch he has ever hit for a long ball, and the third highest pitch any Mets player has sent over the wall since 2008, per Sarah Langs.
🏆 RUNNER-UP MOMENT: After committing to improve his defense this offseason, Pete Alonso made a crucial defensive play to prevent a pivotal run in the bottom of the 6th. With the tying runner on second, he sprawled to his left to rob Didi Gregorius of a double and record a key second out as the Mets clung to a 2-1 lead at the time.
💊 TIME FOR ROLAIDS: With two outs in the 7th of a 4-2 game, and Phillies on second and third, Luis Rojas left Miguel Castro in to face Bryce Harper (with lefty Aaron Loup warming in the pen). Harper was retired on a rope to deep centerfield.
3 QUICK TAKEAWAYS
❶ HELLO RUNS: The Mets put up their first crooked number of the season in the 7th inning (scoring 4 runs), and did so, mostly without needing to lift the bat off their shoulders. Phillies right-hander Vince Velasquez walked four of the first five batters he faced in the inning, giving a free pass to Brandon Nimmo with the bases loaded to force in a run. Nimmo then helped create another run as part of a double steal that resulted in Kevin Pillar technically becoming the first Met since Eric “Soup” Campbell to steal home since 2014. Francisco Lindor recorded his first RBI on a sacrifice fly. And Michael Conforto broke the game open with an RBI double.
❷ BULLPEN STILL SHAKY: The Mets needed all the runs they could get as the bullpen looked rough for the second consecutive night. First, Miguel Castro wasn’t sharp pitching on back-to-back nights, allowing 1 run on three hits. Trevor May had another shaky start to the 8th, giving up two hits, but retired the side with two straight punchouts. And Jeurys Familia made fans sweat the 9th when he allowed two runs after three of the first four hitters reached base, before closing out the game.
❸ BACK IN ACTION: Marcus Stroman made his first regular season start since 2019 and looked in vintage form, inducing ground balls on 15 of the 18 balls the Phillies put in play. Overall, he allowed only three hits and one earned run over six innings, while striking out three and walking two (much more on this in a bit).
🧑🏫 SOUND SMART: With his 9th inning long ball, Pete Alonso became the fastest player to reach 70 career home runs, surpassing Aaron Judge’s previous record in 11 fewer games.
🎥 HIGHLIGHTS:
⏭ NEXT UP: It will be a quick turnaround for the rubber game, as the Mets play the Phillies at 4:05 PM EST today. David Peterson takes the mound, looking to build off his impressive rookie campaign and prove he should stick in the rotation when the rest of the staff is healthy. Phillies’ ace Aaron Nola presents a tough match-up: He shut the Braves down in his first start.
🦾ARMS RACE: With May and Castro throwing in both of the first two games, and Familia unloading a lot of pitches last night, the Mets may have limited options out of the pen today. Look to guys like Edwin Diaz, Jacob Barnes, Dellin Betances, Robert Gsellman and Aaron Loup to get the call after Peterson is done (in other words, hold your breath).
🤕 BANGED UP: J.D. Davis was hit in the left hand by a 91 MPH pitch in the second inning and was forced to leave the game for Luis Guillorme. The Mets announced X-Rays were negative and have listed him as day-to-day with a contusion.
💉 VACCINE: The Mets’ team physician trained the team about the COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday. While several players noted they had learned from the presentation, it’s unclear if the club will soon reach the 85 % threshold that other teams have already crossed in order to relax certain protocols.
JEFF McNEIL: “It was extremely informative,” McNeil said of the training. “Whole team was there. Just getting to talk about it for an hour, a lot of the guys learned some stuff and it’s something that definitely needed to be had.”
🍎 TEACHER’S PET: Manager Luis Rojas kept the ball from last night’s final out to present to Steve Cohen in recognition of his first win as owner of the Mets. Kevin Pillar caught the final out and had the original idea to keep the ball.
🔐 KEITH MOMENT: Seconds before Dom Smith hit his 2-run home run, a strange sound went off in the SNY booth. It was Keith Hernandez’ iPad… It was a text from a friend who was trying to feed Keith’s cat, but he accidentally got the house key jammed in the front door lock. Keith said he needed to get another friend to help make sure he could get into his house after the game 😂
Vintage Stro… with a twist
🧓 by Jeffrey Bellone
The last time Marcus Stroman pitched in a regular season game, Pete Alonso was chasing the rookie home run record, Mickey Callaway was still the manager of the team, and many Mets fans had probably never heard of Steve Cohen and definitely could have never guessed they would need to show vaccination proof or a negative COVID-19 test to enter Citi Field one day.
Returning to the mound on Tuesday for the first time since September 2019, Stroman looked very much himself, while also, a little different. He relied heavily (pun intended) on his sinker to generate ground ball outs (13 of them), while using his cutter and slider to mix things up. From that standpoint, it was a classic Stroman outing. He’s not going to strike a lot of people out, but he doesn’t need to if his sinker is keeping hitters from making solid contact.
What was different was his secondary pitches. Besides his typical sinker offsets (slider, cutter, and occasional four-seamer), he tried to cycle in a new look that he spent time developing over the offseason. He calls it a “split-changeup” and it gives him a pitch with a velocity that sits nicely in-between his sinker and slider speeds, while also taking on a different shape than his primary offerings.
What do we mean by different shape? A pitch takes shape by its movement profile. Stroman’s sinker averages around 28 inches of drop, while moving about 12 inches to his arm side. This combination of drop and run is what creates the “sinker” effect. To offset that pitch, in the past, he has occasionally thrown a change-up to left-handed hitters. The problem is that it doesn’t have enough movement to cause hitters to swing-and-miss.
Enter the split-changeup. As you can see in the graphic below, the pitch has a fair amount of vertical drop, creating true separation from his sinker, with similar run.
While Stroman didn’t confirm that he used his split-change last night, the reason we believe it probably was the new pitch (and apparently the people who update Statcast followed our lead) was because of its speed, low spin rate, and vertical drop. Stroman threw three pitches in the first inning with a sub-2000 spin rate, at a speed that was slower than his sinker but faster than his traditional change-up, and with significant vertical drop. He tried a few more in the second inning, and another in the third.
Didi Gregorius then took a pitch deep in the 4th inning that had the spin profile of a change-up, but it’s unclear exactly what the pitch was, since its movement and velocity wasn’t very different from his sinker. However, after that pitch, Stroman didn’t throw anything that resembled a change-up or split-change again.
If Stroman can figure out his new pitch, and continue to record outs the way he always has with his sinker/slider combination, it could be an exciting season for him.
For all the headlines and rumors about high-priced free agents and superstar trades this offseason, it was a somewhat procedural move to extend Stroman a qualifying offer, but it could prove to be one of the most critical moves the Mets made.
With Carlos Carrasco and Noah Syndergaard both sidelined for the foreseeable future, the Amazins’ rotation can start to feel thin, quickly. That is, unless Stroman and/or someone like Taijuan Walker steps up in a big way. We will find out about Walker, starting tomorrow; but Mets fans have to feel good about Stroman after his first start.
⚾️ Padres GM A.J. Preller says superstar shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. won’t need surgery on his injured shoulder, but he was placed on the 10-day IL.
⚾️ After homering off the first Major League pitch he had ever seen and hitting a grand slam a day later, Rule 5 pick Akil Baddoo continued his magical ride with a walk-off single to give the Tigers a 4-3 win over the Twins on Tuesday.
⚾️ Juan Soto delivered a walk-off hit as the Nationals beat the Braves 6-5 in their first game of the 2021 season (with 10 players on the IL due to COVID).
🔗 Marcus Stroman praises decision to move All-Star Game, by Andy Martino, SNY: “I think it was a great decision,” Stroman said. “I think it was needed. I think that you heard that from a lot of guys around the league. With the climate we’re in, I think they made the right call.”
🔗 Mets’ Luis Rojas needs to learn the Buck Showalter rule, by Mike Vaccaro, NY Post: “Here’s the thing I learned as a young manager, and it’s the thing I see with just about every young manager, even those who have gone on to be very successful in the job,” Showalter said behind the batting cage at Yankee Stadium. “This here is a simple game. I know, it’s funny that I’m saying that because people believe all I do is overthink things. And you know something? Sometimes maybe I do.”
And we leave you with this awesomely bizarre baseball moment from Michael Conforto last night…
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.Poor Michael.... looks like the little guys got grazed LOL