☀️ GOOD MORNING:
A Mets team that started the season with the energetic zeal of Mamdani suddenly looks flawed and tired like Cuomo.
Forget freezing the rent, the Braves are living rent free against the Mets, defeating them for the sixth consecutive time, in all five meetings this season and for the 28th time in 38 games.
This one might hurt the most.
Frankie Montas answered the call with a stellar return. Brett Baty delivered a big hit. The defense was making plays. On the hottest night in Citi Field history, it looked like the Amazins had found their winning ways again. But the offense couldn’t tack on, and Atlanta wouldn’t concede defeat against a Mets’ bullpen that has the fifth worst ERA in baseball since the calendar turned to June.
Huascar Brazobán has been the worst of them all. He had absolutely no idea where any of his pitches were going to land upon entering in the sixth, walking the first three batters he faced to load the bases — he had walked only three batters the entire month of May. All three of those runs would end up scoring, the second time in Brazobán’s last three outings he has allowed at least three runs. He has a 9.72 ERA in June.
José Castillo wasn’t any better behind him. Mets fans have seen about enough of him. He has three meltdowns in 13 appearances since joining the team in a trade with the Diamondbacks back in May. This stat is mind boggling: Castillo has allowed at least two hits in four of his last five outings. He has one clean inning since the start of the month.
🚨 Help is on the way? Breaking late last night, the Mets are reportedly calling up right-hander Jonathan Pintaro, who was just promoted to Triple-A this week, but will reach the majors before pitching there. The 27-year-old, who made 11 starts with a 3.40 ERA in Double-A, brings a filthy splitter that will help him navigate his new role in the bullpen. He has swing-and-miss stuff, striking out 1/3 of the batters he faced in Binghamton.
Pintaro essentially fills the role left open by Max Kranick as a multi-inning option to bridge the gap to the back of the bullpen. As a starter, he had been throwing about four innings per game.
New York will need to make a corresponding move to add him to the 40-man and the active roster.
Meanwhile, Brooks Raley has thrown three scoreless innings, striking out two in each of his three rehab outings.
🤨 Does it matter? In past years, losing to the Braves meant losing the division or a playoff spot. The good news is the Mets probably won’t have to beat their arch rivals to reach October this season. There’s always that one team you scuffle against, no matter how good your record is. Last year, the Amazins were 1–5 against Milwaukee before beating them in the playoffs. We all know the story of the ‘88 Dodgers.
That said, Carlos Mendoza needs to find a way to get on the winning side of the ledger against any team right now. They will finally have the starting pitching match-ups tilt in their favor over the next two nights, before heading to Pittsburgh to play a last-place Pirates team.
📉 Free Falling: Losing 10 of 11 and seven of eight in the division has turned a 5.5-game NL East lead into a 1.5-game deficit. Don’t look back because they are only two games up on the Brewers and Cardinals for a wild-card spot.
🗣️ “We gotta find a way to beat the team on the other side,” Francisco Lindor said after going 0-for-5 at the plate and grounded out with two runners on as the final out in the ninth. “We have to stay together, we have to fight for each other, and just put our heads down and find a way.”
☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!
Have we graduated past the point we don’t believe in injury timelines provided by the New York Mets?
It doesn’t feel like the early 2020s anymore, but you still have to worry when you hear Sean Manaea, the potential savior to a battered rotation, has been shutdown for 48-72 hours due to a loose body in his throwing elbow. The left-hander felt sore after his last rehab outing, which lead to an MRI, cortisone shot and the current prognosis.
Supposedly, this will only set him back “a couple of days” before he makes what could be his final rehab start before joining the rotation.
☠ What are loose bodies? An injury with a name befitting a Sopranos character, loose bodies are small fragments of bone, cartilage, or a combination of both that have broken off and are floating freely within the elbow joint. These fragments can vary in size and may move around within the joint space.
No surgery? “I think that's to be determined,” David Stearns told reporters on Tuesday. “Sometimes you can pitch with these loose bodies for your entire career, and sometimes they need to come out, so I don’t know that we have a definitive determination on that yet.”
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