☀️ GOOD MORNING:
As if moving the start time up wasn’t enough, the Mets made it clear in their play that they were ready to move on from playing the lowly White Sox and enjoy some extra evening time and an off day on Thursday before welcoming the historically bad Rockies to Citi Field over the weekend.
The Mets have been haunted all season with runners in scoring position. Surviving near league-worst numbers thanks to incredible pitching. It’s why their position in the standings has felt a bit tenuous, knowing starters like Griffin Canning can turn back into, well, Griffin Canning. If the offense continues to fail in key spots, eventually it will take a toll.
Carlos Mendoza’s group has the lowest OPS in the National League over the past 15 days. It’s not only that they aren’t finding open grass, they have only hit six home runs in that span, two coming in the first inning on Tuesday, another off the bat of Mark Vientos on Wednesday.
“We got a lot of good hitters there, I’m pretty confident that at the end of the year the numbers are gonna be where they need to be, especially with runners in scoring position,” Mendoza said. “But right now we gotta continue to find a way. We gotta find a way to get the job done and we will.”
The team is 7–7 over this offensive slump. When you don’t slug, it means stringing together several hits in a row to score runs. The Amazins put plenty of runners on base yesterday, but they stranded 11 of them, going 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position. They are hitting .211 in those situations on the season, the fourth lowest batting average in baseball.
Still… Still… They are sitting relatively pretty. Their 21–7 record at Citi is tied with the ‘86 squad for the franchise’s best start through the first 28 home games of the season. While yesterday’s loss halted a four-game winning streak, they can pick up where they left off against the Rockies this weekend.
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🎃 TURNING INTO A PUMPKIN?
Griffin Canning has exceeded our wildest expectations so far this season. Before his outing in the rain against the Dodgers, he had strung together six straight starts of allowing two runs or less. This, from a starter who had a league-worst 5.19 ERA last season.
Given those results, it’s hard to pick on him for a few sub-par starts. But you have to wonder if some of the magic potion David Stearns must have rubbed on him upon his signing is starting to wear off.
Canning lasted only three innings on Wednesday, struggling with his command, while his defense sputtered behind him. It could have been a better outing if his infielders hadn’t forgotten their fundamentals in the second, but Canning wasn’t sharp anyway.
Facing a lefty-heavy lineup, the White Sox took away Canning’s slider, a pitch he has leaned into as a key to his early-season success. It meant his changeup needed to be good, and it wasn’t. He couldn’t command it for a strike and the Sox hitters didn’t help him out by chasing it.
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