Mets Hitting Another Gear at the Right Time
Erasing a snowman on the first hole is no easy task, but these Metsies almost pulled it off...
Image credit: Chris Simon
Well, you certainly can’t win them all, but nearly turning around Atlanta’s early snowman on Friday night at an electric Citi Field is absolutely something these Mets can hang their hat on, regardless of the outcome.
Three-and-a-half games up heading into Saturday’s double-dip—precisely where New York started this series in the standings—will suffice. Five-plus would have been nice, but this Atlanta squad is no pushover and the Mets will assuredly take what they can get as this series trudges on.
Atlanta wasn’t going to lay down after a series-opening loss with first place within arm’s reach, just as the Mets weren’t gonna olé things along last night after falling way behind. October baseball in August. Gotta love it.
Taijuan Walker—owner of a 2.38 ERA over his last nine starts heading into Friday and knee-deep into an outstanding 2022 campaign—simply didn’t have it. These things happen. And seeing the situation unfurl as it did, the Mets made a valiant attempt to pick their guy up.
It didn’t pan out, but a break here (Joey Cora would probably like to get his second-inning, two-out send of Luis Guillorme back) or a misplay there (Ronald Acuna snagging Pete Alonso’s first-inning missile to right could have altered the landscape of the evening considerably) and Friday night’s loss could have been in SNY’s Mets Classics heavy rotation by the end of the summer.
In any case, here the Mets stand, looking across the chalk at—in all likelihood—their only true competition for the NL East, with three games to play over two days, Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom pitching in two of them, and their once-stagnant offense rolling along again. I’ll take those odds.
It’s almost uncanny how this “unsustainable” offense keeps finding themselves in opportunities to score runs and win games. Power show be damned, this team is simply playing baseball. And lately, the Mets have hit another gear. And the detractors are puzzled.
After a rollicking start to the season at the plate, the Mets fell into deep funk in June, hitting just .232/.301/.369 as a team. That’s not gonna play, and it appears they knew it.
Since the calendar turned to July, New York’s regained that elusive groove, slashing .261/.332/.441 with 123 wRC+, good for third in MLB over that span. That’s more like it. And since the second half kicked off, things have gotten even better.
Heading into Saturday’s doubleheader, the Mets have a .296/.359/.503 post-ASG batting line with a league-leading 147 wRC+ over that span. And the whole gang has flipped that switch.
Pete Alonso, 18-for-48, five home runs, 12 runs scored, 13 driven in
Francisco Lindor, 18-for-49, 210 wRC+
Brandon Nimmo, 14-for-his-last-41 with four strikeouts
Starling Marte is at .320/.361/.507 since May 1; geez lol
Jeff McNeil is hitting .429/.444/.743 during his current eight-game hitting streak
Even newcomers Daniel Vogelbach (10-for-32, .463 OBP with New York), Tyler Naquin (7-for-20, two homers, a double, and a triple), and Darin Ruf (two-run double in his team debut Friday) are finding crevices to make a difference from.
Combine all of that with the exploits of Mets pitching this season (3.66 rotational ERA, 3.55 relief ERA) and a healthy staff nearly reformed, and things really have the potential to take off over the next few weeks.
Big day today. Let’s get it.
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