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Mets ride Cookie, Baez, Conforto, and May to a much-needed win in Miami
Signs of life. And not a moment too soon.
The Mets avoided their first four-game losing streak of the year with a 5-3 win over the Marlins on Wednesday night in Miami, keeping pace with the threatening Phils in the NL East and, hopefully, shaking themselves out of the slumber they’ve been in as of late.
The bats were hot. The pitching was locked in. There were even some fireworks. Truly a sight to behold.
If the Mets want to take this thing to the next level, these are the types of turnaround performances they need to conjure when necessary.
Luis Rojas told reporters he addressed the team in a “family meeting” setting ahead of the game on Wednesday, just to air things out a bit, and the Mets came out of the gates hot.
Dominic Smith (leadoff double), Javier Báez (single), and Michael Conforto (walk) reached in succession to start the second against Miami right-hander Zach Thompson and the Metsies were cooking.
Smith came home on Jonathan Villar’s groundout RBI and Báez scored on Tomas Nido’s fielder’s choice grounder, but this was no ordinary scamper home.
Check out this gem of a slide. And that was just the start of the El Mago Show on Wednesday.
New York would tack on another run later in the inning to make it a 3-0 game and an extremely welcome veteran presence down the stretch for the Mets settled in for an efficient night at the office.
Carlos Carrasco was terrific early on, getting through four scoreless innings on just 47 pitches before stumbling in the fifth, looking very much the part of stopper the Mets needed him to be.
Cookie would leave after 4.1 innings of work (two runs, five strikeouts, no walks; 62 pitches) but the guy the Mets have been waiting for all season appeared to arrive with an exclamation point. Tremendous step forward for this team.
Carrasco commanded his sinker low into the zone all night and, when used in concert with his deceptive slider, kept Miami’s hitters mostly befuddled.
A 40% whiff rate and 84.2 MPH average exit velocity on the slider and the steady diet of sinkers and four-seamers (36% CSW rate) he was feeding the Fish kept Carrasco in control for most of the evening and it was a joy to watch.
“Tonight was those three pitches, pretty much what I used today,” Carrasco told the team’s media corps following the victory. “Today was a big difference. Feels great, all the pitches good […] I feel pretty good.”
He wasn’t the only one feeling good on Wednesday.
Javy Báez notched his first multi-hit game with the Mets with this go-ahead two-run opposite-field blast off right-hander Anthony Bass in the eighth, complete with the, um, competitive fire this team has arguably been lacking.
Báez told reporters after the game that he was gesturing toward fans above the Marlins dugout who were chirping him. Maybe.
In any case, this is precisely why the Mets traded away a blue-chip prospect in Pete Crow-Armstrong to acquire Báez. To add the missing ingredient: a little fire.
“We’re feeling good,” Báez said after the game. “Trying to get used to these guys, see what I can learn from them and it’s been really good. The communication has been good in the clubhouse.”
We’ve seen the Mets sleepwalk through stretches of the season. Minimizing the downtimes is imperative. Javy should help that effort.
Speaking of turning the tides when necessary, Michael Conforto bridged his two hard-hit balls late in Tuesday’s loss into a two-hit game (his first since July 27) and a night of frozen ropes on Wednesday. Huge for Scooter.
Jeff McNeil continued on his torrid stretch, going 2-for-5 and increasing his batting line to a healthy .299/.369/.425 with 123 wRC+ over 141 plate appearances since returning from the injured list on June 21.
Dom Smith extended his hit streak to seven games with a two-hit night (hitting .346 over that span) and J.D. Davis contributed a pinch-hit knock in the eighth. Everyone’s kicking in and we love to see it.
Aaron Loup, Miguel Castro, and Drew Smith all turned in perfect relief appearances, and Trevor May secured his fourth save of the season with Edwin Diaz going on the paternity list.
Over his last 21 appearances (20.1 IP), May has a 1.77 ERA with 28 strikeouts, 10 walks, 0.44 homers allowed per nine, and 1.08 WHIP.
That’ll play. Yes, indeed.
Daytime baseball today! New Simply Amazin’ drops in the morning. LFGM.
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If they ever get and stay healthy they could be something. Until then, Cookie and Baez are just replacements not additions. This team needs deGrom and Lindor back.