West Coast Pop: Some California Takeaways
Metsies finding their rhythm out west...
After putting a bow on another series win with a 5-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers Wednesday afternoon, the Mets sealed their second series victory of their current West Coast leg of their road trip. With a sweep of Oakland the weekend prior, the Mets strutted across the bay having taken five of their last six since hitting the road. Plenty of good to take out of these last five games, including the will to simply win.
Nimmo At A Discount?: We’ve witnessed Brandon Nimmo’s transformation from a corner outfielder to one of the best all-around outfielders in baseball in the span of four seasons. Since the start of the season, the 30-year-old centerfielder signed an 8-year, $162 million deal this past off-season. With a 5-5 game including a two-run home run to give the Mets the lead in the 5th.
His Percentile Rankings sheet is as red as JJ Putz’s goatee, with his OAA, xwOBA, xBA, K%, and Chase Rate all over the 94th percentile. Nimmo has returned to his spark plug spot atop the lineup card each day for Buck Showalter and has done a good job of it.
Defensively, Nimmo has continued to evolve into one of the game’s best, making diving play after diving play, and hustling to the surprise of absolutely nobody.
With the success Nimmo has earned during this road trip, and really all year, it comes as no surprise how much he has impacted the team, with a 1.3 WAR following the end of the Dodgers series, Nimmo sits among the league leaders (tops, as of Friday afternoon, in fact).
Sticky, Sticky Situation: The elephant in the room that ended up casting a dark, rosin-filled cloud over the Dodgers series victory was the Max Scherzer ejection due to “sticky substances” as he went out to pitch the home half of the fourth inning.
After being asked by Phil Cuzzi to change his glove out following the end of the third, he obliged. Even in the post-game media scrum, Scherzer admitted “I knew I would be checked when I went out for the fourth”. According to the starting pitcher, he washed his hands in front of an MLB Official with alcohol, applied rosin, and went back out for the fourth inning.
What isn’t being talked about is how first base umpire Phil Cuzzi slammed the newly inspected glove into the chest of Scherzer, or how this umpiring crew just so happened to be the ONLY crew to throw a pitcher out since the checks began four years ago.
This isn’t meant to be a “woe is me” stance for Scherzer and his now-official 10-game suspension, but combining the crew’s track record and Max’s stance on the sticky stuff epidemic a few years ago, plus how checks and rules are being set seemingly on whims, it’s still hard to find a genuine reason as to why he was ejected.
Bullpen Strengths: Due to said Scherzer ejection, the bullpen was put to work for six innings on Wednesday afternoon. The group of Jimmy Yacabonis, Jeff Brigham, Drew Smith, David Robertson, and Adam Ottavino was excellent, surrendering three runs on five hits while striking out four.
D-Rob did give up his first run of the season, an RBI double to J.D. Martinez in the eighth. He’s been outstanding in Edwin Diaz’s absence, pitching to a 0.96 ERA and saving four games heading into Thursday.
With the Mets kicking off the final leg of their tour with a win in San Francisco on Thursday night, the Amazins’ will look to cap off the west coast swing on an extremely positive note. Love to see it.
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