3 Up, 3 Down: DeGrom Has Returned

Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

3 UP

Jake Is Back

For the first time this season, Jacob deGrom took the mound, and it was almost like he was never on the IL.

Through five innings, deGrom struck out six while averaging 100 MPH with his fastball. Like with a typical deGrom start, he got no run support. It was everything we expected condensed into five innings.

The next step is his start on Sunday against the Braves. That start should give us more insight as to when we need to start lining up on the Canyon of Heroes.

Who’s the MVP?

Pete Alonso is the people’s choice for MVP. He backed that up again with another terrific series at the plate where he hit two homers including that two iron shot.

The thing is Alonso hasn’t been the best player on this team. By WAR, he’s fifth.

He trails Brandon Nimmo, who had an excel series and has turned things around at the plate. He also trails Max Scherzer and Starling Marte.

The Mets overall leader is Francisco Lindor, who is peaking right on cue. He’s also starting to insert himself in the MVP race.

In this series, he homered twice with four RBI. He’s up to a 3.8 bWAR, which ranks tenth. He has a 4.3 fWAR, which ranks seventh.

Remember, he’s a second half player, and we may well see Lindor make a strong run at being the first Mets player to win MVP.

Bassitt Rebounding

Yes, it was a terrible Washington Nationals lineup, but Chris Bassitt still threw seven shutout innings against them. He now has made a quality start in seven of his last eight starts.

Really, Bassitt has pitched much better of late. After his meltdown against the Padres, he’s been a different pitcher.

Over his last eight starts, he’s 4-3 with a 2.52 ERA while averaging 6 2/3 innings per start. He’s limiting batters to a .212/.257/.306 batting line while striking out 47 and walking only 10.

That’s great for your third starter, and it’s another sign for just how tough the Mets will be to beat this postseason.

Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

3 DOWN

Should’ve Givens Bullpen More Help

As noted many times over, the Mets needed more relief help at the trade deadline. That was symbolic in Mychal Givens rough Mets debut.

Over 2/3 of an inning, he allowed five runs surrendering two homers while failing to strikeout a batter. It was bad a Mets debut as they come.

Certainly, Givens is better than this appearance and will be better the rest of the way. That said, the Mets failed to get that true eighth inning reliever ahead of Edwin Díaz, and it may haunt them.

Can-nah

In this series, Mark Canha was just 2-for-9. As per usual, that was with no extra base hits.

In the second half, he only has a .667 OPS. He had only one homer the entire month of July.

In sum, there was a reason why the Mets felt compelled to get Tyler Naquin at the trade deadline. We should expect Canha to lose more and more at-bats to him during the season.