3 Up, 3 Down: Dodgers Feeling Blue

3 UP

Future Hall of Famers

Looking at this Mets roster, there are three future Hall of Famers – Jacob deGrom, Francisco Lindor, and Max Scherzer. We saw deGrom and Lindor in this series, and they were great.

After an SNY hit piece, Lindor rose to the occasion. He was 5-for-10 with a double and an RBI. He also made several strong plays in the field.

With deGrom, it might as well have been 2015 because there was no shot the Dodgers were beating him. He struck out nine and with some help from Brandon Nimmo, he allowed just one run.

Since coming off the IL, he leads the majors in strikeouts and strikeout percentage. He’s averaging a career-high in velocity. After the injury, he’s mostly reestablished himself as the best pitcher in baseball.

Golden Nimmo

There was a time when Nimmo was viewed as a defensive liability defensively in center and a passable corner outfielder.

The Mets have better positioned him, and over the last few years, he’s been very good in center. We saw that when he made the play of the year robbing Justin Turner‘s homer.

In addition to that, Nimmo was a difference-maker at the plate. He was 5-for-13 with three runs, a double, and an RBI.

Marte Magic

With the Mets winning a big series against the best team in baseball, several Mets had good series. Arguably, none were better than Starling Marte.

Marte had a 1.500 OPS in the series hitting two homers. In the outfield, he tracked down several deep flies which could’ve been trouble.

Overall, this is why the Mets signed Marte. They wanted him to be a difference maker and help bring this team to another level. He’s done that.

3 DOWN

Bizarre Roster Decisions

The New York Mets called up Deven Marrero and Adonis Medina, two players who won’t help much now or be part of the postseason roster.

Mark Vientos kills left-handed pitching, and Darin Ruf has struggled mightily with the Mets.

Joely Rodriguez hasn’t been an effective left-handed reliever all year, and Nate Fisher impressed in his one Major League appearance.

Daniel Vogelbach has looked hobbled and is in a slump. Dominic Smith has hit a little in Triple-A, and he could give an apparently tired Pete Alonso a break (at least late in games).

Instead, the Mets called up a Four-A player who won’t play, and a reliever that got torched in his last big league appearance.

Joely Fails Again

In a tie game, Buck Showalter had a call to make. With the Dodgers left-handed hitters lined up, he went with Rodriguez out of the pen.

It was not a mistake for Showalter. This was literally the type of moment the Mets envisioned when they obtained Rodriguez. The mistake was the organization believing Rodriguez could do this job.

Rodriguez was ineffective like he has most of the season, and the 3-3 tie became a 4-3 deficit. Rodriguez would take the loss.

In some ways, you have to wonder where this belief in Rodriguez emanates. The Mets didn’t bring in another pitcher at the trade deadline and didn’t call up a reliever to challenge him in September.

DH a Problem Again

As alluded to in the above sections, the Mets designated hitters are struggling. Vogelbach is an 0-for-14 stretch, and he’s hitting .146/.300/.366 over his past 17 games.

Ruf is batting .180/.277/.256 in 16 games with the Mets. In short, he’s just been ineffective since his first Mets plate appearance.

This has coincided with Alonso’s struggles of late. Since Ruf had his first plate appearance with the team, Alonso is hitting .235/.310/.324 with just two homers over a 27-game stretch.

To a certain degree, Alonso’s struggles are understandable because the underperforming DHs have been his lineup “protection.” At some point, the Mets have to figure something out because this DH situation and lineup aren’t working.