Photo by Ed Delany of MetsmerizedOnline

The Mets’ first series of the year against the divisional foe Atlanta Braves could not have come at a less opportune time for New York. With four of five starters still on the injured list and rain ensuring that Max Scherzer would not have the chance to pitch, the Mets were short one man on their roster but several from their depth.

Somewhat predictably, the results were not ideal. Friday’s rain-shortened game was a pitching mess and an offensive no-show, while Game 1 on Monday was a bullpen game gone awry and a comeback falling short. Still, the Mets did manage to pull out the finale to avoid a series sweep.

3 Up

Play The Kid Vs. Lefties

Brett Baty decided that he was going to prove his manager wrong. Already heating up at the plate, Baty started against tough southpaw Max Fried and went 1-for-2, which was one of just three Mets hits in the rain-shortened defeat. In Game 1 of the Monday doubleheader, Baty did one better, blasting a homer over the wall against Dylan Lee, who had held left-handed batters to a .105/.150/.105 line in 21 plate appearances entering Monday.

Baty’s homer got out at 108.3 mph and traveled an estimated 430 feet. He emphatically announced to Buck Showalter that he deserves to play every day, regardless of the pitcher. Although he’s not destroying left-handers at the same level that he is righties, he demonstrated that he can hold his own against two of the league’s best.

Getting to a Tough Pitcher

Speaking of tough pitchers, Spencer Strider entered his start against the Mets with a 1.80 ERA, 1.75 FIP, 0.833 WHIP, 249 ERA+, and a 14.7 K/9 ratio. Though New York fell behind early and their comeback fell short, they made Strider labor. The second-year pitcher’s final line read five innings, four earned runs, five hits, three walks, eight strikeouts, and one home run, a three-run shot surrendered to Pete Alonso. Strider required 107 pitches just to get to the five-inning mark despite throwing nearly 70% of them for strikes.

After getting mowed down by Clayton Kershaw last week and Fried just a couple of days before, getting to Strider was a big stride for the Mets’ offense. Five hits aren’t exactly domination, but making Strider work, forcing him into a mistake to Alonso, and riding him out of the game counts for a lot.

Baby steps for this woefully inconsistent Mets offense.

Álvarez Announcement

Francisco Álvarez still hasn’t quite found his stride at the major league level, but getting a go-ahead two-run double at Citi Field will do the rookie a lot of good. It turned out to be the difference-maker in the Mets’ 5-3 victory. Álvarez went 3-for-6 in the series overall, including a hit off Fried in the opener. He has now gotten above the Mendoza line in the early going, raising his batting average to .225. He’s actually 6-for-17 over his last seven games with a .353/.389/.588/.977 line.

Álvarez still has plenty of work to do to be truly ready for primetime, but like Baty, he’s played better the more he’s in the lineup. Removing him in favor of Tomás Nido just doesn’t seem to do the team any good, particularly since Álvarez’s pitch framing has been elite (94th percentile thus far).

Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

3 Down

Peterson Experiment Over For Now

David Peterson seems to be an every-other-year kind of pitcher. He impressed as a rookie only to struggle mightily as a sophomore before losing his season to injury. He pitched well in 2022 but never found his footing this season. The Mets so desperately needed Peterson to be a stabilizing force with four of their five starters on the injured list, but a 7.34 ERA, 1.57 WHIP, 2.35 HR/9, and 11.15 H/9 did him in.

Against Atlanta, Peterson went five innings, yielding four runs on five hits, with one walk and six strikeouts. As usual, he was victimized by the long ball, surrendering a three-run homer to Matt Olson in the fifth inning with two out to blow the game open.

Peterson was optioned to Triple-A following the latest disaster. The Mets hope that he can get himself straightened out, as they will likely need him again down the stretch of the season due to the ages of their regular starting five.

Plating the Runners

The Mets went 6-for-27 (.222) with runners in scoring position in the series. The worst game was the middle one when they went 3-for-14 in that area despite plating eight runs. Altogether, Mets hitters left 45 runners on base in the series, and the team left 19 runners on.

The Mets’ issue with runners in scoring position continues to worsen. Considering that they’re only ninth in league on-base percentage, the fact that they were dead-last in baseball in runners left in scoring position per game at 4.04 entering play on Monday is troubling. The Mets’ lack of power is a big reason for it; they need to move from station to station to score, and it’s generally difficult to string enough baserunners together to score runs without the extra-base hits.

Nimmo Cooling Off

This is not meant to be an overreaction to a player coming back to earth, but Brandon Nimmo went 2-for-12 with six strikeouts in the series. He scored just one run and was not the table-setter the Mets have become accustomed to in the early going.

Nimmo is now hitting .185/.233/.259 over his last seven games. (He’s historically performed better on the road than at Citi.) It is not coincidental that the Mets are 2-5 in those games. While Nimmo is far from the only reason, he is the bread-and-butter of the team. The Mets would prefer to see more consistent play from their stars rather than outrageous hot streaks followed by ice-cold spells.