3 Up

1. Another Super Spot Start

Logan Verrett made honorable mention in my 3 Up 3 Down last week for his performance against the Miami Marlins, and this week he makes the list for his marvelous outing against the Phillies on Tuesday night. He stepped up yet again in his second spot-start of the season by going six strong innings and allowing just six hits with four strikeouts. Verrett has an ERA of 2.34 in his six starts with the Mets dating back to last season. He has been everything you could ask for so far and has filled in just fine in the absence of Jacob deGrom.

2. Everybody Hits

They say hitting is contagious, and that was most certainly true for the Mets during their three game set against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. It’s a ballpark that’s historically been a home away from home for the Mets, and the trend continued this week. After hitting a total of seven home runs in their last series in Cleveland, the Mets went on to hit another 11 against the Phillies. Six different guys homered for the Mets in these last three games. On top of that, the Mets as a team collected a total of 36 hits throughout the series, with seven different guys having multi-hit games. They are now 19th in the league in team batting average and fifth in home runs.

3. Red Hot Walker

I’d say Neil Walker is fitting in just fine so far this season as the Mets new second baseman. He’s certainly swinging a hot bat after going 7 for 15 during the series against the Phillies, along with three home runs and three RBI. He collected four hits in the series finale on Wednesday night. Coming into the season, Walker was known for his ability to hit the long ball, just not from the right side. Three of his six home runs this year have been from the right side, tied for the most he’s ever had in a season from that side of the plate. Coming into the play on Wednesday night, Walker led all second baseman in the major leagues in home runs and tied for second in RBI.

3 Down

1. Too Reliant on the Home Run?

I hinted towards this in my last series of 3 Up and 3 Down, and I think it’s worth mentioning. Going into the season we knew this team was capable of putting up big home run numbers, and recently they have shown that. What happens when they aren’t hitting the long ball? Perhaps this is exactly what Sandy Alderson wanted when he constructed this lineup, but clearly this is more of a station to station baseball team at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, they are going to win their fair share of games based off of their home run hitting capability alone, but there are going to be times they need to manufacture runs another ways, they just need to figure out how.

2. Strikeouts Still an Issue

The Mets have been hitting the cover off the ball, make no mistake about it, but they are also striking out a very high clip. They struck out a total of 38 times in Philadelphia, including 17 times in the series finale on Wednesday night. They are tied for sixth in all of baseball with a total of 134 strikeouts. We knew going into the season this could be an issue with this lineup, and it certainly has been thus far. Yoenis Cespedes leads the team with 20 strikeouts, with David Wright right behind up him with 19.

3. Couldn’t Complete the Sweep

It’s early, and I’ll take another series win, especially against a division foe, but it sure would have been nice to notch their first sweep of the season in Philadelphia. It looked as though it was going to go that way for the Mets after their 11-1 rout on Tuesday night. Bartolo Colon was going in the finale, a guy who the Phillies have had the worst trouble trying to figure out. He was good, but not great, going six innings and allowing three runs on four hits. The bullpen couldn’t quite hold up enough, with both Jerry Blevins and Hansel Robles giving up runs. In their first opportunity for a sweep and an extra inning win, the Mets couldn’t make it happen.