3 Up
1. Jacob deGrom was yet again stellar on Tuesday night. The 26 year old continued to make his case as the ace of the 2014 Mets pitching staff and top candidate for National League Rookie Of The Year. Jacob pitched 8.0 innings, gave up 3 hits, allowed absolutely zero walks and struck out 9 batters. Had it been earlier in the year, with less caution surrounding pitch and innings limits, he could have gone for his first complete game shutout. It’s excellent to see guys like deGrom and fellow young hurler, Zach Wheeler, performing so well down the stretch. This is exactly what the Mets organization and its fan base needs to see heading into next season, where it’s October baseball or bust.
2. Give Rafael Montero credit, following deGrom’s performance was no small task, but he did great. The 23 year old Dominican earned his first major league win by finally flashing the excellent control that made him a top prospect in the minors when he needed it most. Montero had a no-hitter going through 4.2 innings before opposing pitcher Tyler Matzek doubled on a line drive to left field. He would eventually leave the game after a total of 5.1 innings with two runners in scoring position and his pitch count at 106, which was the only true knock on his otherwise stellar performance. Hopefully he’s allowed to take the mound one more time before being shut down so he can have an opportunity to close out the season with 3 great starts in a row. In his last two outings as a starter, Montero has given up only 8 hits and 1 earned run in 12.2 innings of work.
3. The series sweep put the Mets within 4 games of the .500 mark. In the month of September, the team is 7-2, with a team ERA of 2.73 and a triple slash line of .278/.358/.816. It would be nice to see the team finish at or above 81 wins. It’ll be tough with a 4 game set against the Washington Nationals coming up next, but at this point, it’s a realistic goal for these young players to strive for.
3 Down
1. Wilmer Flores did provide the walk off sacrifice fly in Monday’s 3-2 win, but it was a very shallow hit ball by the shortstop and the defending center fielder on most teams would make the throw at home to nab the runner. In this case, the Rockies Drew Stubbs‘ totally bundled a toss home to gun down Curtis Granderson, despite being a few feet behind second base to make the throw. Walk off win is a walk off win though, so credit still goes to Wilmer. Still though, he was hitless in 11 plate appearances this series, drawing only 1 walk to account for his only on base cameo. It’s unreasonable to expect Flores to hit like a batting champion every game, night in and night out, but he has a rare opportunity playing on a team riddled with injury and lack of competition, to win himself an everyday job. Nothing short of high caliber production will secure him even a spot in the conversation. I’ve never been sold on him at SS, but I’d like to see him have success at the plate to close out the year and find himself an everyday job, even if it’s on another team via trade this offseason.
2. Travis d’Arnaud’s pitch framing ability is some of the best in the league. There have been numerous pitches throughout this season that I was stunned to see called strikes. When looking at the replay, it’s tremendous the amount of wrist speed Travis has to be able to pull the pitches back into the strike zone. However, for as many framed strikes, there’s an equal amount of pitches that whiz by his glove towards the backstop. An indictment of the young catcher’s defense is that he attempts to frame everything, when in a lot of situations he should just catch the pitch and let it be called a ball. This was noticeable a few times in the series and is a part of his game that must be resolved in the offseason. He’s performed nicely at the plate, especially given his position, but hit bat loses value if he can’t play solid defense with a young pitching staff. His throwing mechanics need work also, but these issues are all fixable and TDA has shown with his offense that he is responsive to coaching.
3. This last one is more of a personal, yet somewhat humorous, gripe with Gary Cohen of the SNY crew. Hey dude, can you stop saying any version of the phrase ‘no-hitter’ when our pitchers have one going? I’ll admit that it’s completely absurd as a grown man to believe this has any impact on the game, but baseball is built on superstitions and I fully buy into this one. Need proof? The only time I didn’t listen to the SNY crew call a Mets no-hit bid was when I ended up at Citi Field on June 1st, 2012 after work. The result? I rest my case.
Lets.Go.Mets.
