3 Up, 3 Down: Injured Mets Split With Full Strength Dodgers

3 UP

Los Alonso

You might as well call Los Angles Los Alonso because Pete Alonso owns Dodger Stadium. That was evident with his hitting three homers in this series. That includes his hitting a two-run and three-run homer in the third game of this series to power the Mets to a win just when some wanted to make snap decisions about this team.

One of those homers this weekend just left Brusdar Graterol shaking his head. He just could not believe the immense power Alonso possesses and his ability to hit homers on pitches mere morals have no shot of making contact.

Overall, Alonso is hitting .360/.396/.880 with three doubles, a triple, seven homers, and 16 RBI in 12 games at Dodger Stadium. Looking at a potential NLCS match-up, Alonso has a 1.014 OPS against the team.

Here Comes Escobar

On Sunday, Eduardo Escobar might’ve had the best at-bat a Mets batter has had all season. With the game tied 2-2 in the eighth, Escobar fouled off six pitches against Graterol. Three of those foul balls came with the count at 3-2. On the 10th pitch of the at-bat, Escobar hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly.

This was part of an important series for Escobar as he seems to have begun to snap out of his deep May slump with two tow-hit games. In addition to the key sacrifice fly, we also saw Escobar hit a home run.

As noted frequently here, Escobar’s best month of the season is typically June. We saw the beginnings of that in this series, and if we get him hitting like he has historically, the Mets June swoon will be a thing of the past.

Calling On All 26

As Ron Darling astutely pointed out when Adonis Medina took the mound for the save during the series finale, “The Mets have called on all 26 [players] all season long. Why should it change today?”

That was the case all series long as the Mets earned a very hard-earned split against the Dodgers despite the Mets not being at full strength.

Medina earned his first career save. Colin Holderman earned his first career win. Trevor Williams kept the Dodgers at bay with two earned over five innings. Stephen Nogosek pitched another scoreless inning.

Tomas Nido had a two-out RBI and is hitting .455/.500/.636 in those spots this season. Patrick Mazeika started a key rally with a lead-off walk.

Go up and down this roster, and you will see everyone has made a big contribution at some point this season. That includes players you didn’t expect to do anything this season. This is why this Mets team is special and will win this division and go on a deep postseason run.

3 DOWN

Slump Is McReal

Jeff McNeil has been one of, if not the best Mets position players this season, but he has not been that lately. It has gotten to the point where Buck Showalter lifted an obviously frustrated McNeil after a rare three-strikeout game. Showalter then gave McNeil the following day off.

Over the past nine games, McNeil is hitting .250/.300/.357. This is a bad stretch for McNeil, but we know he will recover from it. Fortunately, as noted above, the Mets are deep enough to withstand McNeil having a rare cold spell.

Starting Pitching Issues

Chris Bassitt was one of the Mets best pitchers at the start of the season. When the Mets starting pitching started dropping like flies hovering above Luis Castillo, Bassitt emerged as the de facto ace. As seen in this series, Bassitt has not been that.

In the series opener, the Dodgers scored four (three earned) over his six innings. This is not a bad start by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just not at the level Bassitt has been or where the Mets need him to be right now.

More to that point, Bassitt has had a 6.35 ERA over his past four starts with opposing batters hitting .261/.327/.544 off of him. We’ve seen his strikeout rate dip from 9.8 per nine to 8.7. Much of this has coincided with James McCann going down with an injury.

Bassitt isn’t the only starter who has struggled of late. Showalter felt compelled to lift David Peterson in the middle of an at-bat against Mookie Betts. Betts nearly hit one out, and Showalter brought in Holderman who came up with the huge strikeout.

It was a move that helped the Mets win the game, but it was a move that clearly didn’t sit well as he had some choice words walking off the mound. Clearly, Peterson was frustrated, but the biggest frustration of all is his struggles.

This is the second straight start he couldn’t last five innings. Since rejoining the rotation, he has a 4.40 ERA while averaging 4 2/3 innings per start. He has been worse in each of three successive starts. Of course, this could just be a blip, and he could be more than fine in his next start.

Does Anyone Know the Rules?

In the Mets 9-4 win over the Dodgers on Saturday, Dodgers manage Dave Roberts tried to use a position player, Zach McKinstry, pitch. The problem is Rob Manfred needlessly put in a rule limiting teams from using position players to pitch when the lead is under six runs.

As noted by GKR during the broadcast, you could understand some of the confusion from Roberts because there the rule changes have had staggered and altered implementation dates. What wasn’t acceptable was how CB Bucknor and the umpiring crew handled it.

First, we had a needlessly long replay review. Then, they completely ignored the rules in place. The Dodgers needed to send someone to the mound, and instead, they allowed the Dodgers to use obvious stall tactics. Then, they allowed Evan Phillips to warm up from the mound as if he was an injury substitution.

Not only did the Dodgers get to do whatever they wanted, there was not one single ejection for the Dodgers obvious attempt to try to skirt the rules. All-in-all, this was a sham and a complete and utter disaster.