3 Up, 3 Down: Liberty Bell Demolished

3 UP

Yes, He Canha

The hottest hitter on the Mets and perhaps all of baseball is Mark Canha. He cemented that when he hit two homers to lead the Mets to their thrilling win over the Phillies to help take the four game set.

In the series, Canha was 4-for-10 with two homers and five RBI. Since August 14, Canha is hitting .440/.482/.960 with four doubles, three homers, and nine RBI.

To make things all the better, he punctuated the Mets officially obliterating the Phillies in the season series with an epic bat flip. Of note, that homer came against David Robertson, one of the many relievers we all lamented the Mets were unable to acquire at the trade deadline.

Stepping Up

When you go into a series down Carlos Carrasco, Tomas Nido, and Taijuan Walker, you need people to step up. That goes double when consider there was a doubleheader during the four game set.

Trevor Williams set the tone pitching four scoreless in the top half of the doubleheader. Stepping up like this is nothing new for Williams who has been a savior and swiss army knife for the Mets pitching staff all season. Right now, Williams has not allowed a run over his last 24 innings, and he has not allowed a run in the second half of the season.

While we’ve come to expect Williams stepping up, we had no idea what Nate Fisher was going to do, or if he was even going to pitch. As detailed, he has quite the backstory of not giving up on his baseball dream. Little did he know, he would be thrown into a pennant race and asked to help keep the Mets afloat against a division rival.

Fisher did just that pitching three scoreless. His efforts allowed the Mets to stay in the game and pick up one of their most thrilling wins of the season.

Finally, there was Michael Perez. Perez didn’t have a hit as a Met all season, and he was designated for assignment earlier in the season by the Pirates partially because of his woeful hitting. He only came to the Mets because they were aware they needed more depth at the position.

Well, Perez finally got that hit, and it was a two run single against Zack Wheeler to help propel them to victory. He would get a two RBI single in this series. Never could the Mets have imagined Perez would ever play this important a role this season, but as Ron Darling put it, these are the types of performances and moments which propel a team to a special season.

Marte Owns Philly

The worst thing that could have happened to the Phillies was Starling Marte signing with the Mets. In the season series, Marte hit .338/.386/.494 with seven doubles, a triple, a homer, and nine RBI. He also has stolen five bases against them, more than he has against any other club.

For his career, Marte has a .991 OPS. That’s his highest mark against any National League opponent. That paid dividends for the Mets this year and should for the length of his contract.

3 DOWN

Not Quite Ready

In his first career at-bat, Brett Baty homered and sent Mets fans into a tizzy. Since that moment, he is 2-for-21 with 75% ground ball rate and some rough plays at third. Baty is going to be really good one day, but as we see, he may not just be ready right now.

That goes double for Jose Butto. Like Baty, injuries and circumstance forced him up the majors before he was ready. The Phillies bounced to the tune of seven runs over four innings.

There is no need to make anything more of these struggles than these are talented young players who were just not quite ready for the majors. In the end, they will be better for this experience.

Alonso Fighting It

There is no doubt Pete Alonso has been slumping. Since August 12, he is batting .150/.244/.275 with just one homer with that homer coming in this series.

In the field, Alonso made a key error in the series, which only highlights the step he has taken back defensively this season. His -5 OAA is tied for second worst in the National League among first baseman.

Of course, we know he is going to snap out of this and continue to be a force. After all, he has 102 RBI on the season, and we know he puts on a show in September. Once he gets through this, he’s going to make National League pitchers pay.

1-2-3 Strikes Naquin Is Out

Tyler Naquin was a surprise starter with Canha being red hot at the plate. He responded with a five strikeout game. That ties the Mets record for most strikeouts in a game. It must be something with this regime because the last time it was done was Javier Baez last season.

That five strikeout game was part of a stretch where Naquin struck out eight straight times. That is shocking for someone to be a big contributor at the plate. To be fair, even with this rough stretch, he has been that with a 125 OPS+ as a Met.