3 Up, 3 Down: Mets Avoid Queen’s City Flop

3 UP

Scherzer’s Back

As the Atlanta Braves were surging, the talk among New York Mets fans is just wait until Max Scherzer comes back. Well, Scherzer was back, and once again, we saw an ace and future Hall of Famer in action.

Despite not having made a start in the majors since May 18, Scherzer pitched as if he had no injury or time away. Over six innings, he completely and utterly dominated the Cincinnati Reds. He shut them out allowing just two hits while striking out 11 batters.

When Scherzer is pitching like this, the Mets only need to score a run or two to win games. They didn’t win this one, but as evidenced by Scherzer’s 5-1 record, more often than not, they will.

Dom the DH

The Mets effectively bypassed Dominic Smith in their DH search. After Robinson Cano faltered, the team turned to J.D. Davis as Smith was sent to Triple-A. Well, Davis proved he’s nowhere near a Major League caliber DH leaving the Mets to finally try Smith.

Since being recalled, Smith is 9-for-27 with six of those nine hits going for doubles. The latest double proved to be the game-winner in the 10th inning.

After that, Smith moved away from DH to fill in at first base with Pete Alonso being taken out for a pinch runner. With Alonso struggling at first, Smith is the perfect player to help spell Alonso there as both players can share the 1B/DH position as it works for the players and the Mets.

Overall, the Mets challenged Smith. They finally gave him a shot after all their other plans failed. Now, it seems Smith has shown the Mets their answer at DH is internal thereby allowing the franchise to use their assets to fix the bullpen at the trade deadline.

Slumps Busted

As noted in the last 3 Up, 3 Down, the Mets offense was littered with players who were in bad slumps. The Great American Ballpark proved to be the exact cure for some of the Mets players.

Brandon Nimmo was 6-for-13 with two homers and six RBI. The second homer was an exclamation point on the Mets 10th inning rally. Nimmo would also draw his first walk in nearly a month.

Mark Canha was 3-for-8 with a double. Jeff McNeil was 4-for-13 with a walk. Luis Guillorme had a hit and a walk in his five plate appearances.

We also saw the Mets catchers get into the action with Tomas Nido getting an RBI and James McCann getting an RBI double in the 10th inning.

No, the Mets offense isn’t fixed. However, with these players starting to get off the snide, things do appear to be improving.

3 DOWN

Offense Still an Issue

The Mets were awfully close to getting embarrassed and maybe even exposed in this series. The Reds are the worst team in the National League with a pitching staff with the second-worst FIP in the majors.

The Mets needed a lucky bounce from Starling Marte to avoid losing this series. In fact, despite the Reds awful pitching and the Great American Ballpark being a bandbox, the Mets were not hitting and scoring runs as you’d expect.

They were shut out in the second game, and they scored three runs before extra innings. That’s a problem and emblematic of a larger problem.

Since June 1, the Mets offense has a 100 wRC+. That’s the seventh-worst in the National League. It is also a far cry from the team who had the best wRC+ over the first two months of the season.

Whatever the case, the Mets offense has been a problem, and if not for that lucky bounce and rally, it might be all we are discussing. However, winning cures all ills, and that’s why fans are more excited about that tenth than concerned about the lack of hitting.

Need Lind-more

Francisco Lindor just hasn’t been the same since the broken finger. Before the injury, he was hitting .256/.339/.442. Keep in mind, that is before the part of the season when he usually gets hot and puts up big numbers.

Since June 3, Lindor is hitting .204/.274/.363. There have been signs here and there Lindor is breaking out of the slump only to have another poor series.

Case-in-point, after a strong series against the Texas Rangers, Lindor was 2-for-13 against the Reds with a homer. However, those two hits came in the first game of that series, and Lindor was 0-for-9 afterward as the Mets offense sputtered.

Again, there are signs Lindor is breaking out of this funk, but the Mets need him to break out of this funk sooner rather than later. That goes double with the Atlanta Braves closing ground and coming to Citi Field next week.

Late Inning Issues

Drew Smith went from unhittable to very, very hittable. Since May 15, he has allowed six homers. The latest came from Nick Senzel.

Behind those struggles is the fact left-handed batters hit Smith very well. While Smith is limiting right-handed batters to a .156/.233/.299 batting line, left-handed batters are hitting .250/.340/.455. With left-handed batters hitting him this well, he cannot be a late-inning option.

In this series, we also saw Seth Lugo take the loss. After neither team could muster a run or even an extra base hit, Tommy Pham doubled off of him. Two walks later, and the Reds won on a walk-off sacrifice fly from Mike Moustakas.

For Lugo, we know the problem. He just can’t pitch two days in a row. With a day of rest, batters are only hitting .250/.286/.250 off of Lugo. When pitching back-to-back games, batters are hitting .400/.435/.800 off of Lugo. That’s not a typo. Those are actually the stats.

There are a number of reasons for this including how his partially torn UCL has dictated his use. In reality, Buck Showalter needs to get back to maximizing Lugo the way his predecessors did. Let him pitch over an inning, let him rest, and then get him back out there. When that happens, Lugo is a much different and much more effective reliever.