3 Up, 3 Down: Mets Avoid Sweep by Angels

It proved to be the Shohei Ohtani Show in Queens this weekend as the New York Mets dropped a series to the Angels.

Despite having suffered a torn UCL just days before, Ohtani was almost unstoppable at the plate as the Angels took the first two games of the series at Citi Field. However, the two-way superstar was no match for a locked in David Peterson as the Mets were able to avoid the sweep on Sunday.

Not even a highly-determined pigeon was able to prevent the Mets from snapping a four-game losing streak.

New York now sits at 60-71 on the year and will open up a three-game set against the Rangers at Citi Field on Monday.

3 Up

Peterson’s Gem

A lot of questions have been raised about the state of the Mets’ starting rotation in 2023. Indeed, even more questions have been asked about Peterson’s potential role in it. Well, the lefty perhaps began to answer some of those questions with an absolute dominant outing on Sunday. Peterson was pretty much unhittable, allowing just one run on three hits while striking out eight. Perhaps more significantly, though, was the fact that Peterson recorded his longest outing of the season by throwing a full seven innings. Oh, and Peterson proved to be just the guy to stop Ohtani from causing more damage in Queens, playing a big role in the uber-talented superstar finishing the day 0-for-4.

It was just a hugely encouraging outing from Peterson in terms of both quality and quantity. Since the end of June, he has thrown 45 1/3 innings while posting a very solid 2.79 ERA with 46 strikeouts. More of that down the stretch and Peterson could force his way into a spot in the starting rotation for the 2024 season.

Resilience Personified 

Pete Alonso has endured a slew of pain at the plate this year. He leads the National League in hit-by-pitches with 17 in 2023, with No. 17 perhaps the most painful of the lot. The slugger took a breaking ball by Angels reliever José Soriano right in the neck on Saturday, leading Alonso to land in concussion protocol. It didn’t look good. However, Alonso passed all concussion protocols and was back in the lineup on Sunday where he had two hits, including a clutch game-tying double in the eighth inning that set the stage for a walk-off win. Now, that’s how you respond to getting plunked in the neck. And, as great as Alonso is at crushing homers, he’s also incredibly resilient and tough. He proved that once again this weekend.

Putting On A Show

Who knows if the Mets will make a run at Ohtani in free agency this winter. There are some who feel the franchise closed the door on that possibility by pulling the trigger on a sell-off at the trade deadline. There are others, however, who believe owner Steve Cohen will still look to bring the best player on the planet to Queens this coming offseason. If the latter proves to be true, then Citi Field got a tantalizing preview this weekend of what could be an everyday spectacle. For the first two games of the series, it was the Ohtani show as the two-way sensation showed that even a torn UCL won’t slow him down at the plate. Ohtani was unstoppable, going 3-for-5 with three extra-base hits, five walks and two stolen bases combined on Friday and Saturday. He even broke the scoreboard with a foul ball on Saturday, leading the Mets video board operators to plead with the star not to break anything else.

While he did go 0-for-4 on Sunday, Ohtani had every single soul inside Citi Field bewitched with his sheer brilliance over the weekend. There were probably more than a few Mets fans dreaming about witnessing this kind of true greatness every single day. Maybe in the owners suite too. Sure, there are a slew of question marks surrounding Ohtani’s future as a pitcher, but he proved this weekend that he still offers superb and unprecedented value as a hitter. And as a pure thrilling spectacle. If Cohen had doubts about still bidding for the pending free agent heading into the weekend, then maybe what transpired went a long way to easing some of those concerns. We will see.

3 Down

Time To Say Goodbye?

Carlos Carrasco‘s time as a New York Met may be all but over. We’ve talked plenty about the veteran’s struggles in this space in recent weeks and months, and there are no signs of a turnaround coming anytime soon. In fact, it seems that Carrasco is regressing even more with every start and his outing on Saturday was another rough one. He couldn’t even make it past the second inning as he allowed five runs on seven hits, while recording just one strikeout on 49 pitches. Eleven of the 12 batters Carrasco faced put the ball in play, with all 11 having exit velocities of over 90 mph. Furthermore, Carrasco’s ERA now stands at 6.80 for the season, which is the highest in baseball among pitchers with at least 90 innings. It sure does seem like the end is nigh for Carrasco.

Stranded

As bad as Carrasco was on Saturday, the Mets were still very much in the contest and they had a golden opportunity to split the series thanks to the bullpen. However, the offense had other ideas. The bats left eight on base and went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. On too many occasions the Mets looked to be on the cusp of getting right back in it, including Daniel Vogelbach‘s fifth homer of the month making it a 5-3 game, only for the team’s biggest hitters to come up cold in big spots. If the bats were able to do their job, it would have tied the series heading into Sunday and made the weekend more interesting. The failures of the offense also wasted a gem of an outing from the bullpen, which combined to get the game’s final 22 outs while allowing just two hits in a stunning effort.

Stuck In Two Minds

Brandon Nimmo seems mired in an eternal struggle right now. The accomplished leadoff hitter has been in search for more power, a determined mission that led to a total of 14 homers in 274 plate appearances since June 8. Nimmo has now already secured a career high in home runs with 31 games remaining. However, in achieving the thirst for more power, Nimmo has sacrificed some of the attributes that define him as a player, namely getting on base and putting the ball in play. Per The Athletic, since Nimmo’s grand slam in Atlanta on June 8, the outfielder’s average has dipped to .247, compared to .283 beforehand, and his OBP has fallen from .373 to .350 (stats prior to Aug 26).  And that tradeoff appears to be impacting Nimmo’s overall game as he’s now hitless in five straight games, including going 0-for-12 against the Angels.

Of course, every player will have a slew of mini slumps like that throughout the course of a 162-game season, but you just hope that Nimmo hasn’t disrupted his game too much by trying to alter his mechanics for more power.