3 Up, 3 Down: Mets Blew It

3 UP

One Last Hurrah

Based on his refusal to say in his postgame press conference he wants to return, and his repeated statements about opting out no matter what, we might’ve seen the last of Jacob deGrom. If he leaves, he leaves a winner.

It wasn’t his most dominant outing. It was more reminiscent of his 2015 NLDS Game 5 start. It was gritty. It was tough. It was enough to win.

It was fitting Brandon Nimmo had a great game and a good series hitting .333. For his part, he said he wants to return.

Finally, Seth Lugo would get his first career postseason save. He’d appear in three straight for the first time in his career. Hopefully, he can re-sign.

Bullpen Mostly Good

Supposedly, the Mets biggest concern in the series was their bullpen. Ironically, the Mets bullpen was what worked best for them.

Over the three game series, the bullpen allowed just four runs over 12 1/3 innings (2.92 ERA). That was more than good enough for this team to have won these games.

None Tougher Than Marte

During the broadcast, ESPN noted how Starling Marte‘s teammates were in awe of him with how he was playing through the pain. From a fan perspective, the only sign of just how much that finger bothered him was his way off line throw.

Marte had an impact reaching base safely in two or the three games. He’d steal two bases. He’d also make a nice running catch in right.

Overall, the Mets asked him to answer the call. He played through excruciating pain, and he did some very good things which should’ve helped the Mets win.

3 DOWN

Worse Than 2007

The 2022 New York Mets led the NL East by 10.5 games at one point. It was the third largest blown division lead in Major League history.

That was even with the Mets leading the division by three games entering September with the easiest closing schedule in baseball. They blew that.

They followed that up by losing the Wild Card Series to the San Diego Padres. This made them the first ever 100+ win team to fail to make the LDS since the inception of the Wild Card.

With one hit in Game 3, they set a record for fewest hits in an elimination game. The 101 win season ended on a one hit loss. The Mets will be home while the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies play each other.

This was worse than 2007. This was a true World Series contender that was mostly healthy. Instead, they set MULTIPLE records for choking.

We may not see players like deGrom and Nimmo in a Mets uniform again. This is just as bad as it gets.

What Was Buck Doing?

Buck Showalter has a history of bizarre to flat out wrong decisions in his postseason career. This series would be no different.

In Game 1, the Mets were down six in the fifth. Even with Francisco Álvarez on the roster, Nido was sent up to the plate.

If you thought Showalter would learn and adapt, you’d be very wrong. In Game 3 as the Mets couldn’t get hits, Nido would bat two more times with the Mets trailing in an elimination game.

Somehow, some way, Showalter believed Nido was one of his better hitters be who needed to bat in big spots.

We also saw him needlessly have Edwin Diaz pitch to protect a five run lead. He did the same with Adam Ottavino rendering him unavailable for Game 3.

Speaking of Game 3, Showalter didn’t use all of his best relievers. In the end, it didn’t matter, but David Peterson and Mychal Givens giving up runs out the game out of reach.

This is where someone typically says it’s not Showalter’s fault the Mets didn’t execute. That’s true, but his job is to out his team in the best position to win. He certainly did not do that.

Showalter’s teams have always failed and underwhelmed in the postseason. We got a first-hand glimpse as to why.

Mad About Max

The Mets biggest offseason signing was Max Scherzer. The signing of Scherzer was proof positive this was a new era of Mets baseball. It transformed the Mets into World Series contenders.

Well, the Mets were knocked out of the playoffs in large part due to Scherzer. He was at his absolute worst in Game 1 of the series. His allowing seven runs was eerily reminiscent of Tom Glavine doing the same in the final game of the 2007 season in 2/3 of an inning.

There is plenty of blame to go around with this team for failing to win this series. Go ahead and name a player and how they failed in a big moment. Short of deGrom and Lugo, no one on this team is blameless.

That said, the tone for this series was set by Scherzer. With Game 1 and the Atlanta Braves series, he shockingly came up small in his two biggest starts of the season

The same goes for Chris Bassitt who was even worse. However, Scherzer was the future Hall of Famer brought here to lead this team to the World Series. That didn’t happen, and he’s the first of many to blame.