Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports
3 UP
Veteran Starters
In consecutive offseasons, the New York Mets went out and acquired front of the rotation starters. In 2021, it was Carlos Carrasco, and this past offseason, it was Max Scherzer.
It’s helping propel the Mets this season.
We finally got a glimpse of the real Scherzer in his first home start, and he flirted with a no-hitter. He went seven picking up a win in his third straight start with the Mets.
Carrasco has followed an injury riddled season by reminding everyone how great he is. He became the first Mets pitcher to pitch into the eighth, and he leads the staff with a 1.47 ERA.
They provided leadership and great pitching. They’re helping lead this Mets team to new heights.
No Bull
As noted by MMO‘s own Michael Mayer, the Mets bullpen has not allowed a run over their last 15 innings pitched. This is a far cry from the early concerns over the bullpen.
Much of the reason is Edwin Diaz is back from bereavement allowing everyone to slot into their roles.
Drew Smith is emerging as the eighth inning option. Trevor May shook off the early rust. Chasen Shreve is better than his last sting. Everyone is stepping up.
With this rotation, a lock down bullpen will make this team even more difficult to beat just as the San Francisco Giants discovered.
Actually Driving In Runs
For years, the Mets have been held back by their inability to drive-in runs. That went double when there were two outs. That now seems like a problem from another century.
It’s early in the season, but the Mets have driven in the most runs with runners in scoring position. With two outs and runners in scoring position, they have the third highest OPS in the majors with the most runs driven in among National League teams.
This is how you win the close games. A perfect example of this was the Mets taking advantage of the incredible Pete Alonso stretch to walk it off in the tenth on a Francisco Lindor single to score Brandon Nimmo.
3 DOWN
Manager by Committee
With Buck Showalter undergoing a minor medical procedure, and Glenn Sherlock in COVID protocols, the Mets went to a manager by committee for the third game in the series. Let’s hope this never happens again.
J.D. Davis was in the lineup playing third. They used Robinson Cano as their primary pinch hitter and used Jeff McNeil as a defensive replacement.
It didn’t really work. Fortunately, we’ll never have to see it again.
Feeling Left Out
Carlos Rodon is going to make a lot of teams look bad. He’s that good of a pitcher. That said, the one small bugaboo with the Mets offense right now is how they perform against left-handed pitching.
As a team, the Mets have a 94 wRC+ against left-handed pitching striking out 23.2% of the time whereas they have a 139 wRC+ against right-handed pitching with an 18.4% walk rate. That’s a marked difference.
Looking deeper, the surprise here is Alonso and Mark Canha have been among the Mets worst hitters against left-handed pitching. It should also be noted Dominic Smith remains one of the Mets best, but again, he’s typically benched against left-handed pitching because he’s a left-handed batter.
Clearly, this isn’t an issue at the moment, and there is certainly time for adjustment. However, it is something to follow over the course of the season.
App Malfunctioning
So far, the reviews on the SNY App have not been great. Roku, Fire TV, and iPad users have all noticed issues and have had to constantly restart the application to try to watch games. This is exacerbated by the app not functioning for a complete half-inning.
Certainly, with the Wilpons still owning SNY, this does beg us to make a joke about how even with their divesting almost all of their ownership interests in the team, they are still setting out to try to make the Mets unwatchable.
