3 UP
1. Pill Not Hard to Swallow
With the Mets already having run pitchers like Rafael Montero, Adam Wilk, and Tommy Milone out there, the team finally decided to try to give Tyler Pill a try. Pill certainly earned the opportunity with his pitching extremely well in the minor leagues this season going 4-1 with a 1.60 ERA in nine starts between Las Vegas and Binghamton.
Pill rewarded the Mets faith in him. It wasn’t always pretty, but Pill allowed just one earned run over 5.1 innings. He may have gotten himself in trouble in almost every inning, but he bore down and limited the damage. If not for an Asdrubal Cabrera error late in the game, he would have gotten the win.
2. Flores Earning A Starting Job
With the struggles of Jose Reyes and T.J. Rivera slumping, Wilmer Flores has just gone out there and just hit. For the season, he has a 116 OPS+ and a 113 wRC+, which puts him as the second best hitting Mets infielder behind Lucas Duda. While he has traditionally been held back by hit inability to hit right-handed pitching, Flores has been much better in that department in May hitting .364/.397/.491 with four doubles, a homer, and 11 RBI in 58 plate appearances against right-handed pitching.
Over the final two games of the series against the Brewers, Terry Collins has started Flores despite the Brewers starting right-handers. Hopefully, Flores continues to remain in the lineup going forward. He certainly made a case for himself with a home run in the eighth inning of Thursday’s game.
3. Taking One for the Team
On Tuesday, the Mets played a 12 inning game meaning they had to go deep into their bullpen. In the game, Josh Smoker stepped up and pitched three shut out innings to help save the bullpen and give the Mets a chance to win. This is the second time this season he has done this. The first was when he pitched three innings in the Mets 16 inning win against the Marlins.
The Mets bullpen would not get a respite the following day with Jacob deGrom only lasting four innings in what could have been the worst start of his career. Josh Edgin picked up the slack pitching three shutout innings himself. His going to the whip allowed Collins to avoid having to use his late inning relievers thereby leaving them fresh to pitch on another day.
In the grand scheme of things, efforts like the ones Smoker and Edgin put forth tend to get overlooked. However, their eating up innings when the Mets needed them, they have allowed the Mets to save their bullpen. This is especially important considering how frequently the Mets bullpen has been used this year.
3 DOWN
1. Cabrera Not The Same Shortstop
Cabrera’s strength at shortstop was never his range. In fact, he has not posted a positive UZR season since 2007, which was his rookie year. He has not posted a positive DRS at short since 2008. Despite this, teams have kept Cabrera at shortstop because of his sure hands. While he may not get to a lot of balls, he made the sure out.
Cabrera’s Luis Castillo impression on Tuesday was another reminder Cabrera’s once sure hands have abandoned him. He has already matched his error total of last year. Judging how he’s played this year, things may get worse before they get better. As the Super Two cutoff approaches, the Mets should really consider calling up Amed Rosario and moving Cabrera to third.
2. Walks Are Really Hurting The Mets
Last year, the Mets pitching staff issued the fewest walks in baseball, which was a major factor in the Mets having the third best team ERA. This year, the Mets have issued the third most walks in baseball, which has been a major factor in the team having the third worst ERA in baseball.
The pitching staff has already had 13 games where they have issued six plus walks in a game. In those games, the Mets record is 3-11. In games the Mets have not issued that many walks, the team is 20-18.
3. Only the Mets . . .
Multiple times a year, the Mets leave you scratching your heads muttering to yourself, “Only the Mets.” So far, this year, we have seen Noah Syndergaard refusing to get an MRI and getting injured in his subsequent start, Matt Harvey not even showing up to the ballpark, the contents of Kevin Plawecki‘s locker, Mr. Met flipping the bird, and a ball boy running into Flores in foul territory and preventing him from making a catch. You don’t see these things happen to one team in a season let alone all in two months. Only the Mets . . . .
After the disappointing split, the Mets end their homestead with a three game set against the Pirates. Hopefully, the Mets provide more fireworks than the scheduled ones on Saturday night.
