3 Up, 3 Down: Mets Choked

3 UP

McNeil Ready

If there was anyone on the New York Mets who truly showed he was ready for the postseason, it was Jeff McNeil. Game-in and game-out, he was out there trying to will the Mets to victory.

In the series, he was 7-for-13 with a homer and two RBI. He played well in right field. He gave tough at-bag after tough at-bat. He was a player who did not want to lose this division, and he tried desperately to lead his team to victory.

Diaz Claims Narco

Well, because one or two run games with the National League East division title on the line is apparently not high leverage situations, Buck Showalter sat Diaz for all but two-thirds of an inning in this series. This should have him rested for the postseason.

Keep in mind, the Mets did not have many victories in this series. However, one of them was when William Contreras came to the plate in the eighth. Despite Timmy Trumpet saying “Narco” belongs to Diaz, Contreras uses it as his batting walk-up music. Diaz made quick work of Contreras striking him out on three pitches.

Can Rest for Postseason

For better or for worse, the Mets are going to be the Wild Card, and they are going to host either the Philadelphia Phillies or San Diego Padres in the Wild Card Series. With the division not on the line, the Mets can use this impending three game set to get ready for the postseason.

Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor can finally get an off day. Same for McNeil. The Mets gave run out a heavy dose of Francisco Álvarez and Mark Vientos to see if either of them can get hot or on track for the postseason. Seeing the failures of those rookies late in the season, maybe the Mets can even call up a Dominic Smith to see if he can catch lightning in a bottle.

In the end, the Mets have three completely meaningless games to play. Hopefully, they use them wisely.

3 DOWN

Mets Collapse

If someone told you before the season, the Mets would have 98+ wins before the season with a chance to win the NL East late in the season, you would absolutely take it. Actually, that is only partially true.

If you were told the Mets led this division at one point by 10.5 games, had a three game lead entering September, went 2-6 at home against the Nationals, Cubs, and Marlins, and would be completely dominated by the Braves as they were swept with the division title on the line, absolutely no one in their right mind would take it. This right here is why we should not try to sugarcoat and excuse this collapse.

This is now the second straight year the Mets led the division for the vast majority of the season only to go meekly into that good night as the Braves just took the division away from them. No one should be happy about this, and no one should be defending it.

Big Players Came Up Small

The Mets were in the perfect spot to win this series. They had Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, and Chris Bassitt lined up. We saw deGrom struggle with a blister allowing three homers in a game. As bizarre as that was to see, it was downright surreal to see each starter pitch worse than the previous starter.

What’s weird to say is while each starting pitcher was not good, and they let up more runs that we ever should have expected, this loss was not on them. Well, we should say, it was not completely on them. The reason being is that even though the starting pitchers were nowhere near their best selves, the games were still there to be won.

The problem is McNeil was the only player who really stepped it up. Alonso and Lindor did not have a big hit all series. Brandon Nimmo and Eduardo Escobar were fine, but in the end that was not enough. Time and time again, the Mets were in a spot to deliver a big hit and drive home a run, and they just didn’t.

This was supposedly where the organizational offensive philosophy with Eric Chavez was supposed to work. Instead, the Mets put it in play and the station-to-station approach looked on as the Braves big bats were scoring runs by hitting the ball out of the ballpark.

Buck Bad Big Game Manager

Heading into September, the narrative was Showalter was easily going to be the National League Manager of the Year. In reality, he can’t get that award when his team just folded like a cheap suit to Brian Snitker and the Atlanta Braves.

What really stood out with Showalter in this series is he looked like a manager who did not learn from his mistakes in his previous spots. This was him using Jack McDowell, Bobby Chouinard, and anyone but Zack Britton on loop. Really, he was terrible in this series.

In the first game of the series, the Mets only trailed by two in the seventh. For some inexplicable reason, he somehow thought that was a good time for another Tylor Megill audition. As we saw, it definitely wasn’t.

With the bullpen, we saw Joely Rodriguez pitch more than any other reliever. That just can’t happen.

We saw him show faith in Álvarez like he was David Wright. Álvarez was called up to hit left-handed pitching and be the weak side platoon at DH. On multiple occasions, Showalter passed on using Daniel Vogelbach for him including a ninth-inning bases loaded situation against Kenley Jansen. Those decisions looked all the worse when Vogelbach homered on Sunday.

It was using Mark Vientos to try to hit one out over Luis Guillorme when the Mets needed Guillorme’s OBP skills to get base runners and build rallies. It was only using Diaz for two-thirds of an inning.

It was not preparing and adapting to the Braves base runners tipping location to the batter. Honestly, this was supposed to be Showalter’s forte. That’s where he was supposed to be better than everyone. The absolute little things. Even there, Snitker managed circles around him.

Yes, put the blame on the players as you should. The starters were bad, and the big bats might’ve been worse. However, at the end of the day, Showalter reminded us why his team fail in the postseason, and worse yet, he showed no growth from his previous postseason mistakes. Come postseason time, he’s a liability which he was with the Yankees, Diamondbacks, and Orioles.