Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

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Arigato, Thank You

There was a clip floating around Twitter from June where a struggling Eduardo Escobar promised Mets fans that he was going to give them a reason to cheer for him. Escobar wasn’t entirely being fair to himself because he was awesome in April. That said, he was true to his word.

In September, Escobar is hitting .330/.379/.638 with three doubles, a homer, and 24 RBI. Arguably, he has been the Mets’ best player in this final month. Inarguably, he was in the series finale against the Marlins.

Escobar woke up the Mets offense by hitting a two-run homer. In the ensuing inning, he hit a game-tying two-RBI single. After the Mets failed to deliver in the ninth, the Marlins made the mistake of intentionally walking Jeff McNeil to pitch to him.

Even though he was not batting left-handed, he made the Marlins pay by hitting a walk-off RBI single. He was probably more excited than anyone and gave an emotional postgame interview which he ended with the classic line, “Arigato, Thank you.”

How You Drewing

With the game tied and heading into extras, there was some doubt Drew Smith could get the job done. After all, he had struggled mightily before landing on the IL, and he allowed a grand slam in his first game off the IL.

With a fast Jon Berti on second to start the inning (due to Manfred’s gimmick rules), Smith retired the side striking out two of the three batters he faced. He looked like the Smith who opened the season with a 13 1/3 scoreless inning streak.

This was all part of the Mets bullpen stepping up in the game. In this game, Seth Lugo, Adam Ottavino, Edwin Diaz, and Smith combined to allow just one earned over five innings while striking out 10 batters. On a night like this, you can imagine the Mets having what it takes in the bullpen to shut down the opposition to help this team go on a long postseason run.

Flying Squirrel Is Everywhere

Jeff McNeil was again doing everything he could do to help the Mets win a game. In addition to taking over for Starling Marte as the team’s right fielder, he would reach base five times in nine plate appearances. As the Mets hit the stretch run, McNeil has been on base in exactly half of his plate appearances over the past week.

On the season, McNeil has been the Mets third best player (by WAR). He could be the most important due to his versatility both on the field and in the lineup. It would be hard to imagine how the Mets could have weathered various injuries with his ability to move around the field and lineup.

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

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Fourth Starter Woes

For a stretch, it seemed Carlos Carrasco was a lock to be the Mets fourth starter in the postseason. That was until he was flat-out bad against the Marlins allowing four earned over three innings. Digging deeper, Carrasco is limping to the finish line.

In three of his five September starts, he has failed to go five innings. In two of those starts, he failed to pitch more than three innings. If he doesn’t have it, his next time out, you wonder how the Mets can use him in the postseason.

The answer to that may be Taijuan Walker. Walker was having his typical poor second half, but he had seemed to turn it on of late. That said, in each of his past two starts, Buck Showalter asked a little more of him, and he was unable to provide it.

On the bright side, most teams do not have pitchers the caliber of Carrasco or Walker at the back of their rotation. That said, the Mets depth there doesn’t matter much if neither is performing well in October.

Marte Done?

The target date for Marte was the Braves series; the series which may well decide the NL East. As it turns out, Marte will not play in that series. Chances are he’s not playing in the next series or any other series this season.

Marte is still wearing a splint unable to throw or hit. He cannot grab a bat or ball. Looking at the Mets, their best bet may be a Juan Uribe moment where Marte misses the first two series and is added to the World Series roster in the hopes he can contribute at one point.

As we have seen, this is a different team when Marte is out. It’s hard to imagine the Mets going 2-6 at home in September against the Nationals, Cubs, and Marlins if Marte was healthy. However, Marte is out, and that is what happened.

Fortunately, the Mets have McNeil, who can play right field. Unfortunately, it means they’re likely going to carry a right-handed platoon DH on the postseason roster they didn’t want to carry.

Missed Opportunity 

The Mets had the easiest schedule in baseball in September. With a three-game lead entering the month, the Mets could’ve clinched by now.

Case-in-point, the Mets are a combined 2-6 at home against the Nationals (101 losses), Cubs (86 losses), and Marlins (91 losses). That’s a massive waste.

If the Mets record against those teams was in the inverse, their record would be 102-54. Their magic number would’ve been two.

Instead of needing to beat the Braves once to control their destiny, they would’ve needed to beat the Braves once to clinch. Hopefully, this won’t come back to bite the Mets.