3 Up, 3 Down: Mets Leave San Diego in Pain

3 UP

Cycling Out of a Slump

Eduardo Escobar went from the worst player on the Mets roster to being the first-ever player to hit a cycle at Petco Park. More impressively, Escobar became the first player to hit a homer and triple over the final two innings of a game to secure his cycle.

More than the cycle, Escobar looks like he is fully out of his slump, and he is playing some great baseball.

In this series, he was 6-for-12 with two doubles, a triple, a home run, and six RBIs. His defensive play at third looks much improved. Mostly, he looks like the player the Mets thought he was, and he is once again a key bat in the lineup. With the recent slate of injuries, his breakout could not have come at a better time.

McNeil Is Back

Sometimes, all a player needs is a breather. That was the case with Jeff McNeil who got back to hitting like his old self after a breather.

Entering this series, McNeil was hitting .250/.300/.357 over his previous nine games. He bounced back in this series to go 4-for-11 (.364) with a double and an RBI. He is also displaying his versatility playing second and left, and he’s going it well.

Overall, McNeil bounced back like we anticipated he should, and with All-Star voting commencing, he is putting himself in a position for his second career berth.

Cookie Does Not Crumble

Entering the first game of this series, the Mets bullpen was on fumes, and they needed length from their starter to give them a break. Carlos Carrasco answered the call by pitching seven innings and picking up the win. It was an extraordinary performance that saw that he strike out a season-high 10 batters.

In many ways, this Mets team is where they are because Carrasco has been great. He has deepened the rotation, helped the Mets win games, and helped them withstand the slate of injuries. Carrasco may not be the best player on the team, but he has emerged as one of the most important.

3 DOWN

Injuries

In the same game, Starling Marte and Pete Alonso would go down with an injury. While the initial tests were negative, neither of them were in the lineup on Wednesday. Things are more pessimistic with Marte with the team calling up Khalil Lee for depth.

We got a sense of the impact the loss of both would be as the Mets scored just two runs over two games after Marte was lifted from the game. Remember, this is one of the best offenses in all of baseball.

It doesn’t help that their replacements did nothing. J.D. Davis was 2-for-9 in the series with suspect play at first dropping a foul ball and making a poor flip to Joely Rodriguez. Nick Plummer was 0-for-3 with a strikeout.

Maybe the Mets will get lucky here with the injuries, and we can see Marte and Alonso back sooner rather than later. If not, the Mets aren’t in a great place as these are two huge bats and clubhouses presences which are that missing. Fortunately, the Mets are finally getting a day off, and they are getting the reeling Los Angeles Angels next.

Ill Timed Slumps

One of the big problems with the team right now is they are mired in slumps. To be fair, good starting from San Diego will do that. However, it is coinciding with a time when the Mets suffered the aforementioned injuries.

Francisco Lindor was 1-for-12. Luis Guillorme was 0-for-6. Brandon Nimmo, who is dealing with his injury issues, was 1-for-9 albeit with two walks and two HBP. As noted above, Davis was 2-for-9.

Worse yet, Chris Bassitt is really in a deep, deep funk. In the series finale, he lasted just 3 1/3 innings after allowing seven runs (six earned) on seven hits and two walks. This is part of his deep struggles since James McCann hit the IL. He is just not jiving with Tomas Nido.

In his five starts pitching to McCann, Bassitt has a 2.61 ERA and opposing batters are hitting .193/.265/.303. In his four games with Nido, he has a 6.45 ERA with opposing batters hitting .281/.330/.583. No, that is not a typo. He is making every batter look like Alonso with Nido behind the plate.

With Bassitt fighting it and McCann still out, the Mets need to at least put Patrick Mazeika behind the plate just to mix things up for Bassitt. Really, with these struggles, that’s where we are, i.e. just trying to find something that works.

MLB Schedulers

Putting Alonso’s injury aside because it was a hit by pitch, we should’ve anticipated the injuries and struggles coming at this time. After all, the Mets were in a stretch where they played 30 games over a 30-day stretch. That included not one but two trips to the west coast. Worse yet, the Mets were not given a travel day for either west coast trip.

Buck Showalter and the Mets won’t use this as an excuse because that is the type of team they are. That said, these players are human, and we are seeing the impact of a very grueling schedule on this team. The bright side is they started this stretch seven games up in the NL East, and they are currently eight games up.