3 UP

1. Switch Flipped

In the season opening roadtrip, the Mets were making contact, but they weren’t hitting for much power. To put it in perspective, Juan Lagares and Jacob deGrom were tied for the team lead in homers. Things looked worse when the Mets were shut out by Stephen Strasburg in their home opener.

Then J.D. Davis broke out with two bombs, which seemingly woke up the Mets power. In that game, the Mets hit a total of five homers, which ties a team record at Citi Field.

Speaking of power, Pete Alonso continues to absolutely destroy the baseball. As noted by MMO‘s Michael Mayer, the young slugger is only one of two players who have three batted balls on the top 50 exit velocity leaderboard.

2. It’s Never Over

In the Mets first loss of the season, they trailed three runs before putting together an eighth inning rally, tying the game.

In the home opener, they rallied against Stephen Strasburg bringing Davis up to the plate as the go-ahead run in the seventh.

Yesterday, the Mets were down 12-1 in a game started by Max Scherzer. The team would score eight runs over the final three innings pulling up just short.

Overall, these Mets are fighting no matter what the odds. It’s why we see the team already have some come from behind wins. It’s also an indication nothing is insurmountable for this team.

3. Waking Up

There are a number of Mets who have had poor starts to the season. In the series against the Nationals, it appears like those Mets are figuring things out.

Brandon Nimmo entered Sunday batting .077 with an MLB worst 17 strikeouts. He doubled and flew out in his only two at-bats off the bench on Sunday.

Steven Matz was teetering against the Nationals until he started hitting the outside corner. It not only led to his somewhat miraculously getting through five, but it led to his giving his team a chance to win.

Seth Lugo rebounded from a couple of poor appearances with a dominant outing Sunday afternoon. He struck out the side, and his fastball velocity was back up to 96 MPH.

3 DOWN

1. deGrom and Thor Pray for No More

Through his first two starts, Jacob deGrom has yet to allow a run. In his last start, Noah Syndergaard allowed two earned over six innings. After these two the starting rotation has not been good.

The Mets only trusted Jason Vargas to pitch five innings against the worst team in the National League and are already skipping his start.

Steven Matz has only pitched 10.1 innings over his first two starts walking 3.5 batters per nine. As a positive, he did seem to figure something out against the Nationals.

Finally, there is Zack Wheeler. After his second half last year, there was hope he turned a corner. Instead, he’s reverted back to the Wheeler of old. He’s walking too many, and he’s not putting batters away.

If Wheeler isn’t the pitcher he was in the second half last year, and someone else doesn’t step up, the rotation quickly goes from strength to a giant question mark.

Just a subtle reminder here Dallas Keuchel is still available.

2. More Bull Than Pen

Right now, the Mets bullpen ERA is 5.94. When you back out Edwin Diaz‘s 0.00 ERA, that ERA jumps to 6.75. When you remove Justin Wilson‘s 1.59 ERA, the bullpen ERA is 8.14.

Aside from these two, every member of the Mets bullpen has had at least one blow-up including Jeurys Familia allowing two homers for the first time of his career.

Aside from Familia’s blow-up, he’s been good this year, and overall, Wilson-Familia-Diaz are forming up to be a nice 7-8-9 combination.

Who the Mets can rely on past that is anyone’s guess right now, especially with the way Mickey Callaway is (mis)managing the bullpen.

Just a subtle reminder here Craig Kimbrel is still available.

3. Missed Opportunity

The Nationals were coming into this series literally wounded with Trea Turner landing on the disabled list with a broken finger. Their bullpen makes the Mets bullpen look lights out. Overall, they were 2-3 heading to Citi Field to face a Mets team with a lot of momentum.

Now, it may be too soon to say the Mets could’ve buried the Nationals, but the Mets did have a real opportunity to put some early distance between the two teams.

Instead the Mets lost the series, and suddenly, a Nationals team which could have been focused on their horrific bullpen and a manager possibly on the hot seat got some life.