3 Up, 3 Down: Mets Problems Brewing to Surface

3 UP

Axe Man

To start the season, Pete Alonso just looked completely lost at the plate. Part of it might’ve been the pitch clock as it seemed to shortened and hamper Alonso’s preparation for an at-bat. On that point, we saw Alonso sprinting off the field in spring training to start mentally preparing for his at-bats.

Things were ugly to start the season. Over the first six games, he was hitting .136/.269/.318, and he seemed to be getting more lost at the plate.

We found out during the game yesterday, Alonso was trying a new bat. After the slow start, Alonso went back to the axe handle, and he hit two homers. With the axe handle, he suddenly looked like the Alonso of old. If that is the case, we can all just calm down a bit with how bad the offense has looked to start the season.

Bats Waking Up

It is no secret the Mets bats have been very bad to start the year. As alluded to in the above point, part of the reason for the Mets 3-4 start has been the fact the team has not been hitting at all. There were signs of the Mets bats waking up in Milwaukee.

Alonso had the two-homer game. Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, and Jeff McNeil each had three-hit games in the series. Starling Marte hit a double and stole a base.

The Mets wanted to have a much better start to the season, but it does not all seem to be doom and gloom. The bats are coming around, and hopefully, they are about to warm up as the weather does and the competition gets better.

Guillorme Does It All

Last season, Luis Guillorme‘s play forced Buck Showalter to platoon him at third base with Eduardo Escobar. For reasons that still have not been explained, Guillorme was removed from that platoon to enter the 2023 season.

With Escobar’s struggles and Brett Baty injuring his thumb (day-to-day), there seems to be another opportunity for Guillorme to force his way back into the lineup. He might’ve done that with a two-hit game and some stellar defense in the series against the Brewers.

Also of note, during the blowout, he would make his third career relief appearance pitching a scoreless inning. Sadly, he was the best pitcher of the day for the Mets being the only Mets pitcher to not yield a walk or run.

3 DOWN

Escape from Milwaukee

In their entire 61-year history, the New York Mets had never been shut out in back-to-back games while allowing 9+ runs. Not in 1962. Not in 1979. Not in 1993. It never happened.

That was until Carlos Carrasco and Max Scherzer and the bullpen got annihilated by the Milwaukee Brewers in consecutive games. Worse yet, the Mets offense continues not to produce with the second-worst slugging percentage in the National League. The team has just two homers not hit by Alonso.

Finally, when they start hitting again, David Peterson falters, and the bullpen can’t hold a lead. A once-promising game ended with Adam Ottavino giving up a walk-off homer.

Perhaps, the biggest explanation for this is Milwaukee. Since 2016, the Mets are 3-18 there. The Mets could bring the 1986 Mets from their prime to play the Milwaukee t-ball team, and they would still find a way to lose if it is played in that ballpark. On the bright side, the Mets won’t have to play there again this season.

Time Keeps on Ticking

It would seem the Mets are one of the teams who have struggled the most with the new pitch clock. That was no more evident than when Carrasco was assessed a pitch clock violation before he threw his first pitch of the season.

Carrasco had diminished velocity, and he was clearly frustrated. After the game, he went off on only having 15 seconds to pitch. Notably, Carrasco had been one of the slowest workers on the mound in 2022.

In addition to Carrasco, Scherzer is seemingly struggling a bit with the pitch clock. He tried a couple of things during spring training, but he hasn’t quite figured it out. Like Carrasco, his velocity has dipped a bit. Mostly, he is not as sharp with his location, and the result has been four homers against him so far this year capped off by his allowing three homers on three consecutive pitches.

Maybe this is just an easy excuse for older pitchers struggling. It could also be an easy excuse for the Mets slow start offensively this season. After all, McNeil has gotten off to a slow start, and he has multiple pitch clock violations this season. Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. Time will tell.

What the Buck?

With the state of the Mets bullpen and pitching, especially after the injuries to Justin Verlander and Edwin Díaz, Buck Showalter has to be very careful in how he manages his pitching staff. He was flat-out bad in the Milwaukee series.

Despite seeing Carrasco laboring and really being flat-out done after four innings, Showalter sent Carrasco out for the fifth. Keith Hernandez in a hot mic moment second guessed the manager immediately as we all did.

It got worse in the series finale. Showalter had David Robertson and Adam Ottavino for the last two innings. If the Brewers went down in order in the eighth, they had it lined up where they were going to have four straight left-handed batters to start the ninth.

While fans may want to brush it aside and say Ottavino was great in 2022, which he was, left-handed batters hit .301/.358/.480 off of him last year. Left-handed batters hit .168/.293/.257 off of Robertson. One of the reasons Showalter was hired in the first place was because he was supposed to be able to see things like this coming and game plan effectively.

Instead, he put the relievers out there in the wrong order, and he set up the Mets for failure. Considering the ballpark and the series, the Mets predictably failed.