3 Up, 3 Down: Mets Salvage Finale In Disappointing Pirates Series

The Mets played a stretch of seven games against one of the worst teams in baseball — the Pirates — with the All-Star break spliced between them. They only won three games, including just one of three in the latest series in Pittsburgh.

It could’ve been much better had they not blown a couple of big leads, but it also could’ve been much worse had they not come back from a 6-0 first-inning deficit on Sunday. (This is why you don’t write these things before the series is over. I asked editors for, and I quote, “permission to do a 0 Up, 6 Down” after that play.)

So let’s look into what went right (not a whole lot) and what went wrong (a whole lot more), as the Mets now sit at 48-42 and just two games up in the NL East.

3 Up

Tylor Megill Keeps It Rolling

Tylor Megill turned in the best start of his brief major-league career thus far on Saturday, holding the Pirates scoreless for six innings. He’s given the Mets much-needed stability in the rotation over the last five turns through and has become one of three healthy and consistent pitchers in the rotation. Mind you, he has just 24 big-league innings under his belt.

In that time, he has a 2.63 ERA (2.05 xERA, 3.71 FIP), a 27.7 strikeout percentage and a walk rate below 10 percent. He also already sits at the fourth-most WAR (0.4) among Met starters this season.

Over his first four starts, Megill showed he has good stuff, but he struggled to pile up low-pitch at-bats and get deeper into games. That changed for a start on Saturday when Megill made it through six innings. What helped? No walks and 16 of 24 first-pitch strikes.

Brandon Nimmo is BACK Back

Brandon Nimmo provided a spark to the Mets’ lineup when he returned on July 3. He kept compiling hits, as he did the first month of the year, but this recent three-game stretch against the Pirates really felt like a true Brandon Nimmo series.

He went just 1-for-8 — the lone hit a home run on Saturday — but he had eight walks. Eight! Eight beautiful sprints to first base. So that’s a .125 batting average for the series, but also a .563 on-base percentage. That feels like Brandon Nimmo.

The center fielder’s on-base percentage is now up to .430 on the year. It’d tie him first in the league with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. if he had enough plate appearances. He’s also slugging .441 — third on the Mets — with a 149 wRC+. The offense will make serious moves over the rest of the season if he can remain healthy.

My Al Pacino Impression

Because just when I think I’m out with this team, they keep pulling me the hell back in.

I was out about seven times over the last 72 hours, as you may have been, but Michael Conforto‘s home run to cap off a six-run comeback — during what started as the Mets’ most embarrassing game of the year — pulled me, you and I’m sure players on the team right back in.

3 Down

The Injury Bug Hits the Mets’ Top Players — Again

The Mets had a fully healthy offensive lineup for the first time in about two-and-a-half months for about five innings. They had a refreshed rotation for about a day.

Francisco Lindor and Jacob deGrom, the team’s WAR leaders on offense and pitching, respectively, were both placed on the injured list within 24 hours of each other this weekend.

Lindor suffered an oblique injury on a swing in Friday’s game. The next day, Lindor acknowledged that it “sucks” and he’s more week-to-week than day-to-day at this point. Just a couple of minutes later, Luis Rojas revealed deGrom has right forearm tightness — unrelated to any of his other injuries — and he won’t throw until that pain isn’t there anymore. He was put on the IL on Sunday.

That’s two huge blows to the Mets as they start the second half. They’ve weathered offensive blows all year, but Lindor is the anchor of the Mets’ transformed defense. DeGrom made an injured list appearance earlier this year, but it felt more precautionary. This one, not so much.

An Anomaly with Lugo and Diaz?

I was going to dedicate a section of this piece to the entire bullpen, but after 8 2/3 scoreless innings Sunday, revitalizing the Mets’ morale, let’s talk about what happened Saturday.

Seth Lugo, who’d given up five runs all season, gave up five runs in two-thirds of an inning. Edwin Diaz gave up a home run — a game-winning grand slam with two outs from a one Jacob Stallings — for the first time since August 30, 2020.

As all that gets typed out, they seem like things that are anomalous. But when you look at how the pair performed over their last couple of appearances, they might just both going through a rut at the same time.

Diaz has now given up 13 total base runners — eight hits and five walks — in just five innings in July, and he’s tripled his blown-save count from one to three due to blown saves his last two appearances. Similarly, Lugo has given up 11 base runners over his 5 1/3 innings in the month. Seven of those base runners have scored. So that’s 14 earned runs in 10 1/3 innings from the Mets’ best relievers in July.

Saturday may be an anomaly, where they both implode on the same day, combining to give up a seven-run lead. But they both have veered off course this month, and the team’s success in the second half will partially be rooted in Diaz and Lugo returning to form.

James McCann‘s Power Regression

James McCann found his power in mid-May after starting the season with just one extra-base hit through May 16. Through then and the end of June, though, he hit eight doubles and six home runs — a welcome sight for a guy who the Mets expected to hit for some level of power in addition to shoring up the defense behind the plate.

McCann has regressed a bit back to his output at the beginning of the season this month with no extra-base hits and just one RBI in 39 plate appearances in July. Just like in April, McCann doesn’t have a single barrel — the ideal contact scenario for hitters — so far in July. (He had barrel percentages from 10 to 12 percent in May and June.) His average exit velocity, which amazingly was 88.5 miles per hour in each of the first three months, has dropped nearly five miles per hour.

He’s still getting on base with his highest walk rate of any month this season, but McCann, who’s now consistently hitting at the bottom of the order with most of the offense healthy, is struggling to produce any pop.