3 Up, 3 Down: Mets Split Series With Nats

There’s going to be lots of ups and downs with the New York Mets the rest of the way. But at least it will be fun to watch.

That proved to be the way during a two-game series against the Nationals in Washington. The Baby Mets and an explosive offense won the day on Tuesday, before the bats vanished and the bullpen couldn’t get the job done in a 3-2 walk-off loss on Wednesday.

With the season series against the Nats now in the books, the Mets will have their destiny in their own hands in regards to avoiding the NL East basement, given that they are now 1 1/2 games ahead of Washington with 23 games left to play.

3 Up 

Shining Return

With Carlos Carrasco‘s season over due to a broken pinkie finger, José Butto was recalled and delivered the best start of his major league career on Wednesday. The 25-year-old tossed an absolute gem, throwing six scoreless innings while needing just 74 pitches to do so. Granted, Butto did run into trouble in the seventh as he left two runners on before eventually leaving the game. You could make the case, however, that Butto should never have been allowed out for the seventh in the first place. In any case, those two runners scored, meaning that Butto finished his day with two runs allowed on six hits to go along with six strikeouts. It was still a stellar start for Butto, and the question now will be whether or not he can replicate that if given the opportunity to start again down the stretch.

Baby Mets Assemble

Tuesday proved to be a pretty significant day for the Mets. For the first time ever, all four members of the Baby Mets were in a big league lineup together. And it was well worth the wait. All four players made sizeable contributions as New York beat the tar out of Washington on a big night for the offense. Francisco Álvarez broke out of his slump with a 419-foot three-run homer, his first home run since Aug. 1. Mark Vientos picked up his first career triple, Ronny Mauricio collected his first big-league RBI – becoming just the 11th player in franchise history to start their career with a four-game hitting streak or better – and Brett Baty also drove in a couple of runs.

The Baby Mets finished their first start together with an impressive stat line: 5-for-13, 5 R, 6 RBI, 2B, 3B, HR, SB, 2 HBP, BB. How many more times we’ll see the Baby Mets all together down the stretch remains to be seen, but we can be pretty confident that they will all have big roles to play for this team in 2024.

Power Surge

Brandon Nimmo has been tweaking his mechanics to try and elicit more power in recent weeks. Well, it’s paying off. Nimmo led an explosive offense on Tuesday night with two home runs, giving him 22 on the year. The leadoff hitter also picked up a single, while he picked up a double on Wednesday night. In doing so, Nimmo extended his hit streak to eight games, and he’s now hitting .265/.359/.454/.813 on the year. Furthermore, Nimmo’s hunt for power doesn’t seem to impact his ability to put the ball in play and make things happen. If he can add more home runs to his game moving forward, then he will morph into even more of an elite all-round threat in this Mets lineup.

3 Down 

Wasted Effort

As detailed above, José Butto enjoyed quite the return to the starting rotation on Wednesday. However, his efforts were not supported by the offense or the bullpen. The bats, after absolutely going off the night before, returned to being freezing cold as the Mets left nine runners on base and went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. That just isn’t going to get the job done. The bullpen wasn’t any better, either. Trevor Gott came in from the bullpen in the seventh and immediately allowed two runners to score to tie the game. Then, with the game on the line in the ninth inning, Phil Bickford came in and collapsed like a cheap pack of cards, eventually giving up the winning run in walk-off fashion. This was a big game in terms of the Mets trying to avoid finishing bottom of the NL East, and both the offense and the bullpen consistently choked in big spots.

Walk-A-Thon

There are still a couple of factors making the Mets worth watching down the stretch. Kodai Senga, the Baby Mets and Pete Alonso‘s sudden say in the MLB home run crown. With 11 homers in 28 games, including another long ball blast on Tuesday, Alonso now has 42 on the year. That places him behind Matt Olson of the Braves (46) and the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani (44) with 23 games left to play. Once Alonso gets hot, there’s no stopping him, so it wouldn’t be at all surprising if he makes a late push for 50 homers. And, after that, who knows what could happen. However, Alonso won’t get anywhere close if other teams repeat what the Nationals did on Wednesday. Alonso was intentionally walked twice, with the Nats determined not to let the star slugger do his thing at the plate. As a result, Alonso finished his night 0-for-1 with three walks, and those kinds of tactics won’t do his late home run chase any good at all.

Play The Kids

Seeing all four of the Baby Mets together in the same lineup on Tuesday was exhilarating. However, it doesn’t sound like we’ll get that pleasure much down the stretch. According to SNY broadcaster Gary Cohen, Mets manager Buck Showalter believes he owes it to contending teams to put out his best lineup against them. As a result, Showalter hinted that he may not use Brett Baty against LHP when playing a team with something meaningful to play for.

I appreciate the sentiment, but the Mets’ biggest priority should be themselves and ensuring the Baby Mets get as many reps as possible the rest of the way. That’s the only thing that matters—not showing respect to contending teams. The Mets are in a position where they need Baty, Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio and Francisco Álvarez to all be big contributors in the bigs in 2024. Baty needs as many at-bats as possible, as do the others. Harming their development just to show a little respect to other teams is bordering on malfeasance, and it calls into question Showalter’s suitability for the job next year. This isn’t what you want to hear from your manager, given where the Mets currently are.

The 64-75 New York Mets have an off-day on Thursday before opening up a three-game series in Minnesota against Carlos Correa and the Twins on Friday.