Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

The Mets got beat up Tuesday by a hot Orioles offense, and they returned the favor against Matt Harvey & Co. Wednesday, earning a split series with the Orioles and a 3-1 season series win.

The team is now 30-24 through 54 games–just about one-third of the way through the season. They’re still 3.5 games up on the Atlanta Braves and four up on the Phillies. They’ll play those two a total of 10 times by the end of the month, so there could be room to pad that lead, but let’s talk about the recent series split first.

3 Up

Big Pete’s Dinger Barn

The Big Man is on fire.

Pete Alonso had three home runs in the two-game series, and he now has 10 this season. He’s the first Met to reach double digits in home runs.

Since coming off the injured list on May 31, he’s 13-for-35 (.371) with four home runs and 12 RBI in 37 plate appearances. His OPS hit .769–the lowest in a month-and-a-half–before hitting the IL. It’s back up to .850 now and climbing.

Pete has gotten on hot streaks like the one he’s on now in his first season-and-a-half, especially with regards to the long ball. And don’t look now, but Pete has a career-low strikeout rate at 22 percent, too.

Kevin Pillar Post-Nose Smashing

Kevin Pillar went on the injured list  a day after taking a direct hit to the nose with a 95 m.p.h. fastball. That same day he held a press conference basically saying, “Yeah, this sucks, but I’ll be fine.”

He came back from the injured list 13 days later (10 days after surgery!) and got a hit in his first appearance–a pinch hit on Memorial Day. Since then in the month of June, Pillar is batting .269 with a .796 OPS–boosted by two home runs, including the final blow to Matt Harvey, Wednesday. He’s reasonably started just six of the nine games since coming back, but he’s provided a much-needed upgrade to the outfield over the last week-and-a-half.

Gary Cohen mentioned on Wednesday night’s broadcast how the little things Pillar did after the devastating blow–hold a press conference the next day, remain around the team while battered and bruised, etc.–help the team morale and success. I’d argue producing is the most important, though, and Pillar is doing that.

Taijuan Walker‘s Breaking & Offspeed Stuff

Taijuan Walker has found success this year pitching to contact. His whiff percentage (34th percentile) and strikeout percentage (55th) both don’t blow you away, and to be honest, his hard-hit percentage and average exit velocity are middle-of-the-pack, too. Hitters aren’t chasing at his stuff either (10th percentile). So he’s clearly giving up a bunch of contact.

The results, though? A 2.07 ERA (2.83 FIP)–5th best in the National League. He’s also tied for 10th in fWAR among starters. The Mets are getting this for $10 million this year, and $7 million next year.

He’s giving up just 5.75 hits per nine innings on the whole, good for 8th lowest in the majors, and and absurdly low 0.3 homers per nine innings–the lowest among qualified starters in the league. So sure, he’s giving up contact, but the breaking, offspeed and fastball are all producing middling results for hitters.

Walker has produced with incredible results against his breaking and offspeed pitches (slider, splitter and curve). He throws those 45 percent of the time, with the sinker and fastball covering the rest. Batters are hitting .135 over 96 at-bats against his breaking and offspeed stuff. (The fastball gets great results, too, with a .169 BAA–the sinker has had the worst results so far). That’s one of the top marks in the league.

Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

3 Down

José Peraza’s Playing Time

José Peraza came up at the beginning of May when J.D. Davis and Brandon Nimmo went on the injured list. He quickly took on a more prominent role, starting most days (save for a few to rest a bruised knee) when the injuries to more Mets piled up.

His first month or so was about as much as you could ask from a guy you expected to be your backup-backup-backup infielder–a .699 OPS, a couple timely (and unexpected) home runs and a 98 wRC+. Perfectly average given his role and expectations.

It’s been a tougher go of it in June, though, with four hits in 30 at-bats and a 39 wRC+. He’s still playing every day, but that may change soon.

Peraza is probably best held as a backup, and with Luis Guillorme is returning soon, he’ll likely take on more of a reserve role with Villar, Lindor and Guillorme all healthy. (Jeff McNeil could be back by the end of next week, too.)

Luis Rojas mentioned Tuesday that Peraza would likely start practicing at positions other than third and second (i.e. the corner outfield spots) understanding playing time on the infield will quickly drop within a week or two. I’m not sure he’ll get much run over a Smith-Pillar-McKinney outfield, either.

Another Poor David Peterson Performance

His face Tuesday night said it all.

David Peterson is certainly on the worst stretch of his career right now over the last two starts, giving up nine runs in just three innings.

I wrote after his last start how his control was pretty evidently his crux in his bad starts. His astronomical walk rates in starts under five innings indicated as much. (His hits per nine innings were about the same in the same sample size.) Luis Rojas echoed as much before his start Tuesday: “He needs his command,” he said (courtesy of Pat Ragazzo). “He needs to throw his fastball and secondary pitches for strikes.”

That didn’t happen again Tuesday.

He struggled to control any of his pitches (outside of his changeup), so when they ended in the zone, they weren’t largely right in the middle of the plate.

With regards to Peterson coming out of the rotation, there’s no world in which that’s going to happen. Not until a trade or Noah Syndergaard and Carlos Carrasco come back (and the Mets would be lucky to get 10 starts this season total at this rate from those two).

Rojas said Peterson is absolutely getting his next scheduled start–Monday or Tuesday against the Cubs–barring anything unforeseen. He’ll need to be staple of the rotation at least through the All-Star break (please don’t mention Jerad Eickhoff or Thomas Szapucki to me–they’re not better options), so Peterson’s gotta figure it out in the big leagues.

Rest

The Mets play 33 games over 31 days starting Friday. That comes with three double headers and one actual off day. They’ll be at the All-Star break after this stretch.

They have a 16-game stretch in the middle all against NL East opponents. The rest are bookended by the Padres, Cubs, Yankees and Pirates. Twenty two of the 33 are at Citi Field, another three are still in New York against the Yankees, and the rest are in Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh.

This is all to say the Mets are desperate to get healthy over the coming weeks for depth reasons, and we’ll probably see lots of off days worked in for the regulars who are healthy. We’ll probably see plenty of roster moves to try to keep the bullpen and rotation as fresh as possible.