Mandatory Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports

The Mets followed up getting swept by the division-leading Phillies with sweeping the division’s worst team, the post-trading-deadline Nationals.

All three wins came within about 24 hours after Tuesday’s game was suspended and finished Wednesday, then a Wednesday doubleheader was changed to a Thursday doubleheader. Wins are wins, though, and the Mets now sit just just a half-game out of first after starting the series 2.5 games back and in third place.

A 13-game stretch against the Dodgers and Giants–teams with two of the best records in the majors–is coming up, starting with three at home against Los Angeles. A decent stretch here (or really just treading water) could benefit the Mets as 18 of their last 35 games are against the Nationals and Marlins, including 15 straight after the Giants/Dodgers stretch.

But first, let’s look into things trending positively and not so much after the Nationals series.

3 Up

Pete Alonso‘s Got This

Pete Alonso was 0-for-his-last-21 before this series. He told fans to basically relax and that “we got this,” referring to the team’s struggles and his propensity to hit the ball hard but right at guys over the previous week.

Well, he went 6-for-12 against the Nationals and hit the game-winning solo shot in the final game to nail down the sweep. He got this.

His three doubles and homer pushed him over 40 extra-base hits on the year, and despite his last cold stretch, Pete has been the team’s most consistent power bat. He’s also been the team’s most consistent source of positivity (outside of potentially Marcus Stroman).

Lead-Off Man Brandon Nimmo

Remember the first game of the year when Kevin Pillar lead off for the Mets and Brandon Nimmo was batting eighth? I’m glad Luis Rojas & Co. quickly realized that was a mistake. (It was the only game Nimmo started the game batting eighth.)

Brandon Nimmo is the team’s best catalyst. In first innings (when leading off), Nimmo is 14-for-39 with nine walks, resulting in a .359/.479/.513/.992 slash line. When leading off innings in general, Nimmo’s even slightly better with a .500 on-base percentage and an OPS over 1.000.

If we narrow that down to just Citi Field, where Nimmo has an OPS that over .200 points higher than on the road (contrary to most Mets hitters), Nimmo has got on base in 13 out of 26 home games he’s played in, scoring seven of those times.

Keep him first, and keep him healthy.

Michael Conforto Gets Results

I wrote a week ago about how Michael Conforto‘s barrel percentage and hard-hit percentage were higher than they’d been in any month so far (based on just a five game sample). He’d only had three hits in 14 at-bats at that point, and hit batting average sunk to below .200 after the Marlins series. But the results have come.

In the Nationals series, Conforto went 5-for-10, and extended through the Phillies series, Conforto is 7-for-18 with two walks. His underlying numbers (hard-hit percentage, barrel percentage, etc.) have remained about the same through the month, but he’s raised his batting average to .213 and has an OPS over .900 in 32 at-bats in August.

The right fielder will be a big part of getting the offense clicking on all cylinders the last month-and-a-half of the season.

3 Down

Starters Going Deep

The Mets had four starting pitchers throw innings within about 48 hours during the series. None of them pitched more than 5.1 innings.

Carlos Carrasco had his abysmal start ended after just an inning (plus one batter) because of the rain. He gave up four runs in that span. Rich Hill “relieved” him, pitching at the restart of the game the next day, and couldn’t get an out in his fourth inning. Stroman hit a wall of humidity in his sixth inning and got just one out before handing it to Aaron Loup. And Trevor Williams got just an out in his fifth frame in the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader.

Four starters got 41 outs. That’s not totally ideal.

Mets starters have faced the third-least batters in the majors since the All-Star break, according to FanGraphs, and have the fifth-worst starter ERA since then, too. Jacob deGrom not being in the rotation clearly has something to do with that, but what was the team’s primary strength in the first half has quickly become a crux in the weeks following the break. The offense was able to pick up the starters for a change this series, though.

The Mets have Tylor Megill and Taijuan Walker, two guys who’ve somewhat consistently pitched into the sixth inning this season, coming up against the Dodgers. It’s a tough lineup to shut down and get deep into.

James McCann‘s Lack of Power

James McCann has started just seven of the Mets’ 12 games in August. He’s 3-for-25 (.120) in the month and 9-for-45 (.200) in the last 15 games.

He has two home runs and just one double since June 30. McCann was a guy the Mets hired in part cus of the pop from his bat. He hasn’t really shown that in 2021. He’s sitting at a .666 OPS in 295 at-bats this season.

Free agent catchers who have a higher OPS than that so far this year are: J.T. Realmuto (.804, 325 AB), Curt Casali (.738, 142 AB), Mike Zunino (.832, 235 AB) and *gulp* Wilson Ramos (.709 OPS, 130 AB). McCann obviously provides some defensive value someone like Ramos doesn’t, but his offensive output this season has been disappointing.

Back in late May when McCann’s OPS was sitting at .524, the Mets gave Tomás Nido a share of the playing time at catcher. It lit a spark under McCann, and he ripped off a June with a .288/.341/.500 slash line. The same split of playing time is happening now in August, though, but the same spark isn’t happening. He has just a shade under 50 games to turn the tide on the year.

A Decent Weather Stretch

The Mets’ longest stretch without a weather postponement this season has been 32 days (May 31 through July 1). One month. One month!

As a result, the team played its 12th doubleheader of the season Thursday. They have two more scheduled–one each with the Nationals and Marlins within the next 30 days. Yes, that’s the most in baseball.

In a positive light, they’re 15-9 in doubleheader games. But still, these doubleheaders throw lots of stuff–from rest to rotation alignment–in a tizzy, so it’d be nice to see the Mets be able to play their normal schedule down the last two-ish months. (Games in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami will help.)