3 UP

1. Starting Off Right

When the Mets needed to get things off to a good start, they were lucky Jacob deGrom was taking the mound. He was his Cy Young caliber self. In getting the win, he’d limited the Diamondbacks to just one run on three hits and one walk in 7.0 innings while he struck out 11.

Zack Wheeler may not have been as dominant, but his results were every bit as good. In beating the Diamondbacks, he had his third straight seven inning start where he allowed just one earned run. It was also the first time he struck out more than five batters in over a month.

As good as both pitchers have been going, Steven Matz has been near their equal of late. That goes double when he takes the mound at Citi Field. At Citi Field this year, he is 8-1 with a 1.94 ERA, 1.106 WHIP,and a 9.4 K/9. In the second half, he is 5-2 with a 2.52 ERA, 1.104 WHIP, and an 8.5 K/9. He was also a winner after figuring his way out of a bases loaded jam, and then shutting down the Diamondbacks.

Finally, the Mets would finally see the Marcus Stroman they thought they were getting at the trade deadline. It wasn’t just his allowing just one earned over 6.1 innings against a good Diamondbacks offense. It is the fact he kept the ball on the ground. Between the strikeouts and ground balls, the Diamondbacks only got the ball in the air 40.7 percent of the time. That’s exactly who Stroman is, and that’s great news for the Mets.

2. The Forgotten Men

At varying points this year, Mets fans had given up completely on Todd Frazier and Juan Lagares. It was not without reason as both have looked like shadows of how they’ve previously played. That wasn’t the case in this series.

Over the final three games of the four game sweep of the Diamondbacks, Frazier was red hot, and that’s putting it mildly. Over the three game stretch, he was 5-for-9 with two doubles, three homers, and seven RBI.

As incredible as the Frazier resurgence has been, Lagares came into this series not having hit a homer in Citi Field in over two years. Naturally, he would have a two home run game including his hitting a grand slam. If you have disbelief reading that, you’re not alone as Gary Cohen’s voice cracked when he was making the call on the grand slam, and he was bemused on the second homer.

This is an important turnaround for two Mets players whose gloves are needed on the field. If they can hit and contribute like this the Mets are a significantly better team. They are a team very capable of grabbing that second Wild Card spot.

3. Homer Happy

For the first time in Mets history, the team hit five homers in back-to-back games, and it was the first time they hit 11 homers over a two game stretch. Their 13 homers in the series matched a team record previously set in 2015. Everyone was getting in on the action with Lagares hitting two homers and even Tomas Nido hitting a homer.

After yesterday’s game, the Mets have surpassed their single season home run record at Citi Field by hitting 114 on the season. They have set that record with the team having 10 home games remaining.

Photo by Tim Healey of Newsday

3 DOWN

1. Cleats Not Caps

Eighteen years last, and Major League Baseball still has no heart. They will have the players wear blue, pink, camouflage, and stars and stripped theme caps. They will let the Houston Astros wear Apollo 11 themed caps to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing. However, when it comes to 9/11, they don’t care about the first responders who died that day and are suffering illnesses and dying as the days ensued.

In the past, Mets players like R.A. Dickey and David Wright tried to do something about it, but Major League Baseball would go so far as to threaten fines, take away draft picks, and go searching for the caps in the clubhouse and dugout to prevent a Mets player from wearing them on the field.

This year, when Pete Alonso‘s own attempts were thwarted, he found a work-around by getting and paying for his teammates to wear cleats honoring the first responders. By his own admission, he didn’t seek permission knowing Major League Baseball would say no. They’re that petty.

Alonso and his teammates did a truly great thing, and they deserve our admiration and respect. As for Major League Baseball, they deserve every ounce of your disdain, and we should not how hypocritical they are when they seek to promote the Mike Piazza homer and sell 9/11 patched caps for their own gain.

2. Thorny Issue

It seems push finally came to shove with Noah Syndergaard‘s problems with the Mets forcing Wilson Ramos on him finally coming public. This was not the blow-up the team needed as they are fighting for the Wild Card. It also isn’t remotely the right decision.

For starters, Syndergaard’s problems with Ramos catching him are sound. After all, what he does well on the mound is neutralized by Ramos’ poor pitch framing, especially on pitches in the lower half. That is bore out in the numbers as Syndergaard has a 5.09 ERA with Ramos behind the plate and a 2.22 ERA when Ramos and Rene Rivera are behind the plate this year.

Even if you want to disregard these numbers and say it’s mental, the Mets were boastful during this series yet again about ignoring the metrics. Specifically, Steve Gelbs did a report explaining the Mets don’t shift as often due to the shifts psychological impact on their pitchers.

So, all told, the Mets don’t put any credence in the numbers about how Syndergaard is a Cy Young caliber pitcher with a capable framer behind the plate and the psychological effects Ramos behind the plate may have upon him. Rather, they are more interested in forcing Ramos to play in his starts because they value his 3-4 at-bats over the 20-30 he is behind the plate affecting Syndergaard on the mound.

3. Close Shave

Alonso is currently in an 0-for-12 streak. To make matters worse, he has struck out seven times during this stretch. He is clearly frustrated by this recent cold streak that he actually went back to the clubhouse to shave his mustache. As we found out, it wasn’t the mustache.

He’s simply just cold at the plate. The bigger fear is with Hyun-Jin Ryu, Clayton Kershaw, and Walker Buehler coming into town things can get worse – much worse. The bright side is his teammates have picked him up putting up a ton of runs on the board during his cold streak just the way Alonso has picked them up all season long.