We had a little break from 3 Up, 3 Down last week, so this column will cover the last seven games — the Nationals on Monday, the Braves series and the Yankees series. They went 3-4 over the stretch, including a drubbing at the hands of the Braves and a couple high-scoring offensive outputs at Yankee Stadium.

The Mets are heading into the last week before the All-Star break up 3.5 games in the NL East with a 43-37 record — a game short of halfway through the year. Through those 80 games, they’ve produced one of the worst offenses in the league but also one of the best pitching staffs. This 3-4 week showed signs of progression for the offense, though, and regression for the pitching staff, so let’s get into the ups and downs.

3 Up

Brandon Nimmo Provides A Spark

Brandon Nimmo‘s rehab took longer than expected — both from the initial injury when the team thought he’d be out a couple of weeks to his rehab taking a couple of games longer — but it was worth the wait as he returned to spark the team’s lineup.

He batted leadoff in all three games this weekend, went 5-for-13, scored three times, and knocked in three more runs. Pre-injury, Nimmo was near the top of the league in batting average and on-base percentage (.318 and .430, respectively), so seeing the sprint walker start right where he left off was a needed boost to a Mets lineup that scored just 3.5 runs per game in June.

He played in eight games on his last rehab assignment, so you’d hope his stamina is there to remain in the lineup for most if not all of the next seven games the Mets play ahead of the break. (He had a finger injury and not a leg injury, so he was likely able to keep his legs healthy and moving throughout his rehab.) He’s proven to be the most consistent offensive player the Mets have had this year when he’s in the lineup, even though he’s played in just 24 of 80 games.

Dom Smith Has Turned It Around

The Mets’ offense continued to struggle at the start of the week. Dominic Smith wasn’t a part of the struggle, though, and he produced his best week of the season.

He went 10-for-23 with three home runs (including two on Thursday, one of which tied the game off a lefty closer), two doubles, six RBI and a walk. His OPS jumped 54 points, including a 51-point spike in slugging percentage.

Six of the hits came against non-fastball/sinkers, which Smith has been struggling badly with this year. He still has just a .284 slugging percentage off breaking pitches this season after a .653 slugging percentage last season on the same pitches. But, he’s also seeing a lot more breaking balls this year than last year (31.7 percent vs. 25 percent), and perhaps his eye and timing are finally coming around to the pitches.

Smith has been one of many Mets who’ve disappointed with the bat through the first half, so it’s a welcome turnaround for the player who might’ve had the best offensive year for the Mets in 2020. Now he just has to keep this hitting going at Citi Field, where he has just a .229 batting average and .637 OPS.

Jacob deGrom is Prioritizing Health

Jacob deGrom was named to his fourth All-Star team on Sunday. The All-Star game, which happens July 13, will take place in Denver just two days after deGrom is scheduled to pitch in New York against the Pirates. DeGrom will likely be lined up to pitch Friday in Pittsburgh, too, so he decided he won’t pitch in the All-Star game.

He would’ve been allowed to throw an inning in the game if he wanted to (and it would’ve been the first inning, because duh). But deGrom is prioritizing his health in skipping the game. He even mentioned Sunday that he might not even fly to the game, and he’d check in with Mets trainers to see what they think is best. After a first half with too many injury scares, we might’ve seen deGrom skip out even if his last start wasn’t the Sunday before the game.

DeGrom not participating would mean there wouldn’t be a Met on the roster, which could give Taijuan Walker a much-deserved spot, which we’ll view as a positive, too.

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

3 Down

Who Will Start For the Mets This Week?

The Mets got routine starting performances this week from Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman and Taijuan Walker, but David Peterson, who’s tried anchoring the back of the rotation to the ground, got injured during his Wednesday start. He’ll likely be out for more than a month.

The team currently has starting pitcher gaps on Wednesday and Thursday this week. (Tylor Megill and deGrom will cover Monday and Tuesday, and Walker and Stroman can start Friday and Saturday.) Corey Oswalt offered four solid innings on Sunday, save for one sky-high homer to Gio Urshela. He might be able to pitch on Thursday on short rest, but there really isn’t an option on the 40-man roster to give them bulk innings on Wednesday.

Jerad Eickhoff just elected free agency after being designated for assignment, and Thomas Szapucki can’t come up by Wednesday unless an injury happens. Robert Stock is an option, too, but that would require sending down a bullpen arm, which feels counterintuitive when you’ll likely need two bulk bullpen days in a row. Eickhoff could always rejoin the team to start this week and use it as another audition to secure a back-end rotation spot, but the organization may have seen all they need to see there. They’ll likely just keep filling the last two rotation spots with Megill, Oswalt and whatever other internal options they have until a more significant move is made via the trade market.

The rotation is really trudging toward the All-Star break, as deGrom has shown signs of mortality his last two starts, and Stroman has struggled with command his last couple times out. They just need to get to July 12 for a reset and well-earned rest.

Conforto Is Trying to Find His Way

Michael Conforto has appeared in 12 games since return from a hamstring injury on June 23. He has just four hits in 34 at-bats in that span, two of them coming in his first game back. He’s 2-for-30 since June 25 with six walks and 13 strikeouts.

It’s not a surprise to see Conforto need to get his timing back after being out a month-and-a-half and only playing in three rehab games. I know the Mets were eager to get him back in the lineup after he proved his hamstring was 100 percent, but it also may have served him well to work on that timing in the minors. He played just three games and had 11 at-bats on his rehab assignment.

An inevitable hot stretch is coming for Conforto, but his season slash line of .204/.341/.293/.633 — particularly that slugging percentage — isn’t pretty to look at right now.

The NL East Gap Isn’t Widening

The Mets started June with a 3.5-game lead over second place in the NL East and six games over .500, and they started a 16-game stretch against NL East opponents on June 18 4.5 games up and nine games over .500. Here and now on July 5, they’re 3.5 games up on second place and six games over .500.

There are two ways to look at this: 1) The Mets had a huge opportunity to bury the NL East before the All-Star break, and they didn’t do it. And 2) Despite a horrid offensive stretch over the last half of June, the Mets were able to maintain the same lead they had to start June, and they’ve been in first place since May 9. That’s longer than any other team has held a first place lead this season.

The lack of expansion in the division lead stems from their 19-18 record against the division, including just 6-10 in their last 16-game stretch against the Braves, Phillies and Nationals. The Mets haven’t been healthy, but each division rival has had their fair share of injuries, too. It’ll be crucial once they regain full health to really start beating up on the rest of the teams in the division that aren’t really inspiring any confidence in taking over the Mets.