Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports

The Mets took three of four games from the Rockies this week–a necessity, even down as many guys as they are. This team needs to stack wins against bad teams t0 give itself a buffer should the course correct itself when they start playing good ones with a roster like the one they have right now.

They accomplished that this week behind stellar pitching (once again) from Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman and the remainder of the staff and an offense that just did enough to secure victories in three games (once again).

They’re 24-20 and lead the National League East. It’s gotten to the point where I need to type this out every couple days for it to really sink it that this is the reality despite the nightmare that’s is the Mets’ injured list transaction wire.

3 Up

Winning at Home

After going 3-1 this series, the Mets are now 14-5 at Citi Field. The health of this team’s overall record will revolve around how they do at home, and so far they’re performing wonderfully. Granted, of their 19 home games, 17 of them were against teams under .500, but that also means they’re running through teams they should be running through.

It runs a little deeper than just playing bad teams, though: the team as a minuscule 1.80 ERA over their 19 home games. (The Rockies scored just six runs in four games, and just three runs to Red Sox–one of the best teams in baseball–over two games.) They just don’t allow runs in Citi. They also have a better batting average, on-base percentage and hit more home runs per game at home.

The team’s next five home series are against the Braves, Padres, Cubs, Braves again and Phillies–each a crucial series as the team will work toward the All Star break.

Edwin Diaz In High-Leverage Situations

Here’s Edwin Diaz‘s stat line in nine save situations:

9.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R (0 ER), 2 BB, 14 K

Diaz has also given up just one run in tie-game situations, too.

That’s about as dominant as it gets. That’s “Jacob deGrom in his first two starts of the year” stuff.

In what Baseball Reference describes as a “high leverage situation,” Daiz has struck out 35 percent of the batters he’s faced and opponents have a .152 batting average against him.

Diaz was great in 2020, and they needed him to lock down games in 2021, especially with Seth Lugo on the injured list to start the year. Though he never broke mentally after a rough introduction to the Mets in 2019, Diaz admitted that pitching strong in 2020–especially in high-leverage situations–was great for his confidence. That’s carried over to important situations in 2021.

Manager of the Year Luis Rojas?

Jack Ramsay wrote last weekend how Luis Rojas deserves an early season look at a potential Manager of the Year nod. I wrote briefly about how well Rojas has managed the bullpen in a season where the starting staff has suffered injury after injury. And we all know the lineups the team has had to trot out with nearly 20 players on the injured list: Cameron Maybin batting third, James McCann playing first base, a Brandon Drury-Maybin-Billy McKinney outfield.

Yet, the Mets are 24-20 and 2.5 games ahead of a division rival that’s coming into town.

Rojas has had to deal with near-daily injury updates in press conferences and has stayed clear, level-headed and honest through it all. (He didn’t downplay what Syndergaard having to get shut down for six week meant, among other things.) That calmness has clearly translated to the clubhouse, as the team comes out and just does what they can every night with what they have. Being a manager is more than trotting out a lineup card and choosing what bullpen guys to bring it when (though Rojas has done great with that, too). And Rojas has clearly helped the team exceed what their results likely should be.

Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

3 Down

Offense from the Outfielders

Outfielders had four hits in 29 at-bats this series. Cameron Maybin still doesn’t have a hit in 26 at-bats for the team. They’re just not getting any offense from their starting outfielders.

The outfielders are bottom nine in offensive bWAR at all three outfield positions and bottom nine in OPS at both corner spots. It’s not all that surprising when four of the team’s top five outfielders ended up on the injured list, but what might be the most surprising is Dominic Smith‘s output (less than a .650 OPS in over 140 at-bats). He thankfully was able to play Thursday after banging up his knee sliding into home on Tuesday (on a play he didn’t even need to slide, because of course), and things will have to change for him quick in order to help the offense heading into the Braves series.

The Mets traded for Billy McKinney after Tuesday night’s game, and he ended up with one of the outfielders’ four hits in game two of Thursday’s doubleheader. The three offensive players most likely to return the soonest are all infielders (J.D. Davis, Luis Guillorme and Pete Alonso). If they’re looking for more reinforcements over the next month, the team ought to focus on the outfield.

Team Slugging

We’ve talked about it before, but the Mets remain dead last in the league in slugging percentage–just a paltry result from a team that came into the year with the least amount of roster question marks on offense.

They’re not hitting the ball hard (seventh-to-last in hard-hit percentage), they’re not barreling the ball (sixth-to-last in that percentage), they’re near the tops of the league in weak contact percentage, and the results are being near the bottom–or at the bottom–of the league in doubles, triples and home runs and runs scored in general.

You might be able to say the team was running into bad luck on batted balls, as their expected statistics were a hundred points or more higher than their actual statistics. And at this point the team is made up of a bunch of small sample sizes rather than seven to nine guys with ample sample sizes.

The Mets have played 44 games. If you average three at-bats per game (about what you need to qualify for the batting title, etc.), that would be 132 at-bats. The Mets only have two players–Dom Smith and Francisco Lindor–who hit that mark. They have another seven players with between 66 and 127 at-bats. Six of those guys are injured.

The most beneficial thing the offense can find is consistency in its lineup, but that’s not likely to come for at least another month.

Playing Games Against Good Teams

The Mets have only played 12 of their 44 games against teams with winning records. They’re 2-10 in those games.

Coming up are games against some good teams (the Braves, who are just a game under .500, and the Padres). The amount of games against good versus bad teams tend to even out, and it’s going to for the next month or so. The question will be whether the Mets can maintain a plus-.500 record after playing more games against teams they may see in the playoffs.