3 Up, 3 Down: Mets Take Series From White Sox

The New York Mets showed a little bit of life by taking two out of three games against the Chicago White Sox. The overall picture still looks pretty bleak, but it was at least encouraging to see this team hasn’t totally quit or cashed out just yet.

There were some encouraging trends from this series, including the offense finally breaking out in the first two games. The starting pitching also largely delivered, outside of Carlos Carrasco‘s rough outing on Tuesday.

However, an inability to sweep this series really hurt the Mets, who have a razor-thin margin for error right now. They are still seven games out of a playoff spot and according to FanGraphs, they have just a 14.3% chance of making the postseason. Thursday’s sloppy loss did not help matters.

3 Up

Baby Mets Come Up Clutch 

It is hardly a secret that the offense has stunk on a pretty consistent basis for the Mets in 2023. That’s a significant factor behind why they are in their current predicament, after all. However, two of the team’s best offensive prospects have done their best to try and provide a spark at the plate, and they were at it again against the White Sox.

No matter what happens the rest of the way, we can at least be comfortable in knowing that phenom catcher Francisco Àlvarez is legit. The righty hitter is enjoying a stellar rookie year, and he had himself quite the series against Chicago. Àlvarez crushed a pair of homers in the opening game of the series – his third multi-homer game of the year – and he also walked twice and drove in four RBIs. The 21-year-old leads all catchers in homers with 19, and he could surpass Jonny Bench’s record of 26 for the most homers by a catcher aged 21 or younger.

Brett Baty, while not as consistently impressive as his fellow rookie, has also shown that he has all the tools needed to be a productive big leaguer for the Mets both at the plate and in the field. He, too, made an impact in this series, blasting two home runs and driving in three RBIs. Baty went back-to-back with Àlvarez on Tuesday, and then proceeded to hit another monster long ball into the left-field seats the following day. It was a big series for Baty, who had endured a rough start to July, and the Baby Mets played a key role in clinching this series for the Mets.

Vintage Verlander Is Back

One of the biggest, and toughest to absorb, disappointments of the season to date has been the starting pitching, namely Justin Verlander‘s inability to operate at the peak of his powers. What was supposed to be a lethal one-two punch at the top of the rotation with Verlander and Max Scherzer has been anything but, and both players haven’t come close to justifying their statues as aces or their lofty $43.3 million price tags.

However, vintage Verlander did make a welcome return on Wednesday as the Mets won three straight and clinched the White Sox series. The veteran produced arguably his best performance in a Mets uniform, allowing just one earned run on three hits while striking out seven in eight stellar innings of work. He was locked in from the start, retiring his first nine batters, and he didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, after which he then sat down 10 in a row. If the Mets are to have any chance of snatching a wild card berth, that’s the version of Justin Verlander they will need the rest of the way.

Quintana Delivers Hope In Debut

The Mets got a tantalizing glimpse of what concrete rotation depth could look like thanks to an encouraging Mets debut from José Quintana on Thursday. Despite having not pitched in the majors this year and having undergone surgery to repair a stress fracture in his rib in the spring, the veteran sure looked sharp in his first outing at Citi Field. The lefty did endure a shaky start, which is only natural, allowing three straight singles in the top of the first to put Chicago ahead early. But, after that, Quintana was pretty much spotless, retiring eight of the final nine hitters he faced to finish with two runs allowed on six hits with three strikeouts over five innings of work.

Plus, 53 of his 77 pitches were for strikes (68.8%), and he was able to induce seven groundball outs out of the 15 that were recorded. Quintana is a good old-fashioned workhorse, and he was signed to be a stabilizing force in the middle of the rotation. Now healthy, if Quintana is able to be exactly that for the Mets the rest of the way, and indeed next season, then that will certainly be a major boost for this rotation.

3 Down

Bullpen Remains A Hot Mess

How do you solve a problem like the Mets’ bullpen? Sadly, there are no easy answers right now. The obvious one would have been for general manager Billy Eppler to have been more aggressive in signing any one of the veteran relievers that were left hanging out there all offseason. But that’s another sorry story for another day. Instead, all we can do right now is wince and cringe as this hot mess of a bullpen continues to collapse like a cheap pack of cards on the daily. And there was plenty of that on full display in this series.

First, there was the embarrassing implosion in Tuesday’s series opener as Grant Hartwig, Trevor Gott, and Brooks Raley combined to allow five runs in the seventh inning to bring Chicago to within two. The fact the Mets held an 11-4 lead heading into that seventh inning, but yet the game finished 11-10 should paint a pretty accurate picture of just how unreliable this bullpen has been all year. And that continued. On Thursday, following a pretty solid outing from José Quintana that kept the game close, Drew Smith came in and struggled as he allowed four runs to score on three hits, an error and a walk. That blew the game wide open for the White Sox who avoided a sweep, and it was yet more evidence that this bullpen just can’t be trusted.

Alonso, McNeil Implode

As bad as Drew Smith was on Thursday – and he was bad – he certainly didn’t get any help from his defense. Pete Alonso committed an error by flubbing what was a routine ground ball play to begin the sixth. If that wasn’t bad enough, Jeff McNeil then misplayed two balls in right field to allow the White Sox to extend their lead to 6-1 and eventually put the game out of reach.

It was a bad look for two players who have struggled all year long at the plate. McNeil has been an absolute disaster, going 2-for-11 against the White Sox. He’s now hitting just .246/.323/.319 on the year. As for Alonso, he’s on pace to put up career-lows in a number of offensive categories, and he went just 1-for-10 against Chicago. He’s currently slashing .204/.304/.472 on the year, and he entered July with a .558 OPS.

Pham’s Trade Value

If the Mets do decide to sell at the Trade Deadline, they arguably only have a couple of attractive pieces they could deal in closer David Robertson and veteran outfielder Tommy Pham. Now make that one, potentially.

Pham left Thursday’s series finale against the White Sox after the bottom of the third inning with an apparent injury. Replays showed that he was grimacing as he tried to reach first base after hitting into an inning-ending double play. Pham, who missed time before the All-Star break with tightness in his right groin, would be a major loss for the Mets. Not only has he been a pretty consistent offensive producer, but he’s also one of the team’s biggest trade chips. Pham entered Thursday with a .976 OPS since May 28, the fifth-best mark in the NL in that span, and he’s currently .272/.356/.475 on the year. Losing Pham for any amount of time would certainly harm the Mets’ ability to really be sellers at the Deadline.

The Mets start a three-game set against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Friday.