3 Up, 3 Down: Mets Take Series in Atlanta

3 UP

Mets Offseason Put Into Motion

The New York Mets spent the offseason trying to rebuild the roster not just to win the division, but more specifically, to beat teams like the Atlanta Braves. In what was a pivotal series, Billy Eppler looked like a genius.

Max Scherzer, the crown jewel of the offseason, got the Mets started on the right foot by dominating the Braves over seven innings. He picked up the win after allowed just one earned on three hits while he walked none and struck out nine. Since returning from the IL, he’s allowed just one run over 13 innings while striking out 20.

Like Scherzer, Chris Bassitt picked up the win after pitching very well. Over six innings, he allowed just one earned while striking out six. After he struggled over a five start stretch from May 19 to June 8, he has rebounded and been a top of the rotation pitcher again. Over his past five starts, he is 3-2 with a 2.41 ERA while averaging 6 2/3 innings per start.

If it was just the starting pitching, that would’ve been enough. However, Mark Canha and Eduardo Escobar both had excellent series.

Canha was 3-for-11 with a homer and an RBI. Escobar was 3-for-12 with a double, homer, and RBI. That homer was his longest of his brief Mets career, and it set the tone for a dominant win to take the series.

Middle Infield Brillance

The Mets acquired Francisco Lindor because he was a star who could impact the Mets culture to make them winners. Part of that is showing up big in big moments.

As we know, Lindor has struggled after breaking that finger, and he has the giant oven mitt on the bases to remind of us the injury. If the finger was still bothering him, we would have no idea after he was 5-for-14 with a triple, homer, and four RBI. He also made a number of strong plays in the field.

Oh, and as for Dansby Swanson making the All-Star team and Braves fans yapping he’s better, Swanson was 0-for-10 in the series. It’s been easy for him to feast on the awful pitching the Braves have faced for a month plus, but when he faced the Mets, he had nothing.

In addition to Lindor being great, Luis Guillorme was as well. Again, Guillorme is showing he’s an everyday player, and more than that, he’s starting to show he is a big game player.

In this series, Guillorme was 4-for-10 with two doubles, a homer, and three RBI. Seeing his production in this series, his serving as the protection for Pete Alonso in the lineup didn’t look nearly as absurd.

Guillorme is going really well right now. Over his past five games, he’s hitting .471/.550/.824. That’s stepping up in a big series and at a time when the Mets are dealing with some injuries.

Nimmo Walking Again

One of the most baffling things this season was Brandon Nimmo going a stretch from June 11 to July 3 walking just once over 82 plate appearances. There are 780 players in the Major Leagues, and Nimmo is just about the last player in the majors you’d expect to have a stretch like this.

Whatever the reason for that overly aggressive approach which coincided with him struggling, Nimmo has gotten back to being Nimmo. Over his past 10 games, he has drawn six walks over 48 plate appearances. That is a much more Nimmo-like 12.5% walk rate (still below his career 13.9% walk rate).

It should come as no surprise that Nimmo has thrived over this stretch hitting .268/.375/.537 with two doubles, three homers, and eight RBI. With him getting back to being Nimmo, he again leads the Mets in WAR, and again, he should be an All-Star this season.

3 DOWN

Vientos in Triple-A

On the one hand, Sandy Alderson will say the Mets need to address their DH spot, but then he won’t actually do anything about it. reminiscent of the 2015 stretch where we were subjected to Darrell Ceciliani and John Mayberry rather than the Mets calling up Michael Conforto. Finally, on July 24, the Mets had no other choice than call him up.

Truth be told, Alderson, Eppler, and the Mets completely screwed up the DH situation. They knew Robinson Cano was a shell of himself, but they stuck with him early in the season. For a brief moment, J.D. Davis looked like he had the job, but he’s been mediocre (102 wRC+) at best.

Dominic Smith seemed to get some momentum going, and then he was benched against left-handed pitching despite his hitting left-handed pitching better than Davis. Smith hasn’t rebounded after sitting out that one game, and he’s back to the point he was when the Mets sent him down.

That brings us to Mark Vientos. Since May 8, Vientos is hitting .293/.364/.581 with five doubles, 15 homers, and 37 RBI.

Yes, we can criticize his defense. Sure, his striking out 31.8% over this stretch is troublesome. In the end, you have to just say so what?

Whenever there’s a left-handed pitcher, the Mets completely ignore the data and season stats to shoe-horn Davis into the lineup for a couple of strikeouts, ground outs, and pop outs. He’s horrendous defensively and striking out 30.7% of the time with zero power. Are we really going to believe this is a better option than calling up Vientos?

As Mets president Sandy Alderson recently noted, the Mets need to get more production out of the DH spot and why not see what you have in Vientos before the trade deadline.

Bullpen Shallower than Kiddie Pool

Look, we know Andy Fletcher completely blew the call. Dansby Swanson should have struck out before the Matt Olson at-bat. If that call is right, maybe the inning and game goes differently.

However, lost in that was David Peterson going through the lineup a third time. When that happens, batters begin to tee off on him with a .480 SLG. To that extent, you could almost say the Olson homer was expected.

Going back to Los Angeles, Buck Showalter had lifted Peterson in an at-bat where he allowed a long foul to Mookie Betts. Showalter didn’t have that option in this game after Olson had done the same because of the state of the bullpen.

With Edwin Diaz pitching three days in a row, he was understandably unavailable. Seth Lugo, who pitched poorly in his second inning of work, has been uneven. Left-handed batters are killing Drew Smith, and he’s becoming homer prone.

It’s at the point Adam Ottavino has become the most reliable set-up man, but he was unavailable due to fatigue. Keep in mind, about a month ago, Ottavino was viewed as unreliable.

Taking the bullpen into account, you really only have confidence in Diaz. That’s it.

Yes, there may be something there with Colin Holderman, but Showalter isn’t putting him in high leverage spots quite yet, at least not in a set-up role. Trevor May is rehabbing, but we don’t know when he’ll be back.

All told, the Mets need multiple relievers at the trade deadline. Either that, or pitchers need to start pitching well. Actually, the Mets need both.

McNeil Criticism

Congratulations to Steve Covino of Covino and Rich. If you didn’t know, they have a radio show and podcast with Fox Sports. The world knows about it because Covino had to be that idiot who criticized Jeff McNeil for missing a series because of the birth of his child.

You would’ve thought we would have been done with this discourse after Boomer Esiason and Mike Francesa came off as morons criticizing Daniel Murphy for doing the same in 2014. Like McNeil, Murphy was an All-Star in 2014.

There are many ways to respond to Covino’s desperate search for attention, but the best came from Howie Rose when he said this “is the height of Neanderthal, inane ‘thinking’.” As Howie said, “Family first. Period.”