For the second time in less than a week, the New York Mets avoided a series sweep thanks to some walk-off heroics.

While Rafael Ortega was the hero on Sunday against the Angels, it was DJ Stewart who took center stage on Wednesday with a monster night against the Rangers.

The unlikely hero continued his power surge with a pair of home runs before clinching the series finale with a hit-by-pitch in the 10th inning.

The Mets avoided a sweep for the second consecutive series after dropping the first two games to the Rangers at Citi Field. New York now sits at 61-73 on the year. The Mets have an off day on Thursday before opening a three-game set against the Seattle Mariners on Friday to finish off this current homestand.

Photo by Roberto Carlo

3 Up

Coming Up Clutch

DJ Stewart has emerged from the baseball wilderness and is continuing to make a case for why he should be in the Mets’ plans for 2024. The veteran, who wasn’t even on anybody’s radar as recently as June, sparked a struggling offense on Wednesday. With the bats failing to get anything really going in the first two games of the series, Stewart stepped up in the finale by launching two home runs, including a clutch two-run shot in the eighth inning that made it a tied game. However, that proved to be just the tip of the iceberg. Stewart continued to make huge plays in the ninth, this time with his glove to deny Marcus Semien with a stunning running catch at the wall that would have driven in a runner. Then, with the bases loaded in the bottom of the tenth, Stewart stepped up to the plate and came through in a big spot yet again after being hit with a pitch by Aroldis Chapman to win the game.

It was fitting that it was Stewart who played the role of hero on Wednesday, given just how dominant he’s been for this team as of late. The lefty bat now has eight home runs in his last 13 games, and he’s hitting .279/.364/.651 on the year with a 1.015 OPS. There isn’t a lot to get excited about this Mets team right now, but Stewart is certainly giving the fans a loveable figure they can all get behind and root for. Wednesday night was proof positive of that.

And, to add an extra layer of context to Stewart’s accomplishments, he became the first Met to hit eight home runs in 13 games since Neil Walker in 2016. Including Stewart and Walker, only 18 players have achieved that feat in a Mets uniform, including some of the best to have ever played for the franchise. Put simply, while he may not be a household name, what Stewart is doing at the plate right now is pretty darn special.

Doing The Right Thing

Finally, common sense has prevailed. First reported by Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase, the Mets will call up prospect Ronny Mauricio when the rosters expand Friday, Sept. 1. Well, it is about damn time. This is a move that should have been made back in April, and it still doesn’t make sense at all as to why the front office has insisted on keeping one of their top prospects buried in the minor leagues. Especially considering that the 2023 season is a bust, and there is nothing left to play for other than working out what talent you have for 2024. And, with all due respect to the likes of Daniel Vogelbach, Rafael Ortega, Danny Mendick, and Jonathan Araúz, they aren’t the future. Mauricio is, and it is bordering on criminal that he’s missed out on crucial development time in the majors because of the organization’s desire to stick with veterans who probably won’t be anywhere near Queens next year.

Mauricio, who is currently ranked as the Mets No. 4 overall prospect by MLB Pipeline, has raked in Triple-A this year with 23 home runs and 71 RBIs, to go along with 30 doubles and a .292/.346/.506 slash line. It will be a lot of fun to see what Mauricio can do on the biggest stage finally.

Bounce-Back

The series against the Rangers proved to be a major shot in the arm for the starting rotation. José Quintana and Tylor Megill both bounced back from rough outings in their previous starts, while Denyi Reyes delivered in his spot start on Wednesday. Reyes allowed just one hit through the first 10 batters he faced, and his only blemish was giving up a solo home run to Corey Seager in the fourth inning. However, Reyes retired the next three hitters in order, and he finished his night by going a career-high 5.1 innings and allowing two earned runs on three hits with no walks and three strikeouts. It was the best start of Reyes’ career, and he gave his team every possible chance to win.

Megill was even more impressive on Monday in the series opener. After struggling in his previous start against the Braves, Megill allowed just one run on five hits while walking one and striking out a season-high eight batters. He wasn’t the reason the Mets dropped the opener to Texas. And, continuing the trend of good starts in this series, Quintana also recovered from a rough outing last time out by dominating against the Rangers in his start on Tuesday. The veteran gave the Mets six stellar innings and allowed no runs on just three hits while striking out five. Quintana continues to prove that he’ll be a major piece of the starting rotation in 2024, while Megill and Reyes also showed a lot as the Mets actually got consistently good results from their starters in a series for once.

Francisco Álvarez. Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

3 Down

No Support 

José Quintana is starting to mirror a former Met in one alarming category: run support. Or, more to the point, no run support. Jacob deGrom spent a large chunk of his time in Queens absolutely dominating on the mound, only to receive little to no help from his offense. Albeit a much smaller sample size, Quintana has experienced a similar disservice in his first eight starts as a Met. The lefty is 1-5 in his Mets career so far, thanks in large part due to his offense being unable to produce at the plate and provide the run support his stellar outings so deserve. That happened again on Tuesday as the bats couldn’t get anything going, with Mark Vientos‘ solo homer in the ninth accounting for the only run of the game. The opportunity to even the series was there for the taking, thanks to Quintana, but the offense failed to hold up their end of the bargain as was so often the case during deGrom’s magical reign in Queens. Let’s hope that Quintana doesn’t have to wait as long as deGrom did for decent run support.

Gone To Waste

If it wasn’t the offense ruining Quintana’s exceptional outing on Tuesday, it was the bullpen failing to help out Tylor Megill after a gem of a start on Monday. Megill was near spotless against Texas, as outlined above, and he put the Mets in a prime position to go on and win the series opener. However, the bullpen had other ideas. Despite another solid outing from Sean Reid-Foley, Brooks Raley and Trevor Gott combined to blow the lead and hand the game straight to the Rangers. Gott now has five blown saves on the year, coupled with an ugly 9.53 ERA over his last seven appearances. The bullpen also choked in a big spot on Tuesday, giving up both of Texas’ runs. Drew Smith gave up his second home run in consecutive outings to get the Rangers on the board in the seventh before Phil Bickford fell apart in the ninth to ultimately give the game away. The Mets were inches away from victory on back-to-back nights, and the bullpen played a major role in why they came away empty-handed on both occasions.

Running Out Of Gas

Francisco Álvarez has enjoyed a superb rookie year, and it is fair to suggest that he has come exactly as advertised. He looks every inch the cornerstone player the Mets hoped he would be. However, at the same time, it does appear as though Álvarez is tiring somewhat down the stretch, which is understandable. He was used as a pinch-hitter on Wednesday, having now started just two of the last five and five of the last 10 contests for the Mets. The rookie has been struggling offensively, and he went 0-for-5 in this series, while he’s hitting just .109/.240/.125/.365 over the last 28 days. There’s nothing left to prove for Álvarez this year, but the Mets will hope that he can rediscover his groove for the remainder of 2023 and finish the year on a tear.