Via: Mets Twitter
Taking a page from Olivia Rodrigo’s recent top-of-the-charts album, the Mets are leaving D.C. with a very SOUR taste. It’s not often that a team wins three of five and is left disappointed, but that’s what a ninth inning blown save in a must-win game does to a team and its fanbase.
Although the Mets continue their southward journey to Miami sitting just four games behind the Braves in the NL East, there is much to be desired for a ballclub that has no excuse to be dropping games against a tanking team like the Nationals.
It was a very up-and-down weekend for the Mets. Let’s take a look at what went right and wrong for the organization this past weekend.
3 Up
Extra-Inning Heroics
In typical Mets fashion, the Mets blew two late leads on back-to-back days to send the game into extra innings. But in a twist of fate, the Mets actually…won both games?! After an Edwin Diaz blown save in the ninth inning on Friday, Pete Alonso, Kevin Pillar, and Jonathan Villar all delivered RBI base hits in the 10th inning to break the game open. The Mets would go on to win, 6-2. Then in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader, the Mets won 11-9 thanks to a clutch Francisco Lindor home run in the ninth frame. We’ll get to how the game even got to extra innings in a brief moment, though…
Let’s not forget the excellent pitching as well that enabled these comebacks to happen. Diaz got two huge outs after blowing the save, stranding a runner on third base to send the game to the tenth inning in Friday’s win. On Saturday, Trevor May found himself in a bases-loaded jam with just one out to his name. But he struck out Gerardo Parra and got Kelbert Ruiz to fly out to send the game to another extra-inning, where Lindor would promptly homer.
Scoring Double Digits
Twice this weekend, the Mets put up 10+ runs on the board against Nationals pitching. In the opener of Saturday’s twin bill, the Mets led 9-0 after four innings, powered by home runs from Javier Baez and Michael Conforto. The following day, the Mets again found a quick lead, this time by way of small ball. Multiple RBI singles and a sacrifice fly gave the Mets a 4-0 lead after the top of the first. After the Nats almost answered that number in the bottom half of the inning, home runs by Villar and Baez extended the Mets lead to 6-3. In the ninth, the Mets put up a six-spot, capped off by a Pillar grand slam.
The storyline of so much of this 2021 season has been the Mets’ inability to score runs. So seeing the lineup explode like this across multiple games is super encouraging and hopefully a sign of continued success now that the lineup is fully healthy once again.
Inching Closer Toward First Place
After games played on September 2, the Mets sat five full games out of first place in the NL East. Now on September 7, the Mets are a bit closer to the Braves, as New York is four full games behind Atlanta, who also leads Philadelphia by 1.5 games.
Despite going a not-ideal 3-2 in D.C., the Mets gained some ground thanks to the Braves splitting a four-game series with the Rockies. Every half-game and full game in the standings matters a tremendous amount at this point in the season, so the Mets should be happy that they were able to find themselves slightly closer to their ultimate, hopeful goal of winning the division.
3 Down
Trouble in Closing
Yes, Edwin Diaz has 28 saves this season which is very good. And for the most part, he’s been extremely reliable for the Mets; Narco by BlasterJaxx and Timmy Trumpets has become a staple of the Diaz pitching experience. But he was far from his best self in this series in Washington. On Friday evening, Diaz allowed a solo home run to Juan Soto, soon thereafter followed by a double to Riley Adams which tied the game at two runs apiece. For reference, Diaz had entered the game staked with a relatively comfortable 2-0 lead.
In the series finale on Monday, Diaz managed just one out in an inning that he entered with a save situation at play. After allowing two walks and two singles, the Diaz and the Mets found themselves as losers by a score of 4-3. Sure, no closer is perfect and pitchers have bad appearances. But for Diaz to blow two saves against the Nationals, with really just one or two prominent hitters, in one weekend is rather concerning.
There’s been chatter on Twitter calling for manager Luis Rojas to employ a new pitcher into the closer role, and to be honest, some of those arguments are rather valid after seeing Diaz struggle so much in D.C.
*Almost* One of the Worst Losses in New York Mets History
On Saturday afternoon, the Mets scored in each of the first four innings. Heading into the bottom of the fourth, the Mets lead 9-0. Keep in mind this was a doubleheader so the game was only scheduled to be seven innings. This means that the Nats had just four frames to mount any type of comeback. In fact, I saw one comment on Twitter jokingly but also kind of seriously asking which Nationals position player would pitch the final inning of the game because the score was such a laugher. But amazingly, the Nationals roared all the way back.
After getting within two runs, Andrew Stevenson blasted a home run in the seventh inning to tie the game up at 9-9. His homer occurred when the Nats were down to their final out of the game, adding insult to injury to the Mets pitching staff.
Forget about the fact for a second that the Mets ultimately won the game. Allowing a team – let alone this version of the Nationals – to score nine unanswered runs after the game outcome was already basically decided is unfathomable. The Mets were dangerously close to not only one of the worst losses in franchise history, but definitely one of the worst losses in the history of professional baseball.
Lost And Not Found
After Javier Baez’s scored the game-winning run in last week’s dramatic walk-off victory against the Marlins, the win came at a price – Baez lost his six-figure earring on the slide home. After a lengthy search by the Mets ground crew, no earring was found.
Fast forward to Sunday, and Baez told the media that his expensive jewelry had yet to be found. Maybe that earring is still somewhere in the dirt or grass of Citi Field, which is unfortunate for Baez. But the good news out of this mess is that the Mets have lost just two games since Baez’s slide home. It was a lost item that perhaps fueled this Mets turnaround.
