Despite Sunday’s 7-4 loss to the Washington Nationals at Citi Field, as New York Mets manager Mickey Callaway said (video via SNY) after the game, “I don’t think you can ask for a better homestand than that”. We concur.
A 6-1 homestand, on top of a 15-out-of-17 stretch, on top of a 21-of-28, season-saving run leaves the Mets a game out of a National League wild-card spot and eight games behind the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves heading into a three-game set at SunTrust Park beginning on Tuesday.
Since the All-Star break, the Mets have outscored their opponents by a combined score of 149-91. By all accounts, we’ll take that.
Mets slugger, Pete Alonso, spoke to the media (SNY) after Sunday’s loss, and stuck to a similar bottom line as his skipper; that was a heck of a run, but there’s still a mountain of work ahead of them.
“It’s unfortunate that we fell short today but, hell, we were on an eight-game winning streak. That was really special […] We hadn’t lost since [August 2 in] Pittsburgh. That’s pretty damn good. I think that regardless of today, we have a ton of momentum going into this road trip.”
Between Michael Conforto, J.D. Davis, Jeff McNeil, Alonso, Amed Rosario, and a rejuvenated Wilson Ramos keeping runs on the board, and the All-World starting rotation that’s been assembled in Flushing, the foundation for postseason baseball is in place.
The Mets’ bullpen, owners of the third-best second-half ERA in the majors heading into Sunday (3.20), still has work to do, but remarkable progress has already been made. Let’s just allow that process to continue to evolve.
Edwin Diaz, who allowed a two-run homer to Victor Robles in the top of the ninth on Sunday to put the game out of reach, needs to improve, plain and simple. Hopefully, with octogenarian pitching guru Phil Regan in his corner, Diaz will return to prominence.
Goodness knows this team could use that type of force holding up the back-end of the bullpen right about now.
Granted, the Mets have been getting along pretty well without Diaz — or Jeurys Familia, for that matter — contributing quality outings on a consistent basis. But that won’t last forever. Seth Lugo, Justin Wilson, Robert Gsellman, and Luis Avilan (yup, definitely just typed that) can only carry this group so far.
Though, all things considered, these Mets have put themselves in quite the position to succeed with their unexpected surge back into relevance.
Now that they’re here, their objective is simple; take advantage of the opportunities presented to them, limit avoidable mistakes, and win ball games. Everything else is out of their control.
