The Major League Baseball postseason is just six games old and it’s already turning into an all-time great year. You had the Oakland A’s getting bounced in the Wild Card Round by the upstart Kansas City Royals. You have the #1 seed in the American League going down 2-0 to those same Royals and the Giants overcoming big hits by the Nationals to take game one.
One thing no-one expected was the mediocrity from some of the best starting pitchers in the game. While Madison Bumgarner pitched an all time classic in the Wild Card round and Jake Peavy followed it up with a solid start in game one for the Giants, the pitching overall has been very bad so far.
Clayton Kershaw gave up eight runs on eight hits in the Dodgers game one loss to the Cardinals. Adam Wainwright wasn’t much better in that game. He surrendered six runs in just 4.1. The list goes on. Jon Lester, Wei-Yin Chen, Edinson Volquez and Max Scherzer each gave up five runs in their starts.
So what’s the point? Should the Mets look to revamp their ‘build-through-pitching’ mentality?
Of course not. Teams get to the playoffs on pitching alone, but you need the bats to come through in big spots. That’s where the Mets could have a lot of trouble. That trouble could arrive as early as next season. There is no David Freese on the Mets to get that clutch hit in the 9th. Nor is there a Nelson Cruz to drive deep blasts into the night. The Mets hitting doesn’t scare anyone, but these playoffs are rubbing that point in.
Ironically, there are several players having solid postseasons that the Mets could be targeting as free-agents. Asdrubal Cabrera slugged a home run last night and Nick Markakis and J.J. Hardy each have one as well. Are these the guys that take the edge off? Who knows. With my two eyes I see a lot of clutch hits and not a lot of clutch pitching going on. Does this mean the Mets can’t win with pitching? It does not. But it does point out the need for big bats in that lineup next season.
