With 23 of the first 26 games this season coming against the NL East, Sandy Alderson was asked how important it is for the Mets to get off to a strong start this season?
“We played very well against the NL East last year, with one obvious exception. When they signed Max Scherzer, my response was, how much worse can we be?”
“It’s extremely important to establish a fighting posture against these newly constructed teams, and I think the first impression is critical, as is the last impression. We hope it goes reasonably well. We started off well last year but things tailed off. The beginning of the season is important.”
While getting off to a strong start would be great, I’d say it’s more important to improve our performance against the Nationals.
The Nats have owned the Mets in recent years, compiling a 41-15 record against them over the last three seasons, and they beat the Mets in 15 of 19 contests in 2014, outscoring them 95 to 52.
If you take away those 19 games (4-15) against the Nationals last season, the Mets were a surprising 75-68 against everyone else – seven games over .500. I bet you didn’t know that.
Anthony DiComo of Mets.com, pointed out some
- David Wright has struck out in 30 percent of his plate appearances against Strasburg and Zimmermann. That’s 63 percent higher than his career whiff rate.
- Last season, Lucas Duda hit zero of his career-high 30 homers against Washington. He holds a career .250 on-base percentage at Nationals Park.
- Over the past three seasons, four of Bobby Parnell‘s 10 blown saves have come against the Nationals. That’s 40 percent of his blown saves in 11 percent of his total games.
As DiComo concludes, if the Mets want to make the playoffs for the first time in nine years, they’ll need to figure out some way to win in Washington.
I do agree with Sandy and I doubt the Mets could do any worse against the Nationals. However it’s very clear that they’ll need to do much better. Is good health, a couple of bounce-back seasons, improved performances from some of our young core players, plus the addition of Cuddyer enough to bridge and overcome that gap? It’s not impossible. I think the Nationals are in for a big surprise.
