Sunday’s loss to the Phillies featured a ton of down moments for the Mets. Luckily, many of the young talents on the team showcased their promise and skills.
Zack Wheeler started for the Mets, going 6.0 innings, giving up three runs and striking out five. It wasn’t his best start of the season but it continued his string of quality starts.
“It’s been better than the beginning of the year, obviously, but still a lot of room to improve,” Wheeler told the NY Post’s Ken Davidoff.
“The main part is keeping my pitch count down. I’m being aggressive, but they’re fouling a lot of balls off. I think I just have to make my put-away pitches a little bit better but not try to make them too much better, because that’s when you start getting yourself in a little bit more trouble.”
Wheeler continues to show that he has the ability to help lead this Mets rotation for years to come.
One of the most exciting moments in the loss came when Lucas Duda and Travis d’Arnaud delivered back-to-back homers in the fifth inning. For Duda it was his team-leading 21st homer of the season, while d’Arnaud continues to showoff his power with his 9th home run of the year.
Center fielder Juan Lagares continues to dazzle this month and picked up two more hits and a walk. His two-RBI triple in the third inning gave the Mets a 4-1 lead at the time. Lagares is batting .333 (12 for 36) in his last ten games including five runs scored and four RBIs.
Another bright spot was Matt den Dekker, getting his first start since his most recent call up from AAA. On his 27th birthday, den Dekker went 2 for 5, narrowly missing a third hit when Ben Revere made an incredible play in deep centerfield. That robbed den Dekker of at least a two, if not three base hit. den Dekker and Wheeler both gave great efforts in the loss but the bullpen couldn’t close the deal and the Mets fell in brutal fashion.
