The New York Mets started the week off right, sweeping the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park and outscoring them by a 23-11 margin. Along with their victory on Sunday against the Marlins at Citi Field, and their win in the first game of the four-game set against Miami on Thursday, the Mets were riding high with a five-game winning streak, the longest in baseball at that time.
Game one on Thursday against the Marlins was a taxing affair. The game went 16 innings, lasting five hours and thirty-eight minutes, and with Terry Collins deploying every member of his bullpen in their 9-8 victory. Travis d’Arnaud was the hero of the game, collecting four hits including a three-run triple in the second, and the go-ahead home run in the top of the 16th.
D’Arnaud became the first Mets’ catcher with at least four hits and four RBI in a game since Mike Piazza in 2004, and according to MMO’s Michael Mayer, d’Arnaud became the third player in MLB history to have four hits, four RBI, and the game-winning homer in the 16th inning or later.
But the good fortune the Mets had been riding vanished in games 2, 3, and 4 of the Miami series. The Marlins walked off in the second game in the ninth on a J.T. Realmuto double. Then Saturday the bullpen blew a brilliant performance by Jacob deGrom in the 8th with back-to-back home runs from Christian Yelich and Giancarlo Stanton.
Looking to avoid the series loss on Sunday, the Mets were no-hit for 7 2/3 innings before Neil Walker singled. Asdrubal Cabrera tied the game up at 2 in the ninth with a single, but Addison Reed couldn’t get the game to extras, as he gave up the go-ahead game-winning home run to J.T. Riddle to give the Marlins the win and the series.
As the Mets look to regroup with an off day Monday, they embark on a nine-game home stand starting Tuesday night against the Philadelphia Phillies, followed by three with the Washington Nationals and three against the Atlanta Braves.
For the week of April 10-16, here are MMO’s Players of the Week.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: YOENIS CESPEDES
The sheer power and ability to carry a team on his back was on full display this week, as Yoenis Cespedes claims the year’s first MMO Offensive Player of the Week. Cespedes went 8-for-26, including two doubles, five home runs, nine RBI, and four walks. Yes, seven of his eight hits were of the extra-base variety!
His best performance came in the second game of the Phillies series, where Cespedes teed off for three home runs, the second time in his career he’s hit three (Aug. 21, 2015 the other time against the Colorado Rockies). He became the first Met to have two such games with three home runs, and tied a franchise record for most extra-base-hits with four. Terry Collins, a baseball lifer, was even impressed with his slugging left fielder’s power display.
“Don’t think for one second this guy’s not going to have a huge year,” Collins said. “This guy is dynamite.”
Two nights later in Miami, Cespedes smashed two more home runs in the Mets 9-8 16-inning victory. His first homer broke a 4-4 tie in the third, smacking a 2-2 fastball off Wei-Yin Chen deep into the left-center field stands. His second blast came in the fifth against right-hander Jose Urena, where he blasted the first pitch (a 96 mph fastball) to left field.
Cespedes is currently in a four-way tie for first in the majors in home runs (6), and has the fifth best OPS among qualified outfielders as of Monday (1.038).
PITCHER OF THE WEEK: JACOB deGROM
There were several options for Pitcher of the Week honors for the Mets; Josh Smoker pitched three shutout innings with five strikeouts in the 16-inning affair. Matt Harvey‘s April 11th and 16th starts, combining for 11.2 innings pitched, 12 hits, three earned runs, three walks, and 11 strikeouts was also under consideration.
The continued success from Jacob deGrom is hard to ignore, though with his velocity averaging near 95 mph on his four-seam fastball and posting a minuscule 0.84 WHIP so far in three starts (tied with Syndergaard for best of the Mets starters).
His first start of the week came against the Phillies on Monday night, where the right-hander got off to a rocky start. Walking the first batter of the game is never a recipe for success, but deGrom lacked his normal command early on and issued a walk right away to leadoff hitter Cesar Hernandez. Howie Kendrick followed up with a force out, and then three straight singles from the Phillies 3-4-5 hitters gave the Phillies an early 1-0 lead. With the bases loaded, deGrom issued his second walk of the inning to Cameron Rupp, resulting in a 2-0 Phillies lead.
After 31 pitches, deGrom escaped further damage, and went on to pitch five scoreless innings on just 65 pitches. What separates the good from the great starting pitchers is their ability to keep their team in the game despite not having their best stuff that night, and that’s exactly what deGrom provided for the Mets. After departing after six innings of work, Jay Bruce hit a go-ahead two-run home run in the eighth, giving the Mets a 4-2 lead, and eventual 4-3 win after Addison Reed coughed up a solo homer to Brock Stassi in the ninth.
The 28-year-old deGrom took the mound for his third start of the year on Saturday night against Miami. The last start deGrom made in Marlins Park had not been kind to him, when on July 23, 2016 he lasted just 3.2 innings, surrendering five runs on 10 hits in his second shortest outing of his major league career. He reversed that ugly stat line Saturday, when after giving up back-to-back home runs to Justin Bour and Marcell Ozuna, deGrom proceeded to work 1-2-3 innings in the third, fourth, and seventh innings. He also tied a career high in strikeouts with 13 on the night, tying his Sept. 15 start back in his rookie season of 2014, which also came against the Marlins. 
