Morning Briefing: Mets Just Keep Falling Deeper and Deeper

Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Good morning, Mets fans!

Wednesday night, the Mets (61-65) played in one of the strangest games of their whole season. In a contest full of timely errors, record-setting double play numbers, flashy defensive plays, and questionable managerial decisions, the Mets fell to the Giants (82-44) in devastating fashion, by a score of 3-2. You can read the full game recap here.

Tonight, the Mets and Giants play the finale of a three-game set. New York will send Carlos Carrasco (0-2, 8.82) to the hill. Despite the ugly ERA, Carrasco has seen some tough luck, particularly with the home run ball. His comparatively small xERA of 4.69 and xFIP of 3.87 suggest that it should get better for Carlos, and the Mets need a strong start out of him today. For San Francisco, Alex Wood (10-4, 4.11) will toe the rubber. Wood got off to a strong start this year, but has struggled of late — a 5.74 ERA in his last five starts.

The Mets need a win — badly. Today, we’ll see if they can even limp out of this brutal stretch against the two best teams in the National League, or if they’ll fall completely flat.

Latest Mets News

Jacob deGrom is back to playing catch. After a promising MRI result came back Wednesday morning, deGrom lightly tossed some balls on the Citi Field outfield. It was the ace’s first time throwing a baseball since the team shut him down in July due to elbow inflammation.

Noah Syndergaard will begin a rehab stint today at Class A Brooklyn. Syndergaard made a few starts in the minors in May before being shut down, and today he resumes his path back to the mound.

Latest MLB News

All-Star outfielder Nick Castellanos is having a career-best year (.318/.376/.565, 22 HR, 3.6 fWAR), and has an opt-out at the end of the season. The corner outfielder could opt-in to $34M over two years with Cincinnati, but is reportedly leaning towards hitting the free agent market. He joins Kyle Schwarber, Starling Marte, and Conforto at the top of a solid OF class.

Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who on Tuesday signed a one-year extension for the 2022 season, announced that next year will be his last. Molina has played his entire 18-year career with St. Louis, racking up over 2,000 hits and a pair of World Series rings (2006, 2011).

2017 fourth overall pick Brendan McKay of the Tampa Bay Rays saw his season end on Wednesday. After rehabbing from shoulder surgery, the left-hander has an elbow injury which will sideline him for the rest of the season.

Latest on MMO

Nade Mendelson wrote about the recent struggles of the Mets’ offense, and how the returns of Francisco Lindor and Javier Baez have so far failed to ignite the team.

Thomas Hall wrote about Miguel Castro’s struggles, and why the Mets cannot continue to rely on the right-hander in crucial spots going forward.