Players of the Month: Marte, Diaz Continue All-Star Seasons

How bout them New York Mets!? After putting their past June swoon’s behind them, Buck Showalter’s boys kept up their good play into the month of July. They took care of business against the Rangers, Reds, Marlins, Braves, and Cubs prior to the All-Star break.

After a tough series against the Padres resulted in their only series loss of the month, they bounced right back. The Mets swept the Citi Field portion of the Subway Series with a pair of strong wins over the cross-town rival Yankees.

They followed that up by taking care of business against the Marlins this weekend, securing a series sweep at LoanDepot Park. They finished the month with an impressive record of 17-7 and head into August riding a six-game winning streak.

The Mets received contributions from top to bottom over the past month, but two players rose above and beyond. Here are our hitter and pitcher of the month for the month of July.

Hitter of the Month: Starling Marte

Starling Marte has been one of the hotter players in all of baseball over the past month. In 19 games in July, Marte hit a scorching .377 with three doubles, a triple, four homers, four stolen bases, nine runs scored, and a 1.019 OPS.

Marte has been in the middle of everything of late for this Mets offense.

In the first game of the Subway Series, his first-inning solo home run ignited a Mets rally. Marte also lined a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth in Wednesday night’s win. And in Friday’s series-opening win against the Marlins, he had three hits, finishing just a double shy of the cycle.

Saturday night’s 0-for-4 effort was just the third time he was held hitless this month. Marte recorded 11 multi-hit games to increase his average to .301, which ranks seventh in the National League.

Marte has been an excellent table-setter ahead of Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso in the Mets lineup. On the season, he’s now up to 11 homers, 19 doubles, 12 stolen bases, and 57 runs scored.

Marte is undoubtedly right up there with Max Scherzer as the best pickup of the offseason for Billy Eppler and the Mets. He’s shown just how much of a difference-maker he is in his first season in the Big Apple.

Honorable Mention 

Alongside Marte, both Lindor and Alonso were right in the middle of things all month long for the Mets. Lindor closed out the month with a monster series against the Marlins including a three-hit performance in Sunday’s 9-3 win.

Across 29 July games, he recorded five doubles, five homers, a triple, a pair of stolen bases, 13 RBI, a .320 batting average, and a .933 OPS. Lindor has looked more and more like himself in his second season in New York.

After losing the Home Run Derby, Alonso has been locked in at the plate as well. In his past seven games, the slugger is hitting a scorching .423 with a .500 OBP, two homers, seven RBI, and just a pair of strikeouts. Alonso is now up to 26 homers and 85 RBI across 100 games this season.

The Mets offense will look to keep the good times rolling as they take on left-hander Patrick Corbin and the Washington Nationals on Monday night.

Pitcher of the Month: Edwin Diaz

Edwin Diaz continued his spectacular season with another tremendous effort during the month of July. He is just on another level right now and has been absolutely locked in every time he takes the mound.

In total, Diaz appeared in 11 games and pitched a season-high 11.1 innings. He locked down all seven save chances and allowed just two hits, one walk, and no runs. Diaz held opponents to an absurd .054 batting average and struck out 25 batters.

Over his past 13 appearances, Diaz has locked down all eight save opportunities while striking out 30 of the 45 batters he’s faced. Opponents have just a .070 batting average and he’s walked just one batter in that span.

On the season, he’s now 23-for-26 in save opportunities and has a 1.51 ERA and 0.91 WHIP. Diaz has struck out 84 batters in 41.2 innings for an absurd 18.1 K/9, which is the highest rate in baseball history.

Diaz was just inches away from securing an immaculate inning in Friday night’s save against the Marlins. The right-hander has undoubtedly been the best closer in baseball this season and is setting himself up for a nice payday (hopefully from the Mets) this offseason.

Honorable Mention

I also have to give a little shoutout to Carlos Carrasco for his performance in July. The veteran righty continued his bounceback season posting a 0.90 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 27 strikeouts, and a trio of wins across five starts.

Max Scherzer has also been rock solid since returning from the injured list. In his five July starts, he posted a 1.39 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, and struck out 26 batters. The righty allowed just five runs and issued only four walks.

The Mets rotation as a whole has been spectacular of late and they’ll receive a huge boost on Tuesday night with Jacob deGrom making his highly anticipated return to the bump. Scherzer, deGrom, and Chris Bassitt are the probable starters for this three-game set with the Nationals.