Players of the Week: Nido Continues to Shine, Stroman Rebounds

In what was another frustrating week for the injury-filled New York Mets, the “ReplaceMets” did just enough to narrowly stay atop the National League East.

The Mets began the week by surprisingly taking two out of three from the Atlanta Braves. Taijuan Walker tossed just three innings in the first game before leaving with injury, but the bullpen stepped up, and a James McCann pinch-hit RBI double late propelled them to the win.

A late home run off the bat of the red-hot Tomas Nido, our Hitter of the Week, secured the 4-3 win in the second game of the series and the series win.

They then frustratingly took just two out of three against the Miami Marlins. The Mets won what seemed like a momentum swinging extra-inning thriller in the first game of the set, however they mustered just two runs over the final two games of the series.

Overall, the Mets finished the week just 3-3, with some more injuries and not too many positives to take away. The lone bright spots were the continued breakout Nido on both sides of the ball, and a nice bounce back performance from Marcus Stroman on the bump.

Hitter of the Week: Tomas Nido

Tomas Nido just continues to absolutely rake, it truly is amazing the offensive performance he has been putting together to begin the 2021 season.

When the offense so badly needed someone to step up the most, Nido was there to shine this past week. He proved to be as clutch as can be with a trio of big-time hits.

It all started on Monday night in Atlanta, when he sparked a seventh-inning rally with a big leadoff double. He recorded a career-high three hits and scored a pair of runs in the 3-1 series opening win.

Luis Rojas rode the hot hand, and Nido made the decision pay-off, crushing a massive go-ahead solo shot in the top of the ninth the next day to secure the series win. He received the day-off in the series finale, but ended up coming off the bench late and came through again.

With the Mets down a run, Nido jumped on a first-pitch slider from Luke Jackson and blooped it into shallow center-field to score and pair and give the Mets a one run lead. They ended up getting walked-off in the ninth, but Nido was the man of the hour yet again.

He also added an RBI double in the team’s extra-inning win in Miami. Nido ended up officially surpassing the struggling James McCann as the starter behind the plate after going 7-for-17 with a pair of home runs, two doubles, and four runs batted in on the week.

Overall on the season, Nido is now hitting a brisk .261 with a .320 OBP, .798 OPS, the two homers, and seven RBI. His increased offensive production has certainly been one of the most pleasant surprises for the club early-on.

Nido Stats for the Week: 5 G, 7-for-17 (.412), 2 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBI

Pitcher of the Week: Marcus Stroman

With their bullpen absolutely drained from a pair of shortened-starts and a bullpen game in the Atlanta series, the Mets needed a big-time outing from Marcus Stroman on Friday night in Miami.

Stroman went out and did his thing, and certainly threw well enough. He had some traffic on the bases in the early innings, leading to a run on a sacrifice fly in the second, but settled down and got into a groove.

After being helped out by a strike him out, throw him out double play to end the fourth, Stroman dialed-in and struck out the side in the fifth. He worked a 1-2-3 sixth, but was questionably pulled with just 89 pitches after issuing a leadoff walk in the seventh.

Miguel Castro entered and allowed a homer to the first batter he faced, Garrett Cooper, and one of the runs was charged to Stroman. On the night, Stro allowed just two runs on six hits while walking one and striking out eight over his six innings of work.

This was the nice bounce back type of effort the Mets needed from Stroman after he struggled and was knocked around and failed to keep the ball in the ballpark last weekend against the red-hot Tampa Bay Rays.

With the rotation still a bit banged-up for the foreseeable future, the Mets are going to need Stro to keep putting up these types of performances. On the season he now has a 2.75 ERA and 1.07 WHIP over nine outings.

Stroman Stats for the Week: 1 GS, ND, 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 8 K