Players of the Week: Stroman Dominates, McCann Breaks Out

Between the injury-bug and the rain, nothing could stop the red-hot New York Mets over what was a very bizarre past week.

The Mets took on the Colorado Rockies and the Atlanta Braves, in what ended up being a rain-shortened series, and they went 4-1 on the week. The make-shift squad dropped the opening matchup with Colorado 3-2, but easily rallied off four wins in a row after that.

The Mets received contributions from up and down this injury-riddled roster, but two of the players that showed up the most for this group throughout the week were righty Marcus Stroman and catcher, or I should say first baseman, James McCann.

Pitcher of the Week: Marcus Stroman

After bouncing back from a disappointing outing against the Tampa Bay Rays, Stroman kept the good times rolling with another solid outing in game one of the doubleheader on Thursday afternoon against the Rockies.

Stroman gave the Mets and their taxed bullpen exactly the effort they needed. In a seven inning game, the right-hander threw six shutout innings and allowed just three hits while walking two and striking out three.

Stroman was questionably pulled after the sixth inning with just 90 pitches, but Edwin Diaz stepped up to close the door, and the Mets held on for the 1-0 win. Stro earned his fourth win of the season to pull even with a 4-4 record, and lowered his ERA to 2.47 on the season.

“It’s incredible what he’s doing. I think you have to give a lot of credit to him because he’s worked really hard since last year when he didn’t pitch and he just started working to get himself in this position,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said following Thursday’s win.

As Rojas indicated, Stroman has been outstanding thus far this season for this Mets rotation. He’ll look to keep things trending in the right direction on Tuesday night against slugger Ketel Marte and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Stroman’s Stats for the Week: 1 GS, 1 W, 6.0 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 2 BB, 3 K

Hitter of the Week: James McCann

To this point, James McCann’s beginning to his Mets tenure has been relatively disappointing. The veteran backstop has showed out with his cannon behind the plate, but has really struggled offensively thus far.

Finally, when the Mets needed him the most, McCann stepped up and came through with a solid week. With Pete Alonso on the injured list, McCann filled-in wonderfully in his first professional appearance at first, and finally showed up with the bat.

Entering Monday night’s game, McCann was hitting .304 with a pair of homers and four runs batted in over his past seven games. The recent string of success raised his OPS to .601 on the season.

McCann has finally began making some harder contact and putting the ball in the air more, which seems to be leading to his increased success. Hopefully this strong week is a sign of things to come for the veteran backstop, and the Mets start receiving the production they expected out of him.

With Alonso returning from the injured list on Monday night, McCann and Tomas Nido figure to split-time behind the plate which hopefully can help keep them both fresh and push each other to perform better behind the plate and at the dish.

McCann’s Stats for the Week: 6-for-17 (.352 AVG), 2 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBI