The Mets gave away a 1-0 sixth inning lead through poor defense and below average bullpen performances, losing 11-2 in the rubber match of the subway series.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
1. Matt Harvey: 5 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 7 SO, 1 BB
Once again, Harvey showed sharp movement and above average command with his off-speed pitches, throwing a 67.74% strike rate resulting in a strong 19.35% swing and miss rate (miss/whiff rate).
Harvey’s only remaining issue is the amount of wasted fastballs thrown too far out of the strike zone to induce swings. Many of these poorly located fastballs come early in at-bats, putting Harvey behind in the count and reduce the amount of opportunities for off-speed pitches. These wasted fastballs drive up pitch count as well.
Additionally, the shaky fastball command led to three deep, towering fly ball outs. Carlos Beltran in the third inning and Didi Gregorius in the fifth inning narrowly missed with the barrel of their bats letter high fastballs over the middle of the plate. Greg Bird was just under the baseball flying out deep to centerfield in the fourth inning.
On each of these three pitches the barrel of the bat was a centimeter away from hitting a home run.
I am positive, when Harvey regains fastball command, he will be arguably the best pitcher in MLB. Don’t expect this until next season but maybe, just maybe, we start seeing magic this October.
During the TV broadcast, ESPN showed a statistic that Cespedes was 0-for-18 with 8 strikeouts since the hit-by-pitch on September 15th.
I doubt the hit-by-pitch has anything to do with his current slump. There are two contributors to Cespedes’ current slump:
- Normally, MLB hitters come off extreme hot streaks with a week or two cool down period because the hitter crosses the point from being an aggressive hitter to swinging at too many pitches too early in at-bats. The hot streak gives over-confidence to the hitter, allowing the hitter to believe they will make hard contact with any and every pitch thrown to them. Cespedes will soon realize this and begin taking more pitches.
- Cespedes was hitting at Barry Bonds like statistics but Cespedes is not Barry Bonds. Cespedes isn’t Rey Ordonez either. Understand the MLB season is very long and although Cespedes streak was spectacular, the even flow of the long season will soon regress his statistics back towards the mean. Much like the stock market, superior hitting performance isn’t sustainable for consecutive months at a time but consistent improvement and success is sustainable over longer periods of time. Let’s embrace this cold streak now prior to the playoffs beginning.
3. Side Thoughts
Sean Gilmartin should have been brought in to start the sixth inning instead of Hansel Robles if Gilmartin didn’t pitch Saturday but I understand Terry Collins tried giving Gilmartin more rest. Gilmartin helps switch up the pitching look from a hard throwing righty to a soft throwing lefty against a lineup set up against a righty.
Either way, it is tough to fault Terry Collins bringing in Robles given he had been pitching well recently. Additionally, Daniel Murphy and David Wright’s fielding errors didn’t help Robles’ start.
Follow Chris Zaccherio on Twitter @ziography for more Mets insight going beyond statistics.
