A necessary laugher for the Mets as Francisco Alvarez's adjustments make a difference again

Also - the Mets will be bringing a top prospect to the big leagues for Saturday's game

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NY Post

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

• The Mets cruised by the Phillies with an 11-3 win at Citizens Bank Park on Friday (box)

• The bats were completely silent early on Friday yet again, but they exploded for six runs in the fifth inning against Aaron Nola thanks to a pair of three-run home runs from Francisco Álvarez and Brandon Nimmo

• Harrison Bader added his own three-run homer in the eighth inning, and Pete Alonso hit a solo home run off of Kody Clemens in the ninth

• Jose Quintana shutdown the Phillies offense with seven scoreless innings

• Five of their 11 runs came with two outs, and the Mets went 4-for-6 with runners in scoring position on the night

• The Mets are 31-20 in series openers, 17-9 in series openers on the road, 53-22 when scoring first, 23-17 against the NL East, 40-12 when homering at least twice, and are 32-20 since the All-Star Game

• The Mets 59-33 record since May 30 is the best in baseball during that span

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Playoff Race 🏁

The Padres and Braves won their games, but the Diamondbacks lost on Friday night.

As such, the Mets retained their hold on sole possession of the third wild card and gained a game on Arizona, who fell into the second wild card spot with their loss. They are one game behind Arizona for the second wild card, and 1.5 games behind the Padres for the top wild card.

There are 15 games remaining.

Per FanGraphs, the Mets have a 59.8% chance of making the postseason.

New York has the seventh hardest schedule in MLB the rest of the way.

Tiebreakers:

• vs. ATL: 5-5

• vs. ARI: 4-3 (finished)

• vs. SD: 5-2 (finished)

• vs. CHC: 4-3 (finished)

• vs. STL 4-2 (finished)

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Injury Updates 🏥

• SS Francisco Lindor left Friday’s game with lower back tightness. He is considered day-to-day, and said after the game he would’ve stayed in if it had been a closer game. He hopes to be available on Saturday

• RHP Dedniel Núñez (forearm strain) is out for the remainder of the season. He recent underwent a PRP injection in his forearm

• RHP Paul Blackburn (lower back strain) is considered, “week-to-week,” per Mets Manager Carlos Mendoza. He will not pitch next week against the Nationals and could also miss next weekend’s series against the Phillies at Citi Field

• RHP Kodai Senga (calf strain) is expected to face hitters next week. He could possibly return on September 25, the day he is eligible to come off of the 60-day injured list

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Roster Moves 📰

• INF Luisangel Acuña (#12 prospect) will be recalled from Triple-A Syracuse ahead of Saturday’s game against the Phillies

• INF Pablo Reyes outrighted to Triple-A Syracuse

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Who’s Hot 🔥

• In his last five plate appearances, Francisco Álvarez has a single, two home runs, six RBI and three runs scored

• Over his last four starts, José Quintana has allowed just one earned run, a span of 25.1 IP

• Since making his Mets debut on July 11, Phil Maton has a 2.42 ERA, allowing just six runs, 14 hits and five walks with 26 strikeouts over 22.1 IP

• Mets starting pitchers have a 3.51 ERA since the All-Star Game, the best in MLB during that span. They're averaging 5 2/3 IP per game during that span as well and have thrown more innings than any other team in the NL.

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Down on the Farm 🌾

• SS Yolmer Sánchez (Triple-A): 2-for-4, 2B, HR, 5 RBI, 2 R

• RHP Dominic Hamel (#15 prospect, Triple-A): 5 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 K

• OF Stanley Consuegra (Double-A): 3-for-4, 2B

BOX SCORES

Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR

Mets top 30 prospects

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Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (81-66) vs. Phillies (88-59)

Where: Citizens Bank Park - Philadelphia, PA

Starters: RHP Luis Severino (10-6, 3.74 ERA) vs. LHP Kolby Allard (2-0, 2.50 ERA)

When: 4:05 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY

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Francisco Alvarez’s adjustment has had a high dividend yield in the last two games… ✍️

Canadian Press

Runs are coming in bunches for the Mets these days, it would seem.

It seemed like a replay from Wednesday’s game on Friday when the Mets couldn’t hit the side of a barn door if they were standing next to one against Aaron Nola for the first four innings.

But then came the fifth and on came another six-run outburst thanks to a pair of three-run home runs from Francisco Álvarez and Brandon Nimmo as the Mets were on their way to a laugher in the opening game of their series against the Phillies in Philadelphia.

In the end, the only thing that matters right now are wins. It doesn’t matter if they’re 1-0, 10-9, 30-0.

Just win.

Having said that, I thought it important the Mets get a laugher under their belt. They’ve been playing a ton of close games lately, including Wednesday’s game until they ran away with it in the ninth inning against the Blue Jays. They had only won two games this month up until Friday night which had been decided by five runs or more (and in those cases, exactly five runs in those two games against Boston) and only six in August.

So, the Mets won on Friday but it feels like they had a little break in the tension in the process.

After all, every game is a playoff game for them right now even if they’re controlling their own destiny for the time being.

Of course, it didn’t come without consequence. Why would it? These are the Mets and even in their biggest wins, there seems to be a cost to doing business.

Francisco Lindor tweaked his back on an awkward play at second base last night, and had to be removed from the game. Now, he did say afterwards that if it was closer than 7-0 at the time, he would’ve stayed in the game and he did hope to be available this afternoon.

But Lindor had played all 146 games leading up to last night. You know it probably hurts to get out of bed at this point, not to mention the other nagging little things that have to be bothering him on a daily basis. So for him to come out of a game at this juncture of the season tells you its probably not just a little bit of discomfort he is dealing with at the moment.

The Mets are going to bring Luisangel Acuña to the big leagues for today’s game. That might’ve been already in the works before Lindor got hurt, and something I certainly believe they should’ve done when rosters expanded two weeks ago just to have that element of speed available in late-game situations.

I don’t expect Acuña to hit a whole lot during the home stretch, but that speed does have merit if the Mets find themselves in a close game when they need a stolen base or some first-to-third action with a contact guy at the plate.

In any event, its the first glimpse most of us will get on the return in the Max Scherzer trade, which bears some level of import for the future of this franchise despite Acuña slipping in their prospect rankings this season.

Aside from the Lindor injury, the biggest takeaway for me from Friday’s blowout was Alvarez’s performance at the plate.

This has been a trying season for Álvarez between the hand injury which sidelined him for two months, his subsequent performance at the plate, and his non-performance behind the plate. There have been concerns and red flags all over the place for the better part of three months in his game even as the Mets have continued to run him out there on a regular basis.

But the Mets have leaned on the fact that Álvarez is just 22, they’ve seen the potential on both sides of the ball even at such a young age, and that he’s too talented to not adjust back to the league and fulfill the promise he came to the big leagues with back in October, 2022.

And over the last two days at least, it would appear Álvarez has not only drilled those adjustments in at the plate, but his confidence, swagger and positive body language are back with those adjustments.

Now, it’s only five plate appearances. It’s the smallest of small samples. But in his last five plate appearances, he has two three-run home runs and an RBI single on his ledger, and they couldn’t have been more critically clutch and potentially season-defining. But his maturity will be defined and measured by a continual adjustment, not just one that helped the Mets win two games over a few at-bats.

For context though, Álvarez has six RBI in his last five at-bats. He had six RBI between July 28 and his final at-bat on September 11, a span of 117 plate appearances.

The Mets need him to have found that slot at the plate again. It’s a lot to ask of a 22-year-old kid who has been searching for it all year and hasn’t found his discipline yet. But they need steadiness on both sides of the ball from Álvarez and for him to mature faster than he probably can as a professional down the stretch of this season.

And if he did find that slot, the Mets might be going places in 2024.

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Around the League 🚩

• The Braves scored five runs in the first two innings against Landon Knack, which was more than enough to secure their 6-2 win over the Dodgers in Atlanta

• Rhys Hoskins hit a two-run homer and Freddy Peralta and the Brewers bullpen did the rest in their 2-1 win over the Diamondbacks

• Dylan Cease fired six shutout innings, recorded his 1000th career strikeout, Fernando Tatís Jr. homered, and the Padres breezed by the Giants 5-0

• MLB and Strauss - a European workwear brand - have partnered in an advertisement deal which will allow them to put their company banner on player helmets during the postseason