After yet another win, are the Mets reaching juggernaut territory?
The Mets sweep the Reds at Citi Field for their sixth consecutive victory. Plus, is this team now at the point where they should be considered a "juggernaut?"
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾
The Mets swept away the Reds thanks to a 10-2 drubbing, good for their sixth straight win (box)
SS Francisco Lindor tied 3B David Wright for the most consecutive games with a run scored in franchise history (13), and tied SS José Reyes for the most RBI by a shortstop in a single season in franchise history (81)
RHP Taijuan Walker bounced back from his last difficult start, allowing two runs over six innings pitched for his 10th win of the year
DH Daniel Vogelbach continued his torrid stretch since being acquired by the club, going 2-for-5 with a double and three RBI on the day
Fellow deadline acquisition OF Tyler Naquin also stayed hot, crushing a solo home run (10) in the third inning
The Mets are two wins shy of reaching 36 games over .500, which would be their highest mark at any point in any season since 1986
New York starting pitchers are a perfect 6-0 with a 1.40 ERA during the club’s six-game winning streak
The Mets lead in the NL East remains at seven games, as the Braves swept a two-game series vs the Red Sox
Who’s Hot 🔥
Francisco Lindor is hitting .417/.491/.708 during his record-tying, 13-game runs scored streak
Pete Alonso is batting .366/.458/.662 in 19 games since participating in the Home Run Derby
Trevor Williams now has a 3.11 ERA on the season, but an even more sparkling 1.24 ERA as a reliever in 29 appearances out of the bullpen this season
Playoff Odds Tracker 🎲
The Mets are 73-39 and lead the Braves by seven games in the National League East with 50 games to go. They are on-pace for 105 wins, which would be the second-highest mark in franchise history (108 in 1986)
Playoff odds (FanGraphs):
Make the playoffs: 100 percent ↔️
Win the National League East: 92.8 percent ↔️
Clinch first round bye: 92.5 percent ⬆️
Win the World Series: 16.7 percent ⬇️
Today’s Game 🗓
The Mets get the day off before taking on the Phillies tomorrow night at Citi Field.
Have the Mets reached “juggernaut” territory? 📝
The New York Mets are on some kind of tear right now.
This has been a team that’s been great pretty much from the jump this year, but they’ve dialed it up even more lately as they’re in the midst of a 14-2 stretch and their second winning streak of at least six games in the last two weeks. This stretch rivals the insane run the Mets made late in the summer of 2019 when they won 14 of 15 games to propel themselves from irrelevance to the edge of a Wild Card race. That team did not make the playoffs, though, so we have to go even further back to compare this Mets run properly.
A better parallel here is the post-trade deadline Mets in 2015, who completely flipped their season and ripping off a 31-11 stretch starting on July 31st. From the day the team acquired Yoenis Céspedes in the final minutes before the deadline, that club completely transformed and steamrolled through every single opponent that got in their way, including their biggest rivals in the NL East in the Nationals, who they methodically took down with two late-season sweeps to deliver the knock-out punch.
You can also look at the 2006 team, who had been the best Mets team of my lifetime (I was born in 1990, for reference) up until this point. That team’s peak was 35 games over .500, a mark that the franchise has not touched since but this current year’s version is simply one more win away from matching.
It not only begs the question, “is this now the best Mets team of my lifetime?” but you start to think even bigger than that.
At this point, after smacking down the big-talking Braves with a four-of-five series win, and tearing through every other opponent that’s gotten in their way the last few weeks, you have to wonder if this team is reaching the ranks of “juggernaut.”
I’m not sure I’ve ever thought that about any Mets in my life, though 2006 — when I was merely 15 years old — comes the closest. Even in their best years that I’ve experienced, the Mets usually come out of nowhere or seen more as the underdogs. That doesn’t seem to be the case now.
It’s not a smoke-and-mirror trick and it isn’t just BABIP luck, it’s simply a level of dominance that we haven’t seen in these parts is a hell of a long time. This current pitching staff at full strength with Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Chris Bassitt, Taijuan Walker and Carlos Carrasco is rivaling any rotation in the club’s history right now. They have the best closer in baseball in Edwin Díaz, who is also having the best season that a Mets closer has ever had. And then there’s this offense. They’re led by the star-power bats and MVP candidates in Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor, but it goes so much deeper than that. While the rest of the lineup lacks in the power department, they make up for it in the grind-it-out at-bats they fight to put together on a daily basis. This lineup wears pitchers out. Wednesday’s finale against the Reds was the 47th time this season that the Mets have forced an opposing pitcher to expend 20-plus pitches in the first inning, a habit that has led to runs, traffic on the bases, stressful pitches for their opponents and consistently getting into teams’ bullpens early. It’s also worth mentioning that this is one of the better defensive Mets clubs in recent memory.
I know it seems crazy based on what we’ve all experienced with this franchise over the years. There’s always a piece of us that will be waiting for things to go wrong, but this year has felt different from the start. And now — say it with me — the Mets are approaching juggernaut zone.
Down on the Farm 🌾
Brett Baty (3B, No. 2 prospect, Triple-A): 2-for-3, RBI, BB, run scored
Joe Suozzi (1B, Single-A): 2-for-4, HR (7), 4 RBI
Dominic Hamel (RHP, No. 9 prospect, Single-A): 5 IP, 3 H, ER, 0 BB, 4 K (win)
Box Scores: Triple-A | Double-A | Single-A | Low-A
Around the League 🚩
The Phillies and Braves continue to keep pace with the Mets, pulling out wins over the Marlins and Red Sox respectively
Mariners 1B Carlos Santana crushed a go-ahead, two-run home run to take down the Yankees, 4-3
The new-look Padres blasted the Giants by a score of 13-7 thanks to a four-RBI game from the recently acquired Brandon Drury
The Dodgers edged out the Twins for their 10th consecutive victory