Cookie dominates, Lindor homers again and Mark Canha is becoming the Mets silent assassin
Carlos Carrasco delivers his best outing as a Met on Thursday afternoon
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets beat the Giants 6-2 on Thursday afternoon, taking three out of four this week from San Francisco (box)
Francisco Lindor - serving as the DH for the first time in 2022 - blasted his team-leading fourth home run in the first inning, and Eduardo Escobar hit his first homer as a Met
Mark Canha delivered the biggest hit of the day—a two out, two run single in the third inning - the Mets are now hitting .346 with two outs and runners in scoring position this season
Carlos Carrasco was spectacular on the mound, going 7.2 IP allowing only two runs on four hits
Luis Guillorme - playing shortstop to give Lindor a partial day off - had contributed two hits and was on base three times
The Mets are the first MLB team to reach 10 wins this season
Who’s Hot🔥
Mark Canha has three hits and has driven in three runs in the two games since he was activated off the COVID list
Francisco Lindor is hitting .357/.438/.750 with five extra-base hits and six RBI over his last seven games
Mets starting pitchers are 8-1 with a 2.10 ERA (18 ER/77.0 IP) with 86
strikeouts and 17 walks
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (10-4) @ Diamondbacks (5-8)
Where: Chase Field — Phoenix, AZ
Starters: David Peterson (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Zac Gallen (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
When: 9:40 PM EDT
Where to watch: SNY
Mark Canha is becoming the Mets silent assassin 📝
The 2022 Mets have a smorgasbord of individuals that garner a lot of attention both locally and nationally. Francisco Lindor is off to a tremendous start in year two in Queens. Pete Alonso is a two time home run derby champion with an infectious attitude. Starling Marte is as well rounded a player as there is in the game. Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom are two of the best pitchers not just currently but in the history of the game.
But one Met who brought very little fan fare when he arrived as a free agent is proving to be a real problem for New York’s opposition.
Enter, Mark Canha.
Canha spent the first seven years of his career in Oakland, gaining a reputation as a useful complimentary player. But in the early part of this season he’s looking like much more than that.
Prior to landing on the COVID-19 injured list ahead of the Mets’ home opener last Friday, Canha was slashing .381/.500/.381 in his first 21 at-bats. He returned on Wednesday and picked up right where he left off, collecting three hits in eight at-bats over the last two days.
But it’s not just the hits Canha is delivering. It’s when these hits are occurring.
Four of his 11 hits this season have been two out RBI hits with runners in scoring position. Something that if you’re not new here, you’ll remember was an enormous bugaboo for this team in 2021 (they hit .204/.302/.310 in such situations last year)
Manager Buck Showalter has primarily deployed Canha out of the seven hole in the lineup. This further illustrates the back breaking nature some of these hits he’s come up with have been for all of Washington, Philly, and San Francisco thus far. When pitchers get through the meat of a lineup, subconsciously or not, they often look at the bottom of the order as a place they can exhale and find some outs.
That has not been the case for teams playing the Mets.
Canha is not a rah-rah guy. He’s a quiet professional who takes his job seriously and doesn’t show an abundance of emotion. The veteran in the bottom third of the New York lineup that just consistently blows up the opposing pitchers’ line at the most opportune time. Thursday afternoon was a perfect example of the type of kill shot Canha has been delivering all year.
He’s becoming the Mets’ silent assassin.
With the Mets already up 3-1, Lindor and Jeff McNeil led off the bottom of the 3rd inning with a single and double respectively, putting two in scoring position with nobody out. But San Francisco starter Anthony DeSclafani soon seemed poised to dance of out trouble. He got Alonso to ground out with the infield in, then struck out Eduardo Escobar. Needing just one more out to put up a zero and bring some momentum to the visitor’s dugout, Canha stepped to the plate and ruined DeSclafani’s day. He ripped a single into left over the head of Queens favorite Wilmer Flores, plating two to double the Mets lead and send them on their way to a big series victory.
Of course, it’s still very early in the year and there’s a long way to go, but the Mets look every bit like a legitimate contender right now. And if Canha can continue producing like this, he won’t be able to live in relative anonymity for much longer.
Down on the Farm 🌾
Triple-A: Daniel Palka had three hits—including a homer—and drove in five in the Syracuse Mets (4-10) win over the Worcester Sox, who now have a three-game winning streak (box)
Double-A: There was a brawl in the Binghamton Rumble Ponies (4-7) game. Binghamton pitcher Marcel Renteria hit Portland’s Tyreque Reed with a pitch who then charged the mound. Jake Mangum hit a two-run triple in the third in the Ponies’ 12-5 loss on Thursday night (box)
High-A: The Cyclones (7-5) scattered just two singles in their 5-1 loss to Hudson Valley (box)
Low-A: St. Lucie (8-4) shut out Jupiter 1-0 - William Lugo broke a scoreless tie in the top of the ninth when he scored on a wild pitch (box)
Around the League 🚩
Miguel Cabrera needs just one hit to reach 3,000 but did not reach the milestone on Thursday
Miami blanked the Cardinals 5-0 behind seven dominant innings from Pablo Lopez
The White Sox sluggish start continued as they fell to Cleveland 6-3
Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde and DH Trey Mancini were ejected after a strange play around first base in Oakland
The Blue Jays defeated the Red Sox 3-2 behind eight excellent innings from Kevin Gausman
Arizona pounded three homers in D.C. to salvage a four game split with the Nationals