DJ Stewart, Pete Alonso power Mets to win, and a positive update on Edwin Diaz’s rehab

Edwin Díaz took a big step towards possibly returning to the Mets this season, although the club remains non-committal

Michael Baron

Aug 17, 2023

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

The Mets defeated the Pirates by the score of 8-3 on Wednesday at Citi Field (Box)
DJ Stewart hit two home runs and drove in three to lead the Met offense
Pete Alonso also homered - he now has the tenth-most RBI in franchise history with 469
Tylor Megill staggered around for five innings, walking four batters but only allowing two runs thanks to some stellar defense behind him
Mets relievers allowed only one run in four innings of relief
The Mets are now 14-21-4 in series this season, 10-8-1 in series at home, 9-16 against the NL Central, 38-18 when scoring five or more runs, and. 13-18 since the All-Star Game

Injury Updates 🏥

Edwin Díaz threw off a mound for the first time on Wednesday as he continues to progress in his recovery from knee surgery. However, the Mets are still unsure if he will pitch in a big league game this season
Mark Vientos (wrist) underwent an MRI on Tuesday, which showed inflammation

Who’s Hot 🔥

Brandon Nimmo has an eight-game hitting streak - he’s hitting .400/.500/.633 with a double, two home runs and three RBI during that span
DJ Stewart has three home runs and six RBI in his last 10 plate appearances

Roster Moves 🗞️

Optioned RHP José Buttó to Triple-A Syracuse
Selected RHP Dennis Santana from Triple-A Syracuse
Designed RHP Edwin Uceta for assignment

Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (55-66) vs. Cardinals (54-67)

Where: Busch Stadium - St. Louis, MO

Starting pitchers: LHP José Quintana (0-4, 3.03 ERA) vs. RHP Adam Wainwright (3-7, 8.78 ERA)

When: 7:15 PM EDT

Where to Watch: FOX

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Stuff on Tylor Megill, David Peterson, DJ Stewart and Pete Alonso ✍️

Wednesday’s game had a number of interesting nuggets in it, aside from the Mets actually putting up a convincing 8-3 win against the Pirates, actually winning a series, and somehow coming up with a 5-5 home stand despite that drubbing at the hands of the Braves over the weekend.

I’ll start with Tylor Megill who certainly looked a lot better yesterday, although he was unquestionably helped by some money defense behind him to help save some runs from dirtying his ledger. He displayed good fastball velocity although once again, it was a little inconsistent over the course of his start. He looks to be repeating his entire delivery better too, and as simple as his mechanics always have been, they appeared to be even simpler yesterday.

He did miss his location quite a bit, however and against most any other club, he would’ve paid a dearer price for those mistakes.

So, it wasn’t all peaches and cream for Megill despite the better looking line.

Buck Showalter made a good albeit point after the game in that they need to use this time to see whether or not Megill and/or David Peterson can not only get back to the level they were at that helped the Mets patch the rotation together last year, but also become actual rotation pieces for the Mets in the near-term. This late-season, “tryout” for them will help gauge whether or not that can happen, although it’s fair to wonder if Showalter’s wish will come true about them considering they both continue to be plagued by the same problems over and over again.

For Megill, it’s that consistent velocity and ability to not only throw strikes, but quality strikes. We saw all of those rolled into one salami sandwich yesterday - he just got a little lucky.

That’s fine - sometimes lucky is ok, but as Steve Cohen has said a lot lately, hope isn’t a strategy.

As for Peterson, it’s mostly about strike quality but he also has had his own share of command problems, relying a lot on luck in a league where it’s hard to be consistently lucky.

So, we will see how the rest of the year shakes out. Personally, I’d like to see one or both of them emerge into the conversation for next season’s rotation, but I’m not sure there’s going to be much of a corrected sample size to put our money on the rest of the way.

We will see, of course.

As for the rest of Wednesday, it was a fantastic day for DJ Stewart who displayed some impressive power during this series. I thought he got that one in his final at-bat but he got a little under it and had to settle for a deep fly out. Still, whatever happens with Stewart from here on out, nobody can erase what was probably his finest series of his career to-date.

And who knows? Maybe this week will help him carve out a little niche for himself in this league. After all, it’s a tryout for most everyone here, whether it’s for the Mets or another club going forward.

There was also Pete Alonso who continues to compile a strange season for himself. The power is there - he will easily amass the 40 home run mark, he will easily exceed 100 RBI again too. All of the peripheral stats would suggest he’s having a great season, yet if you’re into the metrics they show you on TV, things remain a bit puzzling for the Mets prized slugger.

He has a .222 batting average which most modern baseball scholars and scribes will tell you doesn’t matter. I still disagree with that to an extent - I don’t think the batting average matters as much except when Jeff McNeil is vying for a batting title every couple of years.

Obviously, it’s the only thing that matters in that case, right?

I actually concern myself with his .322 on-base percentage which is down 30 points from that of last season. Part of that is built into his vulnerability on the outer half of the plate this season and this insatiable desire of his to chase sliders out of the zone. But he really hasn’t used the opposite side of the field very much this season which I think has contributed to his struggles to get on-base routinely.

In fact, only four of his home runs have gone the other way, 13 hits overall.

Still, Alonso has unquestionably resurrected his season after a two-month long slump, which I can only conclude was the result of that hand injury he sustained which briefly landed him on the injured list earlier this year. Perhaps he came back prematurely if only to help a team he knew absolutely needed him. If true, that is an admirable, winning player type of trait which I love even if the results weren’t coming for him.

I know I am always rooting for Alonso and I am rooting for him to finish strong, make a stronger case for a mega deal, which in-turn should force the Mets into retaining him long-term.

Around the League 🚩

The Braves defeated the Yankees 2-0, completing the sweep and sending the Yankees to a 60-61 record for the year
Shohei Ohtani homered, and Reid Detmers allowed one hit over 7.1 IP as the Angels shutout the Rangers 2-0
Justin Verlander struggled, but the Astros still pummeled the Marlins 12-5 in Miami
Christopher Morel hit a walk-off homer to defeat the White Sox 4-3, pushing the Cubs into the third wild card spot in the NL Central