Francisco Lindor's power and the Mets bullpen come up aces in their win over Colorado
Plus, Lindor has personified the Mets season all by himself
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets defeated the Rockies by a score of 7-3 on Saturday at Citi Field (box)
The Mets got a short start from Christian Scott, who allowed two home runs over 4.1 IP, but José Buttó saved the day out of the bullpen with 2.2 IP with only one hit allowed and five strikeouts, and Dedniel Núñez gave the Mets two hitless and scoreless innings of relief to close the game out
The Mets offense put up a four spot in the second inning thanks in part to an error on a double play ball, followed by a two-run double from Jeff McNeil
The Mets didn’t score another run until Francisco Lindor’s three-run homer in the eighth inning to put the game away
The Mets are 13-2 over their last 15 games at Citi Field, they are now 27-12 over their last 39 games overall and have won four out of their last five home series. They have scored five or more runs in 19 of their last 25 games and 12 straight games at home scoring at least five runs
Playoff Race 🏁
The Mets are now one game ahead of the Diamondbacks and Padres for the third Wild Card spot in the National League, and are 1/2 game behind the Cardinals for the second wild card with 67 games to play.
Per FanGraphs, the Mets have a 49.5 percent chance of making the postseason in 2024.
They have the eighth-easiest schedule in MLB the rest of the way.
Tiebreakers:
vs. ATL: 3-3
vs. AZ: 2-2
vs. STL: 3-2
vs. SD: 3-0
vs. CIN: 2-1
vs. SF: 2-4 (finished)
vs. PIT: 5-2 (finished)
vs. CHC: 4-3 (finished)
Injury Updates 🏥
RHP Drew Smith underwent right UCL construction with the internal brace in his elbow. He will miss the remainder of the season
Who’s Hot 🔥
Since July 1, Mets starting pitching has a 2.97 ERA in 13 games, fifth best in MLB during that span
Since being recalled from Triple-A on July 2, José Buttó has allowed just two hits over 7.2 scoreless innings with three walks and eight strikeouts
Over his last 49 games, Francisco Lindor has hit .304/.376/.542 with 18 doubles, 10 home runs and 29 RBI with 61 hits and 37 runs scored
Down on the Farm 🌾
RHP Brandon Sproat (No. 6 prospect, Futures Game): 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER
INF Luke Ritter (Triple-A): 2-for-4, 2 RBI (International League-leading 63 RBI in 2024)
RHP Luis Moreno (Double-A): 7 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 5 K
RHP Joel Díaz (Low-A): 5 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 7 K
OF Omar De Los Santos (High-A): 1-for-3, HR, 2 RBI
BOX SCORES
Single-A STL | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR | Futures Game
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (49-45) vs. Rockies (33-63)
Where: Citi Field - Flushing, NY
Starters: LHP José Quintana (4-5, 3.91 ERA) vs. RHP German Marquez (2024 debut)
When: 1:40 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY, MLB Network
Francisco Lindor has personified the Mets season, plus thoughts on José Buttó and Christian Scott… ✍️
I still can’t get over the “where we were to where we are now” story with the Mets.
They have a chance to go into the All-Star break with 50 wins. Considering where this club was on May 30, that just seems absolutely extraordinary to me.
At this point, the offense is as good as it gets in the league. They get on base, they hit for power, they’re getting big hits seemingly day in and day out with Saturday’s highlight serving as an eighth inning, three-run put-away home run from Francisco Lindor who personifies the Mets season and turnaround all by himself.
Speaking about Lindor specifically, he’s a truly remarkable, multi-faceted player. He gets a little under appreciated around here because of the way he usually starts out his seasons. And it does unquestionably water his overall numbers down.
Just image what his baseball card might look like if he wasn’t so sluggish out of the gate during this part of his career?
The Mets are lucky to have a player like this, at a premium position especially. He’s a standup guy, always speaking to the media on good days and bad, works his butt off out there at short working on the simple plays that makes great players great every single day from spring training on, has turned into a mentor, leader and an inspiration to the kids and players behind him back home as well.
Certainly on Saturday, Lindor came up aces for the Mets in what was a bit of a slog for the Mets offense. They didn’t feature their best lineup because of scheduled rest days, so there were the obvious holes in there the Mets will probably be looking to fix over the next couple of weeks.
They were lucky to score the runs they did in the second inning. They were given a gift on a routine 4-6-3 double play when Brendan Rodgers mishandled a groundball and then threw it away, allowing Pete Alonso and DJ Stewart to score. That should’ve ended the inning, but instead two runs were in and it setup an opportunity for the beleaguered Jeff McNeil, who plated Ben Gamel and Luis Torrens with a two-run double.
Hey, good teams need a little luck sometimes. Plenty of times over the course of (recent) history, the Mets have been on the other side of those innings.
That was it for the scoring until the eighth inning when Gamel and Torrens set the table for Lindor, who smoked a three-run homer to center to put this game away for the Mets.
“That’s a special player, that’s a special person,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game. “I’m just glad that I get to be able to watch him play shortstop for the New York Mets day in and day out.”
Of course, we might not be talking about Lindor today if not for the likes of José Buttó and Dedniel Núñez, who bailed out Christian Scott to deliver 4.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen.
We’ve talked a lot about Nunez’s emergence this year, but Buttó has truly given the Mets stability and necessary length out of the bullpen, saving games dominantly and convincingly for them while offering their beleaguered bullpen necessary rest days in the process.
I’ve always looked at Buttó as someone who has the goods, but just needed time. Strike throwing was always a problem for him, but he unquestionably turned a corner at a point last season for the Mets, and has taken off for them this season. He unquestionably did not deserve a demotion when he went down earlier this season. He has a presence to him which I’ve always liked and now that he’s been able to command his breaking ball, he looks like he can become a dominant pitcher in this league.
He’s certainly been nothing short of dominant since his recall earlier this month.
He has the stamina to be a starter for sure here. In fact, with the break coming up, I saw no reason to for Carlos Mendoza to take Buttó out of the game on Saturday. They should’ve rode him to the win and saved Núñez unless he just flamed out, that which he showed no sign of doing at the conclusion of his outing. Butto’s change-up needs to get better in order for him to be an effective starter over the long-term, but he is certainly thriving in this multi-inning role with his fastball/slider/sinker combination with that change as his fourth pitch.
I can definitely see him as part of this rotation next season but to be perfectly honest, I don’t think the Mets should rock the boat with Buttó as long as he’s chewing up innings effectively in a bullpen that doesn’t have a lot of other options to it.
Right now, Buttó and Núñez are pretty much all they have to get to Edwin Díaz, who is no sure thing himself right now.
Getting back to Scott for a moment, he’s given up a lot of home runs lately. He’s allowed four home runs in his last three starts, a span of 15.2 IP. His sweeper and his slider - two pitches which I believe have led to his ascent through the Mets system - just haven’t been there for him overall in the big leagues this season. It’s not as if he doesn’t throw those pitches - they’re just not moving and therefore not effective for him. The slider has been a little bit better than the sweeper statistically, but those pitches need some refinement for him to be in the big league rotation.
We will see what the Mets do with him now that Kodai Senga’s return appears to be on the horizon. But they can afford to work on his development elsewhere if Senga is here and giving them quality innings.
Around the League 🚩
The Tigers rallied for five runs in the ninth to beat the Dodgers 11-9 in ten innings thanks to Gio Urshela’s walk-off two-run home run
The Yankees won a series for the first time since early June with a 6-1 win over the Orioles, tying them for first place in the AL East
The Rangers edged the Astros 2-1 thanks in part to Nathan Eovaldi and his seven innings of one-run ball
Kutter Crawford threw seven shutout innings and Rafael Devers homered off of Seth Lugo as the Red Sox blanked the Royals 5-0
I love the Mets tenacity. There fight until the last out is remarkable. Imagine if Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil could start playing up to their past success. With that said, the addition is Phil Maton is nice, but the Mets can still use 1-2 arms.
Scott is a work in training. Still somewhat raw.
Hopefully, the new pick-up in the pen will be consistent. Two starters (including Houser) are key arms. Nunez also is doing great though I sorta worry about him long term. Others have looked good but then tapered off. Perhaps, I'm just being pessimistic there.
The Mets need someone else in the pen to step up. People like Ottavino have to at least be able to give you a reliable inning now and then without a four-run lead looking iffy.
The Diamondbacks are a team to watch. They are back and breathing down the Mets' necks.