Jeff McNeil's clutch homer helps Mets spoil Marlins wild card chase, win 2-1

Plus, José Butto's transformation and his statement case for a rotation in spot in 2024

Michael Baron

Sep 19, 2023

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

The Mets beat the Marlins by a score of 2-1 in Miami on Monday (box)
Jeff McNeil played the hero for the Mets with his clutch solo home run in the ninth to break a 1-1 tie
José Buttó was splendid again for the Mets on the mound, giving them six innings of one run ball with only a walk and four hits allowed against six strikeouts
Grant Hartwig and Phil Bickford bridged the game to Adam Ottavino, who combined to give the Mets three scoreless innings
The Mets are now 9-7 and in September, 31-44 on the road, 23-25 in one-run games, 8-7 when tied after eight innings, 20-20 against the NL East, has 16 wins in their last team at-bat, 59-48 when they hit at least one home run, 14-54 when scoring three or fewer runs, and 28-32 since the All-Star Game

Roster Moves 🗞️

INF Luis Guillorme activated from the injured list
INF Jonathan Arauz optioned to Triple-A Syracuse
RHP Bartolo Colón retired

Prospect Watch 🔎

All Mets minor league affiliates were off on Monday.

Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (70-80) vs. Marlins (78-73)

Where: loanDepot Park – Miami, FL

Starting pitchers: LHP Joey Lucchesi (3-0, 2.83 ERA) vs. LHP Braxton Garrett (9-6, 3.67 ERA)

When: 6:40 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY

Upgrade to a paid subscription!

José Buttó looks REALLY good out there… ✍️

If there’s anything positive coming out of these final two months of a punted season, it’s that we are learning quite a bit about who is here, who may fit going forward, and who probably doesn’t.

But in an effort to maintain positivity, we can look squarely at the performance of José Buttó in what can only be considered as a transformation for the right-handed pitcher.

Since he was inserted into the rotation in early September, Buttó has been nothing short of spectacular, pitching to a 2.08 ERA over three starts, a span of 17.1 innings pitched. He has recorded 19 strikeouts with only 12 hits allowed during that span.

But perhaps the most important statistic working in Butto’s favor are the five walks in those 17.1 innings.

Butto’s biggest problem during his professional career is he’s been subject to erraticness, resulting in high walk rates, too many baserunners, ineffective and short outings. Look no further than his season with Triple-A Syracuse in 2023 when he walked 49 batters and hit five in 91 innings.

When that stat line is considered, it’s somewhat remarkable the Mets would even decide to give him a chance at this level.

But they did anyway, considering his stuff over his command at the beginning with hopes that time, patience and Jeremy Hefner’s voice in his ear that he could harness his stuff and throw more strikes.

Hefner has employed a fastball/change-up as his primary weaponry in these starts with good run and sink on the change in particular. That pitch has been an effective tool against left-handed hitters thanks to its fade towards the outside part of the plate. In last night’s game in particular, he threw 22 change-ups spotting that pitch beautifully on the corners. He would then turn to his slider which had wicked movement, getting seven swings and misses on 21 of those pitches thrown.

But again, it’s about the quality of those pitches. He always had these three pitches in his arsenal but generally had no idea where they were going from pitch-to-pitch. In these three starts, he’s discovered that command and it’s led to remarkable success against the Nationals, Diamondbacks and now Marlins.

The question of course is, how do the Mets interpret a small sample of success and command for 2024 when his season at Triple-A was less of a successful term?

There’s no easy answer to that.

So many players have come and gone thanks to a great September and no carryover into the next season. The same could be said about Joey Lucchesi and his run of success recently. There’s no real evidence to suggest his success will continue, either.

But with Buttó, Lucchesi, Tylor Megill and David Peterson, the Mets have four pitchers heading into camp next winter who can vie for one rotation spot, assuming the Mets dive into the free agent market and sign two established arms for their rotation.

The Mets can also consider Lucchesi or Peterson for a role in the bullpen as well, although they’ll probably first consider them for a starters role before anything else.

But right now, Buttó is standing out in this conversation not just with his transformation, but with both his stuff and the energy he’s giving the Mets. He’s carrying a confidence out there which is distinguishing itself from the other candidates.

Can he sustain this for two more starts? If he does, both he and the Mets can go into the winter with something really positive for their pitching staff.

Around the League 🚩

The Orioles pushed their lead in the AL East to 2.5 games over the Rays with their 8-7 win over the Astros in Houston - Cedric Mullins came through for Baltimore with a three-run homer in the ninth inning
With the Astros loss to the Orioles, the Mariners pulled to within 1.5 games for the lead in the AL West with their 5-0 win over the A’s in Oakland - Bryan Woo gave the Mariners five shutout innings and José Caballero homered and drove in two runs
Texas’ second half slide continued on Monday with their 4-2 loss to the Red Sox - they’ve now lost four straight and sit 1.5 games out of first place in the AL West and are barely hanging on to a playoff spot
The Reds beat the Twins 7-3 to knock the Marlins out of a wild card spot - Cincinnati is now statistically tied (one more loss) with the Cubs for the third wild card, and both sit 1/2 game behind the Diamondbacks for the second wild card