Mets beat the Cards on Pride Night thanks to production from unexpected places

The Mets register their second consecutive victory. Plus, how production from unexpected spots lifted them on Friday night.

Rich MacLeod

Jun 17, 2023

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

The Mets won their second straight game, defeating the Cardinals 6-1 on Pride Night at Citi Field (box)
RHP Tylor Megill had one of his best outings of the season, going six innings while allowing just one run with seven strikeouts
DH Daniel Vogelbach hit his third home run of the year in his first game since taking a mental health break
3B Brett Baty went 1-for-4 with a two-run double that started the scoring
LF Tommy Pham continued his hot stretch, going 2-for-4 with two RBI
RHP Dominic Leone and LHP Josh Walker combined to pitch three innings of scoreless relief to close out the win
Mets pitchers did not issue a single walk in Friday night’s victory, just the sixth time they’ve accomplished that feat this season

Who’s Hot 🔥

LF Tommy Pham is hitting .357/.404/.762 with three home runs, six doubles, 15 RBI, eight runs scored and a 1.166 OPS over his last 13 games
Since May 23rd, RHP Dominic Leone has a 1.74 ERA and a 3.28 FIP while holding batters to a .143/.211/.257 slash line (nine appearances)

Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (33-36) vs. Cardinals (27-43)

Where: Citi Field, Flushing — New York

Starters: RHP Kodai Senga (6-3, 3.34 ERA) vs RHP Adam Wainwright (2-1, 5.79 ERA)

When: 4:10 PM EDT

Where to Watch: WPIX

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Mets finally get some production from unexpected places ✍️

The story of the Mets season thus far in 2023 is that for the most part, they have not gotten the seasons out of the players they rely on most. We’re talking about guys like Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and Francisco Lindor (just to name a few).

There is another aspect in this equation, however. In order to have a good baseball season, yes, you need to have your stars play like stars. But you also need to get some production from unexpected spots on your roster, as well. Guys that maybe flew under-the-radar or weren’t expected to do much in part-time or fill-in roles that eventually make you say, “where would we be without them?”

Outside of rookie sensations Francisco Álvarez and Kodai Senga – and even they are two players everyone knew had extremely high talent – the Mets really haven’t gotten much of that this year.

The players on the periphery of the roster like Mark Canha, Luis Guillorme and David Peterson, all role players who played big parts last season have largely been non-factors in those same roles this season.

Last night we got a rare glimpse at what this team can look like when those role players do step up, even if it did come against one of baseball’s most disappointing teams in the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Mets won this game essentially on the back of production coming from unexpected places. If you were to ask who the three “stars” of the game were, you could very well say that it was Tylor Megill, Tommy Pham and Daniel Vogelbach, all of whom are players in this very category we’re talking about here.

Now to be fair, Pham has been hot for an extended period of time now – which is more than those other two can say. But he got off to a wretched start, one that was so bad that fans were calling for his release quite early into the season. As recently as May 26th, Pham was hitting just .200/.286/.341 and it did not appear clear as to why he was even on this team. Since that date, however, Pham has caught fire and is sporting a 1.166 OPS. Pham continued that hot hitting on Friday night, driving home a pair of runners and giving him 15 RBI over his last 13 games.

And credit should be given to Vogelbach, the biggest lightning rod of criticism on this roster, for what he was able to do, as well. The arguments for Vogelbach’s dismissal have been loud but certainly have not been overstated – his .297 slugging percentage prior to last night’s game ranked as the 13th lowest in all of baseball (minimum 140 plate appearances). He’s been the club’s DH since last summer and yet he doesn’t hit home runs, doesn’t hit doubles, and doesn’t drive home runs. He may get on base a decent amount, but that’s been happening less so lately and he has no speed to take advantage of those walks all that much, anyways.

It’s been no secret as to why Mets fans were over this player, and those struggles led to the manager giving Vogelbach a few days off to reset his mental health. In his first game back from that break Vogelbach clubbed a home run down the right field line, just his third of the season, and gave Mets fans the memories of what his bat looked like when he first arrived to the team last summer. We would certainly need to see far more from Vogelbach to say he still deserves to play as much as he does, let alone maintain a roster spot, but it was definitely nice to see him come through for once.

And then we come to Tylor Megill, who is only in the rotation because of injuries and the fact that he just wasn’t as colossally bad as David Peterson was as a fill-in. Still, Megill’s struggles have been quite pronounced this season and had gotten even worse in recent play. In his previous nine starts, Megill was pitching to a 6.21 ERA and 4.92 FIP while opposing hitters had an .829 OPS against him – for reference, that’s about the same as what Matt Olson’s OPS is this season in Atlanta.

Times were getting really tough out there for Megill and with José Quintana beginning his rehab, he knows better than anyone else that his opportunities to prove his worth are waning. Well, for one night, Megill took advantage of that chance with one of his best starts of the entire season.

Megill went six strong innings vs the Cardinals last night, allowing just one run with seven strikeouts and no walks. This marked just the third time all season that Megill pitched six complete innings and it’s his first start all season in which he didn’t issue a single walk.

For what its worth, this is Megill’s second good start in his last three appearances. The problem, of course, is that the one bad one was really, really bad as he allowed nine runs to the Pirates. So, much like the other role players on this team, it’s a little early to judge on if this performance was a one-off or a sign of things to come.

Regardless, Friday night’s game saw something that has been in short supply for the Mets this season with their role players coming through. Maybe it’s too much to ask for that to happen a bit more regularly this season, but they’re going to need more of it to improve their chances out there.

Around the League 🚩

The Giants hung on to beat the Dodgers thanks in part to a dropped pop-up and throwing error somehow led to an out in extra innings
Marlins 2B Luis Arraez went 5-for-5 to stop his recent skid at the plate and raised his batting average to .390 in the club’s 6-5 win over the Nationals
Red Sox 3B Justin Turner hit two home runs and drove in six in the club’s blowout win over the Yankees
Reds rookie RHP Andrew Abbott became the first pitcher in modern history to pitch at least five innings of scoreless baseball in his first three career starts as the club won their sixth straight game
Braves OF Ronald Acuña reached the 15+ home run and 30+ stolen base mark through just 70 games as the team crushed the Rockies, 8-1