Mets pummel Nationals as the Nick Plummer train rolls on
Discover more from Just Mets
Mets pummel Nationals as the Nick Plummer train rolls on
One day after his late inning heroics, Nick Plummer had a huge night against the Nationals.
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets opened up their series against the Nationals with a 13-5 win (box)
OF Nick Plummer continued his torrid start to his career - he went 3-for-4 with a home run, 4 RBIs, and 2 runs scored. With his home run against the Nationals, Plummer became the first player in franchise history to hit home runs in each of his first two career starts
SS Francisco Lindor had three hits and two RBIs - he is now third in the National League with 40 RBI on the year
1B Pete Alonso also had a big day at the plate, homering and bringing his RBI total to 47 which is tops in the National League
Despite being staked to a big lead, LHP David Peterson did not make it out of the fifth inning and had an ugly line of 4.2 innings, 4 walks, and 4 runs
The Mets 1-3 hitters combined to go 8-for-13 with five runs scored and seven RBI, four of which came from Starling Marte who homered and drove in four runs
The Mets are now 17-8 at home, 18-10 in May, 6-2 in series openers at home, 6-2 against the Nationals, 17-7 against the National League East, are 16 games over .500 and are enjoying their first four-game winning streak of the season
RHP Drew Smith (dislocated finger) said before the game he is hopeful he will avoid the injured list
Jeff McNeil (wear and tear) was back in the starting lineup on Monday, but went 0-for-5 on the night
Who’s Hot 🔥
Super Mario OF Nick Plummer is the first Met to homer in his first two big league starts (Elias Sports Bureau)
2B Luis Guillorme is .426 since April 19
RF Starling Marte had his fifth three-hit game of the season on Monday - he is hitting .347/.367/.558 in May
In his past fifteen games, SS Francisco Lindor is hitting .333/.435/.566 with 3 home runs and 19 RBIs Lindor has an eight-game RBI streak which is the longest streak since Carlos Beltrán’s streak in 2006
Lindor and Pete Alonso both have at least 40 RBI this season - This is the second time the Mets have had two players with 40+ RBI before June 1 (John Olerud & Todd Hundley in 1997). The 1997 team played 53 games before June 1, whereas Lindor and Alonso reached the mark in the team's 50th game (per the Mets)
The 158 runs the Mets have scored this month is a club record for the month of May
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (33-17) vs Nationals (18-32)
Where: Citi Field — Flushing, NY
Starters: RHP Trevor Williams (0-3, 4.37 ERA) vs. LHP Patrick Corbin (1-7, 6.30 ERA)
When: 7:10 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
The Mets look like the class of the division at the Memorial Day benchmark 📝
Memorial Day has long been the unofficial start of the summer where baseball and BBQs go hand-in-hand with the holiday. For the Boys of the Summer, Memorial Day serves as a benchmark to take stock of the team a third of the way through the season.
After their 13-5 win over the Nationals on Monday night, the Mets hold a commanding 9.5 game lead in the division over the second place Braves. It is the largest lead any team holds throughout baseball. The next largest lead is the Yankees leading Tampa Bay by five games. The Mets have nearly double that.
For so long this team could never fully get their ducks in a row. When they were pitching, they weren’t hitting. When they were hitting, they weren’t pitching. Or when they got both the bullpen would meltdown so the team would forever sputter along winning in fits and starts. While the 2022 team has some similarities those previous clubs, they have the tools to overcome their weaknesses instead of being felled by them.
Monday night’s win over the Nationals is a perfect example of that.
Starter David Peterson faltered in the first inning, but as has been the case so many times over the first third of the season, the Mets roared right back with a viscous response in the bottom of the first and took off from there. And while Peterson’s night wasn’t a good one overall, their lead was secure enough that it did simply not matter. They had overrun the lowly Nationals with 12 unanswered runs before Washington put up a couple against Peterson and Colin Holderman in the fifth and sixth innings. But by then, the party in Flushing had come and gone with a mess for Davey Martínez and the rest of the Nationals to clean up.
With Max Scherzer going down, the offense has come alive. Since his injury diagnosis on May 19, the Mets are 8-3 and are averaging about seven runs per game in that time frame. The Mets heavy hitters of Starling Marte, Francisco Lindor, and Pete Alonso are helping propel the team while Luis Guillorme and Nick Plummer have been huge surprises as well.
Plummer in particular is one of those stories that brings a smile to everyone’s face. He had toiled around in the Cardinals minor league system after being drafted in the first round of the June amateur draft in 2015. The Mets picked him up soon after the Cardinals released him in November in what seemed like an inconsequential minor league depth move. Finally getting his chance if for no other reason than Travis Jankowski going down with a broken finger, Plummer seized the day and saved the Mets on Sunday against the Phillies, and then propelled the Mets to a pummeling of the Nationals on Monday.
Even if he’s only lightening in a bottle, Plummer will have made a difference on the club’s quest for a run at a division title.
And then of course there is Guillorme, who has evolved into a superb all-around baseball player. He is a wizard up the middle while his matured bat-to-ball skills have made him into a dynamic line-to-line hitter - he is hitting .363/.446/.463 in 32 games this season. If he continues to start and excel, he will legitimately be in the conversation for an All-Star selection.
It’s always these little heroes who make a big impact on great ballclubs.
The Mets have one last day of May to enjoy before the calendar flips to June which is a month all fans dread. And naturally, June will bring their true test. The Mets are now 48 hours away from waking up in Los Angeles when they’ll begin a four-game series against the game’s elite in the Dodgers. Then, they move on to San Diego before rounding out their long and difficult west coast trip in Anaheim.
And they’ll be doing all of that without three members of their rotation.
Still, the Mets have built up this enormous lead and therefore a margin for error in the division to give them a cushion in case things go south (as it always seems to do) during the course of a long baseball season. Hopefully this team’s fortitude and character is enough to hold the line in June until the reinforcements rejoin the team in the coming weeks.
Down on the Farm 🌾
Francisco Álvarez (C, No. 1 prospect, Double-A): 2-for-4, home run, and 3 runs scored
Jeremy Vasquez (1B, Double-A): 2-for-5, double, 3 RBIs
Luke Ritter (3B, Double-A): 2-for-5, 2 RBIs
Box Scores: Triple-A (No game) | Double-A | High-A (No game) | Single-A (No game)
Around the League 🚩
It was Groundhog Day for the Phillies. RHP Corey Knebel gave up a home run in the ninth only for Philadelphia to tie it in the bottom of the inning but they lost all the same in the tenth to the Giants
The Royals placed RHP Zack Greinke on the injured list with a forarm strain
The Cubs placed rookie OF Seiya Suzuki on the IL with a finger sprain, and the Brewers placed RHP Brandon Woodruff on the IL with a high ankle sprain
LHP Dallas Keuchel has been placed on unconditional release waivers
The Braves dropped their series opener against the Diamondbacks by a score of 6-2
The Marlins lost to the Rockies but OF Jesús Sánchez stole the show when he absolutely obliterated a baseball that ended up traveling 496 feet which is the longest home run hit so far in 2022