Mets rolling again as the tide has started to turn
After multiple weeks mired in misery, the Mets are starting to look like they're back to who we thought they'd be.
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What’s up with the Mets? 🚊
The Mets delivered seven extra-base hits in one of their best offensive performances of the year, routing the Yankees 12-6 on Saturday (box)
1B Pete Alonso had his third multi-homer game of the season, driving in five runs on the back of two homers, including a mammoth blast in the seventh inning
RHP Frankie Montas started his afternoon off strong, but struggled into the sixth, surrendering four earned runs on two Yankee homers. His ERA sits at 6.14
LF Brandon Nimmo continued his hot streak, smashing a first-inning grand slam off Yankees LHP Carlos Rodón and swiping his ninth bag of the year
The Mets went 6-for-9 with RISP in the game
Roster Moves 📰
RHP Zach Pop signed to a major league contract/activated
RHP Austin Warren optioned to Syracuse
Injury Updates 🏥
RHP Kodai Senga (hamstring) threw his first rehab start in Binghamton on Saturday. Over 3.2 innings, he gave up four runs (three earned) on six hits, including a homer, and surrendered two walks while striking out four
Rumor Mill 💨
The Mets have expressed interest in Pirates RHP Mitch Keller and could look into a trade for A’s RHP Luis Severino (SNY)
Stats of the Day 📊
Entering 2025, Brandon Nimmo had hit just one grand slam in his nine previous years of service time. He already has three this season, two of which he’s hit within the last week. He’s the first Met with three grand slams in a single season since Carlos Beltrán in 2006
DH Starling Marte’s game-opening double was the 1,600th hit of his career
SS Francisco Lindor’s stolen base was the 199th of his career. It was also his 100th as a New York Met, surpassing the 99 he stole in Cleveland
Play of the Game 🌟
Like Friday’s game, this one was chock-full of memorable moments — we could easily be discussing RF Juan Soto’s first-inning sac bunt right now. However, I ultimately decided it was most appropriate to highlight the play that put the bow on yet another modern Mets classic.
Despite the final score, there were multiple moments in this game where the Yankees kept the heat up. They answered Nimmo’s first-inning slam with a homer of their own, then another in the third. After the Mets scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth, the Yankees got them right back in the top of the sixth.
But then, after a four-run seventh and a hard liner off the wall from Soto in the eighth to drive in the 12th run of the day, all that was stopping RHP Edwin Diaz from putting another W in the books was Yankees RF Aaron Judge.
With the count at 1-2, Diaz got Judge to slap a 108 mph grounder to 3B Brett Baty, who snared the ball in his outstretched glove and fired it over to Alonso to secure the win. It was another great play from Baty, who’s had his fair share of web gems already this season.
Who’s Hot? 🥵
Pete Alonso is hitting .302/.377/.569 with 19 runs scored, 35 hits, eight homers, 27 RBIs, nine walks, and a stolen base over his last 30 games
Edwin Diaz is 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA, 8 saves, and 26 strikeouts in his last 15 innings of work. He’s allowed just one earned run and two walks, good for a 0.73 WHIP
Starling Marte has been the ideal role player in his last 30 games, slashing .303/.370/.427 with 27 hits, two homers, eight RBIs, and a stolen base in 89 at-bats
Francisco Lindor is heating up! He’s batting .259/.355/.481 with seven hits, four RBI, a stolen base, and a home run in his last seven games
Down on the Farm 🌾
C Francisco Álvarez (Triple-A): 1-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR, 1 K
LF Jared Young (Triple-A): 2-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 HR, 1 BB, 1 K
RHP Kodai Senga (Double-A): 3.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 HR, 2 BB, 4 K
1B Ryan Clifford (No. 6 prospect, Double-A): 1-for-2, 1 R, 1 H, 1 RBI, 1 HR, 2 BB, 1 K
3B Jacob Reimer (No. 17 prospect, Double-A): 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 H,1 RBI, 1 HR, 1 K
BOX SCORES
Single-A STL | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR
Today’s Game 🗓️
Match-up: Mets (52-38) vs. Yankees (48-41)
Where: Citi Field - Flushing, NY
Starters: RHP Chris Devenski (0-0, 3.38 ERA) vs. LHP Max Fried (10-2, 2.13 ERA)
When: 1:40 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY | YES
The Pete Alonso train continues to barrel down the tracks… ✍️
In an opening inning befitting the Fourth of July festivities, Saturday’s game at Citi Field started with a bang.
Then they just kept coming.
The recently beleaguered Mets continued their even more recent winning ways yesterday, hanging a dozen runs on their crosstown rival. The victory put the Mets back in control of the 2025 Subway Series, three games to two.
Frankie Montas took the mound for the Mets, and got off to an easy start, setting down the top of the Yankee lineup to get the game going.
The Yankees, meanwhile, gave the ball to Rodón, who fared more than admirably in his last start against the Mets. In the uptown installment of this season’s series in May, he held Mets hitters to just two hits and a single run across five innings while striking out five.
This time, though…not so much.
After allowing a leadoff double to Starling Marte and then walking Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, Rodón faced Brandon Nimmo with the bases loaded. Nimmo promptly demolished his 18th homer and third grand slam of the year, putting the Mets ahead early, 4-0.
“Two grand slams in a week is pretty crazy…You just try to take every at-bat one pitch at a time and try to help the team out, and it’s cool when things like that happen,” said Nimmo after the game. “It’s a really fun feeling, especially in this atmosphere. It feels like playoff baseball.”
The Yankees wouldn’t go away quietly, though. Yankees 3B Jazz Chisholm, Jr. homered in the second, and then a Marte RBI double in the Mets’ home half was followed by another Yankee homer to open the third inning, this one courtesy of Austin Wells. That brought the score to 5-2, where it stayed until the bottom of the fifth.
Then, with two outs and Lindor at third, Big Bad Pete stepped into the batter’s box. Staring down a 1-0 count, Alonso scorched a 95 mph heater straight over the fence in right-center field to put the Mets ahead 7-2.
But he wasn’t done.
The Yankees responded to Alonso’s homer with two runs of their own in the top of the sixth and one more in the seventh. The Mets responded with a PH Ronny Mauricio double, who was driven in immediately by a double from Lindor. After Soto picked up his 72nd walk of the season, Alonso came to the plate with two men on and none out.
He crushed the first pitch he saw 392 feet into the left field bleachers. The ball left his bat at nearly 108 mph.
To say Alonso has been good this season would be selling him seriously short. He’s been beyond what most of us imagined he would be. Seriously, check the preseason projections.
A meager May that saw him post a .693 OPS notwithstanding, Alonso has been about as steady as it gets. Despite the overall struggles of the roster in June, the Polar Bear had a great month, and that steady stroke has continued into July. Over his last 32 games, Alonso is hitting .287/.389/.609 with 36 hits, seven doubles, nine homers, and 30 RBIs.
And it only gets better! We’ve all heard (and I’ve definitely told) plenty of jokes about the Mets’ struggles with runners in scoring position. We (I) owe Pete an apology.
Alonso’s been our best hitter with RISP all season, and it’s not really close. In 91 qualified at-bats, he’s posted a .352/.470/.692 slash line and tallied seven doubles, eight homers, and 48 RBIs.
For the nerds, that’s good for a .479 wOBA (third-best in MLB). He’s also posting a whopping 217 wRC+ — that’s tied for best in baseball with Dodgers C Will Smith. Seems good!
(It also explains his 1.17 FanGraphs ‘Clutch’ score, but that’s a conversation for another day.)
One of the primary reasons for this uptick in Alonso’s effectiveness at the dish, especially in big moments, is the newfound patience he’s shown in his approach. Not to be deterred by a recent, momentary regression in his otherwise vastly improved chase rate, Alonso has swiftly gotten himself back on track. After the win, he was asked what he attributes most to the positive change:
“I feel good in my mechanics,” Alonso said. “I feel way better in my setup, and that allows me to see the ball better.”
He’s not kidding: this season, Alonso is averaging a little more than four pitches per plate appearance (4.12), a significant improvement from his career average mark of 3.85. This is a trend that has been developing over the last few seasons: he was at 3.90 in 2023 and 4.00 flat in 2024.
Alonso also currently owns one of the lowest strikeout rates of his career (22.7%) while maintaining a 10.1% walk rate, which is great news considering he swings at the first pitch close to 34% of the time.
Then again, when you’re barreling the ball 20% of the time and slugging .600, why wouldn’t you swing a lot?
(The league average barrel rate is 7% by the way, just for even more context of exactly what we’re dealing with here.)
It’s been such a thrill to watch peak Pete Alonso this season. In what is effectively his second walk year, he’s reinforcing the narrative he’d spent his career establishing before it took a slight dip in 2024.
As our shiny offensive machine finally starts to get all of its collective wheels turning, we’re starting to see the manifestation of this lineup’s full potential. Juan Soto has been the best hitter in baseball, Alonso is as hot as ever, and Francisco Lindor seems to be heating back up after a bit of a lull in his last 30 games.
Rough waters are starting to settle, and smoother sailing is on the immediate horizon. With the All-Star Break a week away and injured arms steadily making their way back, we might finally be catching the wave we want.
Around the League 🚩
Retired RHP and two-time All-Star Bobby Jenks, tragically passed away from stomach cancer at age 44. Known for his tenure with the Chicago White Sox, where he closed out the 2005 World Series, Jenks spent time in both Chicago and Boston before injuries and complications from surgeries ended his career. He holds the second-most saves in White Sox franchise history with 173.
Blue Jays CF George Springer hit his 16th homer of the season, making him one of just four players (Alfonso Soriano, Gary Sheffield, and Reggie Sanders) to ever record 15+ home runs and 10+ stolen bases before the All-Star break in their age-35 season. Toronto beat the Angels 4-3
Dodgers star SP/DH Shohei Ohtani celebrated his 31st birthday with a scoreless outing on Saturday, allowing just one hit over two innings - the Dodgers did lose to the Astros 6-4
The Boston Red Sox won their 10,000th game in franchise history with a 10-3 win over the Nationals. They are the fifth organization to do so, joining the Dodgers, Yankees, Giants, and Cardinals
Yankees RHP Clarke Schmidt will likely undergo Tommy John surgery, sidelining him for the remainder of the season
Twins PH/DH Brooks Lee bunted home the game-winning run in the team’s second consecutive walk-off win, a 6-5 victory over the reeling Rays. It was the 500th of manager Rocco Baldelli’s career
Let’s go Drew! Awesome article!
Good piece. But I need someone to explain to me why Mendoza used Diaz to get 3 outs when we had a 6, that's right, 6, run lead. Makes no sense to me. If your low leverage guys in the pen can't get 3 outs in this situation, they shouldn't be on the team.