Mets scratch out a 2-1 win, and thoughts on needs ahead of the trade deadline
The Mets offense struggled while their pitching staff continued to shine on Monday
What’s up with the Mets? ⚾
The Mets walked one off against the White Sox with a 2-1 win at Citi Field on Monday (Box)
The Mets scored their two runs on two sacrifice flies - one from Juan Soto in the eighth inning to tie the game and one with the bases loaded from Francisco Lindor in the ninth to win the game
Clay Holmes started for the Mets, navigated some command issues but allowed just one run over 5.2 IP
José Buttó, Huascar Brazoban, José Castillo and Edwin Díaz combined for 3.1 IP of scoreless relief
Injury Updates 🏥
LHP Sean Manaea (oblique strain) will face hitters on Thursday before possibly going out on a rehab assignment
OF José Siri (fractured tibia) will face Manaea during live batting practice on Thursday
RHP Drew Smith (recovery from TJ Surgery) could return in late September or early October
OF Jesse Winker (oblique strain) has not resumed baseball activities
Play of the Game 🌟
The Mets had a number of highlight plays on Monday, but nothing prettier than Francisco Lindor’s stellar backhand grab in the third inning, making it look easy as he turned and threw to first:
Stats of the day 📊
Edwin Díaz has not allowed a hit in 27 consecutive at-bats, the longest active streak in the majors. He has not allowed an earned run in his last 12 appearances
The Mets are now 20-6 at home, tied for their best start at home with the 2015 and 2021 teams
The Mets have scored five or fewer runs in 13 straight games, their longest such streak since July 23 - August 8, 2021 (18 games) and is the longest active such streak in MLB. They are 7-6 during that span
The team’s 2.78 ERA is the third-best mark through their first 54 games of a season trailing only the 1968 team (2.11) and the 1971 team (2.59).
Down on the Farm 🌾
All Mets minor league affiliates were off on Monday.
Today’s Game 🗓️
Match-up: Mets (33-21) vs. White Sox (17-37)
Where: Citi Field — Flushing, NY
Starters: RHP Tylor Megill (3-4, 3.56 ERA) vs. RHP Jonathan Cannon (2-5, 3.76 ERA)
When: 7:10 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
Thoughts on the (lack of) offense, and beginning to identify needs ahead of the trade deadline… ✍️
Wins are wins, right?
I truly felt the Mets would eventually tie and win the game on Monday, even as the offense looked listless inning after inning and struggled to even get baserunners against Adrian Houser, let alone hits with runners in scoring position, and I became more aggravated with each passing opportunity.
The only hit the Mets had with runners in scoring position on Monday was in the ninth inning from Luis Torrens, and it didn’t score a run. They went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left ten runners on base.
The good news for the Mets? The White Sox were worse - they went 0-for-11 and left ten runners on base themselves.
Even so, the Mets did a good job late manufacturing the two runs they needed to win this game on Monday. It was good to see Juan Soto drive in a run on a sac fly in the eighth. He continues to matter amidst his struggles at the plate, whether it’s a sac fly to get the tying run in or a key walk to set up a run scoring opportunity.
In the end, I firmly believe we will look up at the scoreboard and see 30-plus home runs from Soto at the end of the year. He is too good for this to continue for very long. But again, he still manages to find a way to be in the middle of these wins even if he looks perplexed at the plate at times.
Anyway, as Justin wrote on Monday morning, this is a soft part of the schedule the Mets simply have to take advantage of. The White Sox may not be quite as historically bad as they were last year, but they are still a second division team and they simply have to find a way to win these games. It doesn’t have to be pretty, nor does it have to be routine, but they have to find a way and they did just that on Monday thanks mostly to a quality effort from Clay Holmes, another shutdown performance by the bullpen, and truly stellar defense highlighted by Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor.
Yes, the offense continues to be maddening. The Mets have scored five or fewer runs in 13 straight games, 34 runs total during that span, an average of 2.6 runs per game. Yet, they are 7-6 during that stretch.
Thanks to the pitching staff, which has allowed 3.1 runs per game over those 13 games. That’s more than they’ve scored on average, of course, and this isn’t sustainable by any means. But that’s the reason the Mets have survived this stretch the way they have.
At some point, though, the Mets are going to have to figure out this run production problem with runners in scoring position. They’re not hitting a lot of home runs, and they’re back to being a three hits for every run offense, which just isn’t going to work long-term. The lineup simply hasn’t been as long as they envisioned it would be on Opening Day, and we are at the first major mile marker with Memorial Day in the rearview mirror and 54 games off the board, so it’s time for the front office to start making their assessment on how they plan to move forward. Coming into play on Monday, the Mets had sub-.700 OPS’ from five positions, far too many to navigate at this point.
So, the obvious need right now is to identify a bat or two to fortify the offense ahead of the trade deadline, which is all of a sudden about two months away. I don’t think it’s easy to conclude they need either a right or left-handed bat - they simply need to add some length to a lineup which has unquestionably underperformed for most of the first third of the season.
I also think - as of this date anyway - the Mets will look to find an established left-handed reliever. They’re down both AJ Minter and Danny Young for the year, and it’s been a game of musical chairs for those two roster spots since they lost them to those season-ending injuries.
It’s too early to tell what that might look like, especially with the races undefined so early in the season. But, that’s where this is heading for sure, even if the Mets begin to get more out of those five positions that are underwhelming (and I am not even including Soto in that group, for what it’s worth).
Around the League 🚩
RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto lowered his ERA to 1.97 for the year thanks to six strong innings in the Dodgers 6-2 win over the Guardians
RHP Jacob deGrom allowed two runs over 5.1 IP, but the Blue Jays edged the Rangers 2-1 thanks to eight strong innings from Kevin Gausman
The Tigers pieced together a 3-1 win thanks in part to a two-run single from Riley Greene
Garrett Crochet struck out 11 over 6.2 IP, but took a 3-2 loss to the Brewers
All true. Who would have thought back in spring training they'd have so much trouble scoring? So many guys are contributing less than we'd expect, it's not funny. The stat about Diaz reminds me of one thing: players go through up and down periods, its part of the picture. A short time ago, people were writing about how his velo was down, etc. Both fans and pundits tend to see the down periods as indicative that the player is "over the hill", has "lost it", "not what he used to be", etc., when it's just normal fluctuation in their performance. Then again, I am getting worried that my boy McNeil is over the hill!
Yesterday may have been a bit of a letdown after facing the Dodgers. The fact we eked out a win in kind of a flat game at the plate is a good sign.
That being said, we really must start hitting. We're a third of the way in now. It's time to crank it up.
Which we might. June, July and August seem to be our happy time, and for sure it's been a dreary April and May. I'm hoping some nice warm and dry weather and a little sun and we'll lock in and start swinging the bats.