Mets show a pulse as they pound the Brewers 7-2
David Peterson gave the Mets six shutout innings, Brandon Nimmo homered twice, plus more offense in the win
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets defeated the Brewers by a score of 7-2 on Tuesday at Citi Field (box)
The Mets hit four home runs on the night, two of which were from Brandon Nimmo and one a piece by Francisco Lindor and Daniel Vogelbach - it was Lindor’s 200th career home run
David Peterson returned from the minor leagues and fired six shutout innings in his return
Francisco Lindor’s 200th career home run 📝
Is the 11th shortstop in MLB history to reach the 200-career home run mark (minimum 60% of games played at SS)
Became the 14th player to hit his 200th career homer in a Met uniform - last was Todd Frazier on June 20, 2019
Became the seventh Met to hit his 200th career homer at home - last was David Wright on August 24, 2012
Who’s Hot 🔥
Francisco Lindor is hitting .355/.436/.807 with two doubles, four home runs and 10 RBI over his last 9 games
Notes from Steve Cohen and Billy Eppler 📰
Mets owner and CEO Steve Cohen will address the media today regarding the team’s struggles through the first half of the season
Mets GM Billy Eppler gave manager Buck Showalter a vote of confidence during a media briefing on Tuesday
Eppler attributes the team’s struggles primarily to the starting pitching
Eppler acknowledged that in addition to the problems with their pitching staff, the team simply has not executed well on the field
There is no plan to make any wholesale changes to the coaching staff anytime soon
The team hopes to still be buyers ahead of the trade deadline, but the next month will dictate their course through the end of July
Eppler will not be willing to trade top prospects at the trade deadline
Roster Moves 🗞️
Recalled LHP David Peterson from Triple-A Syracuse
Optioned RHP Vinny Nittoli to Triple-A Syracuse
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (36-43) vs. Brewers (41-38)
Where: Citi Field – Flushing, NY
Starters: LHP Wade Miley (5-2, 2.91 ERA) vs RHP Kodai Senga (6-5, 3.52 ERA)
When: 7:10 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
Blind squirrel found the nut on Tuesday? ✍️
Now, that’s how Steve Cohen and Billy Eppler drew it up before the season.
For a night, the Mets got everything (well, almost everything) they bet on with this $450 million payroll on Tuesday. They got quality starting pitching, they hit and hit for power, got a decent performance from the bullpen, although Jeff Brigham made things a little too adventurous in the eighth inning.
It was a start. A first step in reconstructing what is on that blueprint Eppler and company designed before the season.
But before I talk about all of the good that came out of that game, I want to first address Eppler’s press conference which took place before the game.
First off, it was necessary. The Mets brass has been far too silent through what has been a truly disastrous season for the franchise to-date. Transparency is paramount, for better or for worse, and while I know a private organization isn’t obligated to communicate outwardly, a professional sports franchise in this market should always be willing and able to give a state of the team address in good times or bad. Sandy Alderson would give a weekly address to the media on the state of affairs, faced the music when he had to, and I think that helped keep things as calm as he could even when the team stunk through the early part of the last decade.
I can’t say that Eppler has maintained that level of transparency, even when the team was good in 2022. Again, it’s their choice, but every choice has a consequence, and an unwillingness to be transparent prevents them from level setting expectations and control the message.
Now, once again, it was good that he spoke. But I think Eppler needs to cut out the science and math in his explanations to the media, and just start talking about baseball. He used a lot of words, inclusive of the words “deviation” and “forecast” in the same sentence. As a fan, I’m not interested in their forecast, the deviation in underperformance, their failed attempt to probabilistically predict how a player who predictably is a flawed human being who ages and unpredictably gets hurt will perform over 600 plate appearances or 150-200 innings.
In short, Eppler basically said the team hasn’t played well. If he and the organization wants to connect with their average customer, just say that, tell people they are doing what they can to improve from within, and keep it simple.
Anyway, one might view that as an unfair criticism, but it’s just how I feel, and I always write how I feel on this site. But again, that he spoke was a good thing and I hope he does more of that over the course of the season.
As for the game itself, David Peterson was something else last night. Historically, Peterson' has heavily depended on a change-up and back foot slider to be successful, but he had a very fastball-centric approach last night, a clear adjustment from the formula which simply wasn’t working for him before he was demoted to Triple-A. That approach made his change-up/slider more effective from my seat, even though he didn’t get a lot of swings-and-misses with his fastball over the course of the night.
In the end, he gave the Mets exactly what they needed, which was an outing of at least 18 outs. When the Mets get six innings or more from the starter, they’re 22-3 on the year.
That’s great.
The problem is, the other 54 games.
On the other side of the ball, Brandon Nimmo set the tone beautifully for the Mets with his fourth inning home run, followed up by the resurgent Francisco Lindor, who has re-discovered his swing from the left side of the plate. His struggles from the left side have severely weighed him down over the first half, but in the last couple of weeks he has really started to figure it out against right-handed pitching, and he’s looking more like the Lindor the Mets need him to be.
In the end, someone else has to hit besides Pete Alonso. Thanks to Lindor’s struggles and pretty much no other power threat to be had in the lineup, Alonso really hasn’t seen a lot of hittable strikes in the last month or so (I also think that hand could be bothering him a little more than he is letting on), so its essential Lindor rebound in the second half if the Mets are going to be any sort of offensive threat going forward.
As we always say here, the offense goes where Lindor and Alonso take it.
In short, for a night, the Mets showed a pulse. Perhaps it was in response to the GM’s comments, perhaps the blind squirrel stumbled upon a nut. Whatever it is, they just need to play better, make things interesting down the stretch, and give the organization a reason to be buyers a month from now.
Around the League 🚩
Shohei Ohtani homered twice and struck out 10 batters over 6.1 IP in the Angels 4-2 win over the White Sox
The A’s edged the Yankees 2-1 in Oakland thanks to an RBI single from Esteury Ruiz and a homer from Seth Brown
The Marlins blasted the Red Sox 10-1 at Fenway Park - Bryan De La Cruz and Garrett Cooper each drove in two runs, Jazz Chisholm Jr drove in three runs, and Luis Arraez went 2-for-5 to raise his batting average to .399 for the year
The Braves hit five home runs - including two from Ronald Acuña Jr. - in their 6-2 win over the Twins