Now is when the fun begins for the Mets...
The Mets walked off the Orioles for the second time this week, but now embark on a seven game swing through San Diego and Arizona, perhaps defining their season in the process
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets walked off the Orioles again, this time by a score of 4-3 to take their three-game series (box)
Jesse Winker hit a pinch-hit, game-winning home run in the ninth inning for the Mets against Seranthony Dominguez
LHP Sean Manaea was brilliant again, retiring the first 17 hitters of the game before hitting a batter and allowing a two-run home run to Austin Slater in the seventh. He did allow a third run to score via José Buttó in the eighth, thanks in part to poor umpiring (video)
Francisco Lindor and Mark Vientos accounted for the other three runs via their own home runs
The Mets are now 9-9 in June, 7-3 in rubber games, 23-14 in one-run games, 10-10-3 in home series, 21-16-7 in series overall, 40-19 when scoring first, 6-3 against the AL East, 33-11 when they hit two or more homers, 53-22 when scoring four or more runs, and 17-14 since the All-Star Game
Playoff Race 🏁
The Mets gained ground on both the Braves and Padres in the wild card race on Wednesday. They’re now 1.5 games behind the Braves for the final wild card spot, 5.5 games behind the Padres, who they will face in a four-game series in San Diego this weekend.
The Mets need to win one game against the Padres this weekend to clinch the season series to have the tiebreaker.
There are 35 games remaining.
Per FanGraphs, the Mets have a 25.5% chance of making the postseason.
New York has the ninth most difficult schedule in MLB the rest of the way.
Tiebreakers:
vs. ATL: 5-5
vs. ARI: 2-2
vs. SD: 3-0
vs. CIN: 2-1
vs. STL: 4-2 (finished)
vs. SF: 2-4 (finished)
vs. PIT: 5-2 (finished)
vs. CHC: 4-3 (finished)
Walk-offs! 👏🏻
Jesse Winker hit his second-career walk-off homer on Wednesday, his first homer as a Met (last: 6/7/18 vs CIN)
It was the second time in this series the Mets walked-off the Orioles, doing it twice against Orioles RHP Seranthony Dominguez
The Mets are now tied with Miami with 9 walk-off wins for the second-most in MLB
Francisco Lindor! 🙌🏻
Has reached base in 20 straight games - is hitting .329/.374/.518 with 28 hits, five doubles, a triple, three home runs, 10 RBI, 6 walks and 14 runs scored during that span
Is one of four players in MLB with 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases (Shohei Ohtani, Bobby Witt, Jr., José Ramirez).
First shortstop in MLB history with three seasons of 25/25 (Sarah Langs)
Lindor and Witt Jr. are the only players in MLB in 2024 to go 25/25 and have 30 doubles
Joined Howard Johnson (1989, 1991) as the only two players in Mets history with multiple seasons of 25 home runs, 25 stolen bases and 30 doubles in one season
Since moving to the leadoff spot on May 18, Lindor has hit .302/.374/.535 with 104 hits, 24 doubles, 1 triple, 18 home runs, 52 RBI, 32 walks and 60 runs scored. His 43 extra-base hits during this span is second behind Shohei Ohtani (44)
Mark Vientos! 👏🏻
Is hitting .353/.436/.706 with 12 hits, 3 doubles, 3 home runs 7 RBI and 7 runs scored during his career-best nine-game hitting streak
Became the 7th Met age 24 or younger with 20 home runs in a season, going Darryl Strawberry (1983-1986), David Wright (2005-2007), John Milner (1973-1974), Michael Conforto (2017), Pete Alonso (2019), and Francisco Álvarez (2023)
Tied for fourth in MLB among third basemen with 20 home runs, is second with 150 wRC+, second with an .894 OPS, second with a .556 SLG, eighth with a .338 OBP, and sixth with a .280 avg (min. 300 PA)
Down on the Farm 🌾
OF Drew Gilbert (#3 prospect, Triple-A): 2-for-5, HR, RBI, R
RHP Jordan Geber (Double-A): 6 IP, 2 R, 5 H, 1 BB, 3 K
INF Boston Baro (#16 prospect, Low-A): 2-for-4, HR, 2 RBI, R
BOX SCORES
Single-A STL | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (66-61) vs. Padres (72-56)
Where: Petco Park - San Diego, CA
Starters: RHP Luis Severino (8-6, 3.91 ERA) vs. RHP Dylan Cease (12-9, 3.46 ERA)
When: 9:40 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
Notes on Sean Manaea, Francisco Lindor, another walk-off, and the tall task ahead ✍️
This series against the Orioles summed up the Mets in a nutshell this season.
Ups and downs, interesting, entertaining and a few thrilling moments, and sandwiched in between was a forgettable, ugly clunker.
But look - it doesn’t have to be pretty. And with these 2024 Mets, we knew coming in it wasn’t going to exactly be 1986 all over again, even though some of us might’ve remained hopelessly hopeful it might occur.
In the end, wins are wins and the Mets, while perhaps not making a statement against the Orioles, took care of their own business by winning a critical series against one of the league’s elite, and gained a game back on the battered Braves in their chase for what appears to be one spot in the NL Wild Card race in the process.
It was a well played and well earned win for the Mets.
The importance of Sean Manaea
Sean Manaea was brilliant once again on the hill. He has had a little extra electricity to his pitches over his last couple of starts and yesterday he retired the first 17 batters he faced in the process. He lost control of the game for one minute and in the process, lost his perfect game, lost his no-hitter and lost the lead for the club. But that doesn’t diminish how awesome Manaea was on Thursday and punctuated my point from last week the Mets should strongly consider extending Manaea a multi-year offer before he hits free agency. He has passed all of the tests, and the Mets will need to reconstruct their rotation again this winter.
Why not check one of those boxes right now, assuming he’s interested?
In his 25 starts, Manaea has allowed more than three earned runs four times. He has a 2.83 ERA in his last 13 starts, has pitched into the sixth inning or later 12 times, has been steady, sturdy and reliable from end-to-end so far this season.
Remember - this is a guy who lost his way a bit with the Padres in 2022, and had to reinvent himself with an off-season at Driveline Baseball before the 2023 season. He learned a lot about who and what he was as a pitcher, and evolved as part of that process. The Mets have reaped those rewards this season as much as he has in what I am sure will be a multi-year deal if he opts out of his contract at the end of the season.
It’s a no-brainer to retain him and he is a big reason why the Mets even have a chance at a playoff spot. Even if it comes at $15-16m per year over three years, this is a part the Mets need in their rotation going forward.
Walking off the birds!
Like I said, it’s not always pretty around here. Personally, I’d like it a little more if the Mets had some smoother wins, especially this time of year.
But if it was so easy, they’d be boring I suppose. And even on their worst days, the Mets aren’t a boring team.
It would’ve definitely been easier if the umpiring was better. I don’t want to get into it too much since the Mets won anyway, but the umpires nearly determined the outcome of this game, something which I believe is one of the cardinal sins in this sport.
In short, instead of a strike-him-out, throw-him-out double play with a runner at first and nobody out, the Mets got nothing because of a blown 3-2, strike 3 call.
Instead, that run would come around to score to make it 3-3 and make a nail biter of a game that much more intense.
But I suppose without the bad umpiring, Jesse Winker wouldn’t have had his signature moment as a Met.
He was the hero of the many heroes of the day when he came up as a pinch hitter against Seranthony Dominguez in the ninth, smoking a game winner over the Great Wall of Flushing to win the game and win this crucial series against the Orioles, a team who themselves are fighting for first place against the Yankees in the AL East.
It was the second time in this series Dominguez gave up a walk-off homer. The first one was on Monday night when Francisco Álvarez took him deep in the ninth to win it for the Mets on that night.
It was a hell of a game for sure and on this day, the Mets came out on top. It could’ve easily been the other way around, especially after that bad call in the eighth which - along with the walks of course - set Buttó up for a bases loaded, 0 out jam in which he ended up allowing just the one run to score.
But sometimes, luck is on the Mets side and it helped set the Mets and Winker up for a glorious finish to this series.
A daunting task ahead…
Now is when the fun begins.
The Mets left last night for another long road trip, this time out to San Diego against the Padres who seem to lose once every full moon.
There’s good news and bad news in this series.
The good news is, the Mets need just one win in these four games to clinch the season series against the Padres. The bad news is, the Mets need to do a lot more than that in this series to remain relevant to them and perhaps relevant to the Braves, who will be playing the Nationals this weekend.
It doesn’t get easier from there, either.
The Mets will then go to Arizona for three games, a team who also seems to lose every full moon. The Mets will need to win that series outright to own the tiebreaker against them, and of course do more damage than that to make their race against them interesting. Nothing short of a sweep will get the Mets significantly closer to Arizona and a second spot in the dance.
So, that’s the next seven games for the Mets. Who said it would be easy? After all, if they’re a playoff team, you’re alive for a big moment in the baseball calendar like this.
It’s another test for Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, his ability to keep his boat afloat, and to manage the trial of his first pennant race.
Perhaps the Mets will pull a rabbit out of their hat over the next week.
The problem of course is even if the Mets go 4-3, which of course I’d take against two good teams under normal circumstances, it probably won’t be enough to even put a dent into their quest to overtake either Arizona or San Diego.
But whatever. Win the games they can win, see where the chips fall. If it’s all seven, win all seven.
Don’t give away the opportunity when it’s in front of them.
We will probably know where the Mets are going the rest of the way by the time they head for Chicago a week from today. No matter how the next week goes, these seven games will probably define their season.
Around the League 🚩
Wyatt Langford and the Rangers walked off the Pirates in the ninth with a 1-0 win at Globe Life Field
The D-Backs held off the Marlins late surge with a 10-8 win in Miami
The Phillies edged the Braves 3-2 in a pitchers duel between Aaron Nola and Max Fried
The Twins torched the Padres 11-4 thanks in part to a seven-run fourth inning
Longtime Reds 1B Joey Votto announced his retirement on Wednesday