Pete Alonso homered again, but Mets lose 3-2 to the Cubs

Carlos Carrasco pitched well, but the Mets only scattered five other hits around Alonso's homer. Plus, how do the Mets solve the Starling Marte puzzle for 2024?

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

• The Mets lost to the Cubs 3-2 at Citi Field on Tuesday night (Box)

• Carlos Carrasco pitched well, allowing only two runs over five innings

• Pete Alonso homered again - he gave the Mets a two-spot in the first inning with a home run to straight away center

• Drew Smith allowed the decisive run in the eighth inning - Mike Tauchman hit a solo home run to give the Cubs the lead

• The Mets are now 17-18 in one-run games this year, 1-7 in August, 6-15 against the NL Central, 10-39 when scoring three or fewer runs, and 9-14 since the All-Star Game

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Who’s Hot 🔥

• Pete Alonso is hitting .329/.377/.757 with eight home runs and 23 RBI over his last 18 games. He has now homered in consecutive games for the seventh time this season

• Francisco Lindor has a six-game hitting streak - he’s hitting .455/.500/.682 during that span

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Injury Updates 🏥

• Starling Marte (groin) received a cortisone injection and will resume light activity in the next few days

• Joey Lucchesi (unknown injury) threw 52 pitches over 3.1 IP in a rehab outing for Single-A Brooklyn

• Tim Locastro (thumb surgery) went 1-for-4 and played seven innings for Triple-A Syracuse

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Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (51-62) vs. Cubs (59-55)

Starting pitchers: LHP David Peterson (3-7, 5.65 ERA) vs. RHP Kyle Hendricks (4-6, 4.09 ERA)

Where: Citi Field – Flushing, NY

When: 7:10 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY, MLB Network

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What are the Mets going to do with Starling Marte? ✍️

Among the many topics we have discussed over the last couple of months, one of the things we haven’t really touched on a lot is the situation with Starling Marte.

He was placed on the injured list again earlier this week, this time with a strained groin. Mets manager Buck Showalter said on Monday Marte would be visiting with the doctor who performed his off-season core muscle surgery for an assessment, which didn’t sound too great but it seems as though Marte is generally ok for now - he got a shot in his groin muscle and will resume activities in a few days, per the team.

So, that’s good at least.

It was the second time he had been placed on the injured list this season and the second time in less than a month. He was put on the injured list in mid-July with a bout of migraines too.

Needless to say, it’s been a really rough ride for Marte since his he fractured his thumb last September. Simply put, he hasn’t been the same player since, and he’s generally been an ineffective player for most of the 2023 season.

He’s hitting just .248/.301/.324 this season with 13 extra-base hits and a 75 OPS+ (league average is 100). He also has looked really uncomfortable out there, and he recently admitted he was still dealing with discomfort at times due to his off-season core muscle surgery.

In other words, he hasn’t looked at all like Starling Marte, an athletic player who is smooth and charismatic at both the plate and in the field. He always made the game look so easy, and made the game look fun.

It clearly has not been fun for Marte this year, to say the least.

Another problem for Marte is he isn’t getting any younger. He turns 35 in October and right now, he’s a shell of the player he once was.

In the midst of this so-called, “transition” for the Mets (or rebuild, or whatever you want to call it), I’ve been thinking a lot about how Marte fits into this equation.

He’s in the second year of a four-year, $80 million deal with the Mets, a contract that seemed like a no-brainer for the club when it was agreed upon. He was fantastic until he broke his thumb last year, and the Mets badly missed his presence in the lineup when he was absent down the stretch of the season. It was nearly an impossible ask to have him play for them in the Wild Card series, but he did it anyway, dealt with that pain, and sifted through anyway. He deserves a lot of credit for putting the team first and doing whatever he could do to manage the situation.

But again, he’s a shell of what he was last year, and with two years and $40 million left on the contract, it’s really hard to see what the Mets have left in Marte going forward.

If the Mets intend to keep Marte (it’s hard to see how they could move him without eating a very large percentage of those remaining dollars), it might be best to simply shut him down from any kind of activity, let his body continue to rest and heal, and try and get him a normal off-season regimen in an effort to help him rebound in 2024. It’s been a lost season for him and the club anyway, it’s time to see what the younger players can do, and it just might be what the guy needs.

Now, I’m not suggesting there’s a magic potion for Marte. Like I said, he’s going to be 35 and this season has been a mess for him health-wise. And, when players don’t play, their skills erode. So there’s no easy way to navigate Marte’s road to the second half of this contract.

But the Mets need to figure out what they’ve got in Marte now, what the best version of Marte is now, and determine how to get more production out of right field in 2024 and beyond.

Perhaps that will come through a combination of players, or maybe Marte will be Marte again. Nobody can predict the future.

Having said that, the Mets didn’t do a good job mitigating regression in 2023, and the results of whatever strategy they’ve employed has reared its ugly head everywhere on this roster. That’s going to be a primary task for the front office not only with Marte, but in most other areas of the roster as well.

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Around the League 🚩

• Kyle Tucker hit a go-ahead grand slam in the ninth inning to help the Astros sneak away with a 7-6 win over the Orioles

• The Phillies and Nationals split a doubleheader in Philadelphia - the Phillies are now tied with the Giants for the top Wild Card spot with identical 62-52 records

• Aaron Judge homered and Clarke Schmidt gave the Yankees 5.1 strong innings to help them bounce back against the White Sox 7-1

• Julio Urias threw six shutout innings and Freddie Freeman hit his 41st double of the year to help the Dodgers edge the Diamondbacks 3-2