Senga's shaky command, Stroman's revenge and a continuing theme for the Mets

Kodai Senga struggles with his control as New York loses their second straight. Plus, is this just who the Mets are in 2023?

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

• The Mets lost their second straight game to the Cubs, falling by a 4-2 score (box)

• RHP Kodai Senga battled but struggled with his walks, surrendering five and allowing three runs over five innings in the loss

• Senga is now averaging 5.8 walks per nine innings, tied for the highest mark among qualified pitchers in the major leagues

• CF Brandon Nimmo had a rough night at the plate, going 0-for-2 with two strikeouts

• New York only had two at-bats with runners in scoring position on the night, and went 0-for-2

• C Francisco Álvarez drove in the only runs of the game for the Mets, connecting on his sixth home run of the season

• The Mets have now lost six consecutive games to the Cubs dating back to last July

---

Who’s Hot 🔥

• C Francisco Álvarez is hitting .302/.383/.660 with five home runs, four doubles, 11 RBI, eight runs scored and a 1.043 OPS over his last 18 games (and continues to bat ninth)

---

Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (25-25) vs. Cubs (22-26)

Where: Wrigley Field - Chicago, IL

Starters: RHP Carlos Carrasco (0-2, 8.68 ERA) vs RHP Jameson Taillon (0-3, 8.10 ERA)

When: 7:40 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY, MLB Network

---

---

Is this just who the Mets are? ✍🏼

What a difference a couple days can make.

Following a weekend that saw the Mets run their winning streak to a season-tying five games, the good vibes finally appeared to be back in Queens. After what had been a mostly lifeless first month-and-a-half of the year, New York finally injected some energy into their season with five consecutive come-from-behind victories, including two scintillating walk-offs.

After the last two nights at Wrigley Field, though, that turnaround appears as if it may have been short-lived.

In the blink of an eye, the same problems that plagued the Mets over their first 43 games resurfaced after a five-game respite. The starting pitching has been mostly ineffective – Tylor Megill and Kodai Senga combined to only go 8.2 innings while allowing nine runs (seven earned) – while the lineup has gone back to their inconsistencies, scoring just two runs in each of their last three games.

And while this may appear to be an overreaction to just a pair of games, it’s really about a continuation of the team’s performance from most of this early 2023 season.

It begins to beg the question… how soon is too soon to evaluate what a baseball team truly is? And from there, is it possible that this is simply who the Mets are this year?

At this point, there isn’t much to say that hasn’t already been written on this newsletter over the last two months. They came into Wednesday night with the 25th ranked starting rotation in the league (5.16 ERA), the 17th ranked bullpen (4.09 ERA) and the 19th ranked offense. They don’t hit a lot of home runs (16th in the league) and while the bullpen is solid they have been massively overworked and have allowed 20 earned runs over their last 30.1 innings pitched.

They are a team that isn’t great at anything, and has an actively detrimental starting rotation. If you’re a team with one major weakness and no major strengths, the fortunes are not going to bode well.

Right now, that’s what the Mets are in 2023. That may not be something they can just change overnight, or even with a midseason trade. There’s a lot of time left and anything can happen, but it’s also possible that this just may be who they are.

---

Around the League 🚩

• Rays LHP Shane McClanahan became the first pitcher in the league to reach eight wins in the club’s 7-3 victory over the Blue Jays

• The Orioles erupted for eight runs in the 7th inning in their victory over the Yankees

• The Braves blew a late lead but were able to pull out a 4-3 win over the Dodgers on a walk-off sacrifice fly from Ozzie Albies

• The Phillies overcame a 5-0 deficit vs the Dbacks, tying the game on a two-run home run by Trea Turner in the 9th and walking it off with a single off the bat of Alec Bohm

• Twins RHP Jhoan Duran hit 104.6 MPH on the radar gun in the club’s 7-1 win over the Giants