Surviving Scherzer's ejection, and say hello to Mets West

Max Scherzer gets ejected after being told his hands were "too sticky" with rosin, but the Mets still took two of three from LA. Plus, a meet-up with some former friends.

Rich MacLeod

Apr 20, 2023

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

The Mets defeated the Dodgers 5-3 in what turned out to be a bullpen game on Wednesday (box)
RHP Max Scherzer was ejected in the 4th inning for having rosin that was “too sticky” on his hands – Scherzer had to wash his hands and swap gloves earlier in the game for the same reason
RHP Jimmy Yacabonis came into the game in Scherzer’s place, earning the victory after allowing just one run in 2.2 innings
RHPs Jeff Brigham, Drew Smith, David Robertson and Adam Ottavino recorded the final 10 outs of the game, allowing two runs over the remaining 3.1 innings
CF Brandon Nimmo continued his torrid stretch, going 5-for-5 with a home run (1), two RBI and two runs scored
OF Mark Canha went 1-for-2 and drove home a pair of runs after entering the game in the 6th inning
RF Starling Marte exited the game in the 6th inning due to neck soreness
C Francisco Álvarez broke out of his slump to start the season, going 2-for-4 at the plate in the victory
The Mets defeated their former pitcher Noah Syndergaard after facing him for the first time after he left the team in free agency
New York won their first series at Dodger Stadium since the 2018 season

Injury Updates 🏥

RF Starling Marte (neck soreness) is hopeful to be back in the lineup on Thursday night

Who’s Hot 🔥

Brandon Nimmo is 13-for-26 (.500) on this West Coast road trip with a home run, three doubles, five RBI and six runs scored in six games
David Robertson and Adam Ottavino are a combined 7-for-7 in save opportunities this season

Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets at Giants

Where: Oracle Park - San Francisco, CA

Starters: RHP Kodai Senga (2-0, 3.38 ERA) vs. LHP Sean Manaea (0-0, 4.76 ERA)

When: 9:45 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY

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Say hello to the new Mets West… ✍🏻

Following their impressive series win over the Dodgers on Wednesday, the Mets now head to San Francisco for the final series of their California tilt. With that, New York is about to be reacquainted with quite a few familiar faces.

It wasn’t too long ago that people were referring to the Seattle Mariners as “Mets West,” with a handful of former Mets such as Jarred Kelenic, Paul Sewald and Chris Flexen making up the roster. That title has officially been taken over by San Francisco, however, who currently have four former Mets making up their starting lineup on most days.

It will be quite the reunion for the Mets as they’ll see Michael Conforto, Wilmer Flores, JD Davis and Darin Ruf (remember him?) in San Francisco’s lineup over the next four days.

While Flores and Conforto found their way there via free agency, the stranger element to this situation is that the Mets traded Davis to the Giants for Ruf, who they now have on their roster once again. And what’s even more interesting — all four of them are playing quite well.

After missing the entirety of the 2022 season recovering from a shoulder injury, Conforto has come out of the gates doing fairly well. Over his first 14 games, the former Mets first rounder is batting .233/.377/.512 with four home runs, eight RBI, 10 runs scored, one stolen base and an .889 OPS. It’s early yet, but this would be good for the third-highest slugging percentage in Conforto’s career, bouncing back from his career-low .384 slugging percentage in 2021.

Flores, still a fan favorite in the tristate area, is also bouncing back from a down 2022 campaign early on, hitting .320/.358/.480 with two home runs, two doubles, six RBI, eight runs scored and an .838 OPS. At this stage in his career, Flores is never going to carry a team but he can still make a positive impact as a role player. While he uncharacteristically struggled vs left-handed pitchers last year, that anomaly has appeared to have vanished this year as Flores is batting .417/.440/.583 against south paws this season.

This is where it starts to hurt, as JD Davis has appeared to have completely turned his career around once more. Similar to how his Mets career began, Davis has seen far more success at the plate since joining the Giants. After putting up an .857 OPS following the trade last summer, Davis is hitting .333/.373/.593 with four home runs, two doubles, 13 RBI, seven runs scored, a .965 OPS and a 156 OPS+ in 16 games. Davis currently ranks 21st in the league in OPS and is just eight points shy of Mike Trout in that category.

This one stings particularly after Davis followed up an average 2021 season with an even worst start to 2022 with the Mets. Over 66 games, the righty had just a .683 OPS with New York to the point where they needed to shake things up at the designated hitter position and move on.

Moving on from Davis after his 2020-22 seasons was still the right decision based on the evidence at the time, despite his early season resurgence in San Francisco. What was not justifiable, however, is what they got in return in Darin Ruf, who is now back with the Giants.

Following a disastrous stint with the Mets where he hit just .152/.216/.197 with zero home runs and a .413 OPS, Ruf acknowledged that he was suffering from arthritis in his wrist which could have impacted his play. After batting a very familiar .167 in Spring Training, New York made the only move they could and released Ruf before Opening Day.

Now he’s back in San Francisco and wouldn’t you know it, Ruf has a .789 OPS on the season. I will caveat this one, though, and note that despite that mark and the one RBI double that got tweeted onto all of your timelines a week ago, Ruf has had extremely limited playing time so far. The veteran has only appeared in six games so far this season and is 4-for-15 at the plate, so I wouldn’t go off the deep-end on this one just yet.

The Mets did have their first Old Timers’ Day since the ‘90s last season, but this may be an even more unique reunion for this franchise as they’re set to face-off against so many of their old friends.

Mets vs Mets West – this one should be interesting.

Around the League 🚩

The Braves eight-game winning streak came to a close after being shutout by the Padres in a 1-0 loss
The surprising Pirates won again on Wednesday, sweeping the Rockies to improve to 12-7
The Rays keep on rolling, blowing out the Reds by a score of 8-0 to win for the 16th time in 19 games
Yankees OF Aaron Judge robbed Shohei Ohtani of a home run and hit a two-run home run of his own in the club’s 3-2 win over the Angels in 10 innings
Phillies SS Trea Turner homered for the first time as a member of the club in their 5-2 win over the White Sox