Mets Hit Former Met Zack Wheeler With Some Mortality Last Week
Sometimes, hitters are so good, they turn pitching giants into mere mortals.
For instance:
Tom Seaver vs. the 1970s' Big Red Machine?
36 starts, 250 innings, 12-20, 3.57 ERA.
Add in Houston (22-22) and the Dodgers (22-22), and the mortal Seaver was just 56-64 against those 3 "Giant Slayers".
Against pretty much every other team?
It was Tom Seaver, the immortal.
As in 255-141 immortal.
In the first 11 games of this year, the Mets came out of it 7-4.
Not shabby.
Three of those 11 games came against the very fine duo of Aaron Nola (twice) and Zack Wheeler.
Nola in the last 3+ seasons from 2018 forward is 34-19, ERA averaging in the low 3's.
Zack Wheeler - over the same period, 28-19, with an ERA also in the low 3's over that period.
Those are the types of pitchers who would often stymie the Mets over the years.
But the Mets got to Zack Wheeler for 10 hits and 3 runs over 6.1 IP - yep, he pitched like a mere mortal. He was fortunate he got out of there with just 3 runs against him. Also, the Mets? They WON.
Nola? Well, he's had 2 starts. the first, the Phillies won 8-2, but Nola only managed 4 innings on 92 pitches, with the rusty-hitting Mets still managing 6 hits and 2 walks off of Nola.
Next start, Mets again. In 5 innings, the Mets spanked out 7 hits and scored 3 runs in a win.
Next Nola start, NOT against the Mets, he throws a complete game 2 hitter with 10 Ks.
In those 3 starts, the Mets did not score a ton of runs, but got 23 hits in 15.1 innings against the two.
So, even with a few usually top tier Mets hitters (Conforto and McNeil) in a frigid hitting mode (Conforto is coming around), Smith struggling to get hot, and Lindor still adapting through the first 11 cold, staggered games, the Mets managed to make it very challenging for two starters that any independent evaluator would rank as somewhere between above average to well above average.
And now they're 7-4 - and in first place.
My take? The Mets will soon heat up at the plate, and NL pitching giants and non-giants will face true mortality when they throw pitches to these awesome Mets hitters.
Meanwhile, the Mets have two guys pitching like IMMORTALS.
Jake deGrom and Marcus Stroman, who are a combined 4-1 with an ERA of about 0.75. Helping the Mets to an early 2.93 ERA (about 2.00 without Jacob Barne's two bad outings).
Is it too early to ask:
Which of the two
- Jake or Stro -
Will win the Cy Young award this year?
6 comments:
Tom - The Mets have some good offensive players on that we can agree on but do they have a good offense?
Last year they lead MLB in batting average. They were third in MLB in OPS but 13th in runs scored...and they led the majors with men Left On Base.
The good news - and I think this plays into your points above about the Mets success against Nola and Wheeler, is that getting on base and getting hits against starting pitchers means teams will have to go to the bullpen - and typically less qualified pitchers - quicker.
I think that's where the Mets will need to take advantage.
Yes, indeed deGrom and Stroman have been other worldly good thus far, but that free agent pickup I'd advocated all along, Taijuan Walker, has been every bit as good as advertised. Imagine those three PLUS Noah Syndergaard and Carlos Carrasco. Now THAT'S a pitching staff.
Of course, John is right about the inconsistency of the offense. Just ask deGrom.
As I said in an earlier comment on John's post, I think they will be fine by June 1st.
One thing we know about the Mets is they can beat anybody and the next day lose to a pitcher sporting s 7+ ERA
Baseball players have to perform in all kinds of weather, but this cold-to-chilly-to-wet-crap, after the 3 missed National games, is the problem with the offense as I see it. It could break out at any time. Lindor will show us that he still is a machine, very shortly, as will McNeil. You don't hit .319 over a full year and 2 partial years by mistake.
The Cubs pitching, as Aiden notes today, is weak. Time to take advantage and win 3 of 3.
And yes, Reese, this rotation could be deadly when Carrasco returns, and if Thor comes back like 2016, oh my gosh! Killer rotation.
Funny how the awful weather seems to be following the Mets around the country
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