Tom Brennan - Mets’ Road to Post-Season - Is It Cracking a Bit?

Did the Mets peak early? How do the roads ahead look?  Too many potholes?

The early surge sure felt great. Up more than ten games in the blink of an eye.

How could the Mets build such a big lead, having lost Jake, Scherzer, May, McCann and Tylor? Amd Dom Smith, for that matter.

But everybody else got hot and the Mets won a lot. 

Then, Pete got hit on the hand, Lindor slams a finger in a door, Marte got a leg injury, and Nimmo developed a wrist problem. Holderman went on the IL.  Reed replaced him and promptly got smacked around.  

Bassitt, Carrasco, and Walker sputtered a bit (but Walker was Jake on Sunday, wasn't he, though?). 

And the Mets don’t have Jake and Scherzer back yet, although progress in their respective rehabs seems to be promising. 

The problem is, after a tough West Coast schedule, the Mets’ last 14 games of June include 7 with the Astros and Brewers (although the Brew Crew has stumbled of late). 

7 Games of Ouch. 

Austin Powers chimed in, "VERY ouch.... baby."

Thankfully there are also seven games with the Marlins, but that’s still a tough rest-of-June schedule. 

The problem with injuries is this: 

Scorching Brandon Nimmo hurts his wrist and tries to play through it, and goes 3 for 29. Plummer and Lee have done some nice brief outfield things, but neither of them is a Nimmo.   Thankfully, Marte seems to have dodged a leg bullet - boy, is he needed.

Let's hope the finger of Lindor heals with 48 hours off.  He was on an absolute RBI tear, but in his last 7 games? No RBIs.  Clearly a correlation between whacked finger and zero ribbies.  One correlation we want to see reversed rapidly, if not sooner.

The Mets need their main guys healthy, especially as the Braves won 11 straight through Sunday and the Phillies 9 straight through Saturday. The roads were paved oh so smoothly, until the last few weeks. 

Now, the pavement is showing some cracks, and hopefully the road crew can speed-repair it in time, so that the Mets’ lead, doesn’t completely evaporate by the end of June, and hopefully Max will be back, and Jake hopefully will be close to being back. 

It would be nice to get Jake back in time for the anniversary of when he went down in early July last year. Taking the mound on July 7, 2022 against the Marlins would be nice, since July 7, 2021 is the last time he pitched when it counted in a real game. 

Having those two aces healthy and hurling will be quite a booster if and when it happens. 

Until then, keep the Steve Cohen road crew on speed dial. 

And let's fervently hope, when it comes to wins, there are no supply chain issues.  Per Mack, the easier schedule starts in a few weeks, and hopefully those roads will be silky smooth.

FOOTNOTES AND TRIVIA:

Pete Alonso has his own street paving machine - 15 HRs in his last 150 ABs since the weather warmed up and the ball started carrying.  57 RBIs.  The entire Detroit team only has 157 RBIs.

He does trail only Cleveland's Jose Ramirez, by 2 RBIs.  

Freaky stat: Ramirez has just 17 Ks in 56 games.  So few in 2022.

Edwin Diaz is great, huh?  That was some trade by Brodie VW.

And some stirrings that Francisco Alvarez could he called up in 2022, as I have been speculating since, well, since spring training.  9 HRs in 14 games says, "and now, the time is near."