It’s one series against a very good team and the Mets dropped two out of three. The New Yorkers are facing a number of key injuries but given the state of who is out there in the lineup the team actually didn’t fare all that badly.
The Good
Juan Soto is a remarkable ballplayer. No single player can put the team over the top when it takes hitting, pitching, defense and base running. No one is going to hit a grand slam in every at-bat.
The bullpen has been terrific. Right now the team is carrying eight members out there including closer Edwin Diaz, then A.J. Minter, Ryne Stanek, Reed Garrett, Huascar Brazoban, Jose Butto, Danny Young and Maz Kranick. Do you know what they have in common? Not a single member of the pen has given up a run. That’s over a period of just under 10 innings split between eight pitchers. You can’t ask for any better than that.
Then there’s the much maligned (mostly by me) Tylor Megill. He was the starting pitcher in Game Two which the Mets actually won. He threw five credible innings in which he only gave up a single earned run while fanning six and walking just one. The offensive production against him was three hits. Wow. I don’t expect him to pitch this way next time around, but I’ll surely take it when it happens.
Griffin Canning put together a remarkable start in which he gave up two lowly runs but his offensive support behind him managed just a single hit. It’s very difficult to win games when half of the team doesn’t do anything to help.
The Bad
Neither Brett Baty nor Luisangel Acuna appeared to deliver the offense nor the defense expected in place of Jeff McNeil. It doesn’t much managed if it’s a lefty or righty pitching if the person opposing the guy on the hill isn’t providing much offense. Furthermore, the guy standing between Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor needs to not have a big “E” next to his name in the box score.
Francisco Lindor was a valid runner up for MVP consideration in 2024. Starting 2025 both in Florida and now in Houston he’s hitting like an LVP. Bear in mind that he and his wife are days away from having a third child, so it’s entirely possible between lack of sleep and off-the-field stress he’s simply not focusing as we know he can. He will soon be off for the childbirth which will ironically leave the Mets with both Acuna and Baty in the lineup together for that brief interval.
Clay Holmes didn’t make it through five innings but it wasn’t as if he was getting hammered by everyone he saw. His early season ERA is still under 4.00 but he didn’t win his opening game as a starting pitcher for the Mets.
The Ugly
Hitting. There’s nothing else thus far where the club has consistently failed to perform. Then again, it’s only been three games.
Enjoy the day off and get back at it.
4 comments:
Very ugly hitting over 3 games. Very disappointing.
Megill did great. I read he simplified his repertoire of pitches to increase command. Tidwell did, too. Both had very fine first starts.
I know it is just a few games in, but the Mets have 5 runs in 3 games, while LAD and NYY have 66 in 8 combined games??? Thankfully, the Braves are 0-4
Some of the hitting problems was due to good Houston pitching, but some was on the Mets. They need a breakout game to get the confidence surging.
Paul I was away and missed all 3 games, but Houston's spring training was pretty average. We will see how stellar their ERA is after the Mets left town.
They started 0-5 last year, with zero hitting then, too. The front office folks should give some thought as to why that is.
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