Reese Kaplan -- Good and Bad Things Out of Houston and Miami

It’s Friday morning here in Malaysia so the freshest news on a Mets fan’s mind is the come-from-behind effort the club put through to win the final game of the series against the Marlins.  Obviously the game tying home run by Polar Bear Pete Alonso was what stands out more than anything.  Then the extra innings struggle to score a go-ahead run put everything on the line.  When the Mets scored not one but two into the eleventh inning allowed people to breathe a bit easier having mentally put it in the book as a big W.  Then came the bottom of the inning when Danny Young had to give way to Huascar Brazoban to do what he’s done thus far this season — lock the door and put the game away.  Yes, the club was outhit 13 to 9 and Carlos Mendoza summoned eight pitchers to take the hill, but somehow the Mets did emerge victorious by the score of 6-5. 

Now a lot of folks jumped all over starting pitcher Clay Holmes for having “another” (to use a Keith Hernandez description of the hitting) a piss-poor pitching effort but they must have been watching something other than what I saw.  Look at the bottom line and it appears that Holmes gave up one earned run and one unearned run over his 4.2 inning start.  For the early year over two games he has a 2.89 ERA.  That is not a typo.  Even in this game he fanned 6 in less than 5 innings.  Ummm...was Keith Hernandez right about the key to the Mets’ difficulties?  Perhaps so.  Bad pitching has not been the issue leaving the team at .500 over 6 games.  In fact, if you took a poll of Mets fans and media when they were watching Holmes dominate in Florida as he transitions from reliever to starter, if you offered up a bet that he would have a sub 3.00 ERA everyone would have taken that wager unless they felt it was all smoke and mirrors awaiting catastrophe. 

Now the club is enjoying another day off before returning home to open the 2025 season in front of their own fans.  Does a 3-3 record make people happy?  No, obviously it does not.  However, flash all the way back to 2024 and that season they started off 0-5.  Yes, they failed to make the World Series but got within two games of it in October.  I think we can all take a deep breath and relax a bit while the Hernandez labeled piss poor hitting starts to come to life.  The big sticks thus far have been Pete Alonso and Luis Torrens.  They did not include Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, Mark Vientos, Brett Baty, Jose Siri/Tyrone Taylor nor even Juan Soto.  There’s nowhere to go but up.

Somehow lost in the glory of the big victory was the less than stellar effort from big name free agent reliever A.J. Minter.  There was some discussion about whether he would come north with the club or perhaps stay in Florida for extended spring training as he worked himself back into playing condition.  They decided not to do that and thus far Minter has looked hittable.  Now it could be that he’s still not 100% in terms of stamina and sharpness.  Or it could simply be a bad game.  That happens to everyone once in awhile.  For now, however, the club must be happy to have the stellar bullpen with its 1.64 ERA as support when someone doesn’t get it done.