Paul Articulates - First Impressions

One series is complete, and the Mets stand at two wins, one loss.  A .667 win percentage is pretty good, right?  I have my reservations.

Right now, there are no statistics that are valid – there is not enough of a sample size for any stats to tell a real story.  So we have to go by the eye test.  Here is what my eyes tell me:

Positives:

• Game one was a gift, but the Mets showed some mettle in the last two, coming back to tie both games late.   Mettle is good – nothing drives belief in yourself and your team more than successful rallies.
• Game three had a walk-off home run, which out-did all of last year.
• David Peterson looked like the first-half version from last year.

Negatives:

• Our “ace” did not pitch like one.  Five innings, four earned runs, two long balls given up.  In a match-up with one of the game’s best pitchers, you have to be on top of your game.  I hope that was not indicative of the top.
• Carlos Mendoza has not shown any improvement to his in-game pitcher management.  Bringing Sean Manaea into a tied game (game 3) was a bad idea, and somehow he got away with it despite some very hard hit balls.  Bringing Richard Lovelady in for the second day in a row with a rested pen was an even worse idea, and he did not get away with it.  If this was September 29th, he would not have closed the game this way.  Wins matter - all of them.
• Everyone raved about the new approach to hitting after the Mets seemed to foul off hundreds of pitches in game one and ran up pitch counts on the opponent.  However, games two and three looked nothing like that.  I saw more bad swings and strikeouts with runners on base in the late innings than earlier in the game.
• Game one was an anomaly because of the horrible baseball played by the Pirates on defense.  They cleaned it up in games two and three, and we saw the Mets score a total of two runs in “regulation time”.  Any team can have a bad hitting game, but not two in a row against a below average pitching staff that the Pirates have once you get beyond SP1 and into the bullpen.  What is this going to look like against a capable staff?

So far, to my eye, the Mets are failing the test.  If you have followed the RVH blueprint to 93 wins, the Mets need to beat up on teams like the Pirates (win accumulation).  They escaped this series with two wins out of three games, but were dangerously close to ending the series with only one win.  I am not predicting doom, but the first series fell well short of expectations.  That’s my take.