What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets bounced back by shutting out the Cardinals 6-0 in a one-game makeup game in St. Louis on Monday afternoon (box)
LHP Sean Manaea pitched an absolute gem, tossing seven scoreless innings with six hits allowed, no walks and 10 strikeouts
The bullpen held up their end of the bargain with RHP Ryne Stanek and RHP Edwin Díaz combining for two scoreless innings in relief with no hits given up, one walk and two strikeouts
OF Harrison Bader got the Mets on the board with a one-run double in the top of the fifth inning
OF Tyrone Taylor - hitting second in the lineup - went 1-for-4 with a bases-clearing, 3 RBI double in the fifth to blow the game wide open
2B Jeff McNeil put the icing on the cake with a solo home run in the sixth inning to complete the scoring. He went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a RBI
The big hitters struggled for the Mets, with the top of the lineup 1-through-5 combining for just two hits on the day
The Marlins showed heavy interest in acquiring Mets third baseman Brett Baty at the trade deadline (NY Post)
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Playoff Race 🏁
Despite beating the Cardinals on Monday, the Mets are still on the outside looking in on a Wild Card spot after the Diamondbacks also won yesterday.
However, the Mets do now have the season tie breaker against the Cardinals, which could prove critical come the end of the regular season.
New York is 1.5 games out of a Wild Card spot with 50 games remaining.
Per FanGraphs, the Mets have a 43.7% chance of making the postseason.
New York has the seventh easiest schedule in MLB the rest of the way.
Tiebreakers:
vs. ATL: 5-5
vs. ARI: 2-2
vs. SD: 3-0
vs. CIN: 2-1
vs. STL: 4-2 (finished)
vs. SF: 2-4 (finished)
vs. PIT: 5-2 (finished)
vs. CHC: 4-3 (finished)
Who’s Hot 🥵
Sean Manaea now has back-to-back double digit strikeout games. He’s just the third left-handed pitcher in Mets history to accomplish that feat, behind Sid Fernandez and Jerry Koosman (H/T Mike Mayer - Metsmerized)
In 17 games since the All-Star break, Jeff McNeil is slashing .364/.393/.746 with six doubles, five home runs, 13 RBI and 15 runs scored
Harrison Bader is hitting .333/.333/.467/.800 over a seven-day stretch - five games
Who’s Not Hot 🥶
Over his last 16 games, Francisco Álvarez is hitting just .186/.238/.254/.492 with 18 strikeouts, one double, one home run and four RBIs
The Mets are now 29-for-154 with runners in scoring position since July 14 - the second-lowest mark in baseball during that span
Down on the Farm 🌾
All four Mets minor league affiliates were off on Monday
RHP Brandon Sproat - the No. 5 prospect in the Mets system who was recently promoted to Triple-A - was named the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week after striking out 13 batters for the Rumble Ponies last week, including the last 11 hitters he faced
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (59-53) at Rockies (41-72)
Where: Coors Field - Denver, CO
Starters: RHP Luis Severino (7-4, 3.93 ERA) vs. LHP Kyle Freeland (3-4, 5.64 ERA)
When: 8:40 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
Admiring the Mets’ ability to quickly turn the page, and the road ahead… ✍️
If you really think about it, there was huge pressure on the New York Mets going into Monday.
Making a one-game stop in St. Louis to take on the Cardinals in one of the most bizarre scheduling kinks of the year, the Mets needed a response.
Having dropped a series to the under .500 Angels to begin a long road trip on a low point, and drop out of a Wild Card spot as a result, this team needed to channel their inner Ted Lasso.
They needed to adopt the memory of a goldfish, forget what happened in Anaheim and instead focus on handling their business against the Cardinals.
Failure to do so would have only compounded what was already a bad weekend at the office.
Thankfully, these Mets have shown an ability to turn the page quickly and get the train back on the tracks with minimal fuss.
They dropped the first game to Miami immediately after the All-Star break, before bouncing back to win the series and then sweep the Yankees in the Subway Series. After dropping the final two games against the Braves to have to settle for a split, New York responded by taking two out of three from the Twins.
We saw that impressive bounce-back-ability in full force in St. Louis on Monday.
Still reeling from dropping a game-and-a-half out of a Wild Card spot, the Mets combined stellar pitching with some clutch hitting to make it a job well done before jumping right back on a flight and flying out to Colorado.
Sean Manaea was tremendous on the mound, giving the Mets seven scoreless innings with no walks and 10 strikeouts. He now has double digit strikeouts in each of his last two outings, and that’s certainly an encouraging sign moving forward. Ryne Stanek and Edwin Díaz then finished what Manaea started with minimal fuss, each tossing a scoreless inning in relief.
As for the offense, Tyrone Taylor thrived batting No. 2, hitting a bases-clearing three RBI double to blow the game wide open and make it advantage Mets the rest of the way. Taylor was the lone bright spot of the top five hitters in the lineup, with the other four going a combined 1-for-15 on the day.
Therefore, it was up to the bottom of the lineup to come through in the clutch. Harrison Bader hit a RBI double in the fifth, paving the way for Taylor to cause real damage as the next man up. Jeff McNeil then continued his second-half resurgence with a home run in the sixth to complete the scoring and ensure that it would be a happy flight to the Rocky Mountains.
Granted, the Mets still went 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position, but those two hits yielded four runs, so you can’t complain too much.
You also have to credit manager Carlos Mendoza for having the courage to drop Pete Alonso down to the five-hole in order to spark some life into his team when it came to RISP situations. It was the lowest Alonso has batted in the order below the cleanup spot since 2020 but, ultimately, it was a gamble that paid off on Monday.
It wasn’t a perfect offensive performance by any stretch of the imagination, but the Mets got the job done and, more importantly, they now have the season tiebreaker over the Cardinals.
New York couldn’t afford to drop that makeup game, especially after what transpired in Anaheim over the weekend.
Given just how tight the Wild Card race is in the National League, every single win is going to count. As is every single frustrating loss.
There’s still a good chance those two losses against the Angels, or the consecutive losses to the Braves, could come back to haunt the Mets once we get to the end of September.
As such, displaying the ability to quickly erase what had happened before to ensure more damage wasn’t done was crucially important.
The Mets clinched the season series against St. Louis with the win, ensuring they have a tiebreaker against the Cardinals if a spot comes down to one of those two teams.
That’s big in and of itself.
Now the attention shifts to Colorado.
The Mets must take care of business against the 41-72 Rockies. Anything less than a series win should be looked at upon as an absolute disaster.
If you look at the schedule coming up, nearly every game will be make-or-break for the Mets, and their are few patsies on the slate in August, other than the Marlins and the White Sox. The A’s are frisky. The Orioles are one of the best teams in baseball. The Mariners have elite pitching and won’t be an easy task. And both the Padres and the D-Backs are locked in a tight race for the Wild Card with the Mets, making that seven-game stretch on the road at the end of the month effectively do-or-die for New York.
Okay, let’s not look too far ahead but you get the point.
The Mets needed a response against the Cardinals and they delivered. Now, with time running out and still 1.5 games out of a Wild Card spot, the margin for error shrinks by the day and this team needs to develop a killer instinct while also owning the ability to quickly forget and move on when things don’t go their way.
That’s the mentality the Mets will need to have the rest of the way if they are to make sure this remarkable turnaround wasn’t all for nothing.
Pivot and persist. That’s the only way.
Around the League 🚩
Freddie Freeman made his return to action with the Dodgers after his son, Max, returned home following a significant health scare
The White Sox fell 5-1 to the A’s for their 21st loss in a row, tying the 1988 Orioles for the longest losing streak in AL history
Elly De La Cruz hit a pair of home runs in Miami on Monday, becoming just the third Red to hit 20 homers and steal 50 bases in a single season, and just the 14th player in AL/NL history (since 1901) to have a 20/50 season
Tyler Fitzgerald became the first Giant to crush 11 home runs in a 17-game stretch since Barry Bonds did it in 2003
Shohei Ohtani hit a crucial eighth inning home run and had two RBIs to help the Dodgers beat the Phillies in a big-time showdown between two World Series contenders
