Surging Mets Still Wheeling Along
The Mets were smart heading into tonight. With the team rolling, and with Zack Wheeler‘s career numbers against the Marlins, the team opted to rest Amed Rosario and Michael Conforto to keep them charged for the stretch run.
As it turns out, the Mets guess they still had enough in the lineup was the right call. It looked even better with Luis Guillorme and Adeiny Hechavarria turning four double plays tonight.
Wheeler needed that improved defensive lineup with his keeping the ball on the ground more than usual. In total, he would get 13 ground ball outs tonight against one fly out and five strikeouts. He was great, and the defense was better helping him out on a night when he did not have one 1-2-3 inning.
Despite all the traffic, Wheeler pitched eight shut out innings allowing 10 hits with one walk and the aforementioned five strikeouts.
Fortunately, the game was never really in doubt.
The Mets took an early 1-0 lead in the first off a Todd Frazier RBI double. The lead grew to 4-0 when Wilson Ramos hit a three run homer in the third:
Buffalo bomb. ? #CRUSHED pic.twitter.com/tZ3fogtZF7
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 7, 2019
With respect to Ramos, he has been much better at the plate of late. In August, he has already hit two homers which doubles the homers he hit in July. With Robinson Cano down, the Mets need another bat to step up, and it seems Ramos is ready to fill that void.
The scoring was capped off when Pete Alonso hit a homer in the fifth which mirrored the one he hit last night:
This looked familiar. ❄️? pic.twitter.com/jEW2pFHlID
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 7, 2019
All-in-all, this was a very good night for the Mets. Wheeler extended his scoreless streak to 15 innings. The defense was impeccable:
.@FlavaFraz21 makes it look easy. ? pic.twitter.com/nVLLTCPbiA
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 7, 2019
They shut out the Marlins, and they’re two games over .500 for the first time since April 24.
Game Recap: The Giants designated Joe Panik for assignment.
The players have been incredibly impressive. 18-6 since the ASB, 5 straight, 12 of the last 13. Zowie.
The FO, though…? Deal a solid starter to a contender and cut into the bullpen. Smith goes down and is replaced by a guy with an OPS of .339. Cano goes down and a guy hitting .056 gets more playing time. It’s impossible to believe Aaron Altherr is the best this FO could do, but he seems to be the limit of their ‘skill’ set.
I hope I’m wrong, but my opinion was always that the players were going to have to win 3-5 games more than the number of wins that will actually show up in the W column because they’re working under the worst GM and FO and one of the worst managers in the game, a group that will undermine them, however inadvertently, at every turn.
The front line players have played well, but there’s no substitute for luck. A defensive sub for the Pirates waved at a ball and gave the Mets a game. Mattingly left a Marlins reliever to give up 3 HR in a single inning, giving up another game. It took an injury to Cano and a trip to the IL for Alonso to finally get pitches to hit, so we can thank the God of Hamstrings for Alonso’s recovery. Meanwhile, the only NL team anywhere near .500 they’ve played since the ASB took 3 of 4 from them. Even so this has been the easiest stretch all season, with only 2 games against Minnesota against teams over .500, out of 24 games since the ASB. Since beating the Twinkies? 19 games against the worst teams in MLB.
So, we’ll see.
Winning is good. Winning papers over many things, including replacing Cano with Guillorme’s bat, and Dom Smith with more of Altherr’s bat, and the ridiculous refusal to anoint Seth Lugo the closer at least a month ago–the FO didn’t do this because they were still looking to trade Diaz as of the end of July and didn’t want to hurt his trade value. That’s the FO the Mets’ players are fighting against, in addition to ATL, WAS, PHI… and that’s why I’m not optimistic–not yet. Even the team with the next to worst record among the teams in the 11 series the Mets play over the next 6 weeks, the D’backs, has a pythagorean record of 63-50.
Optimism before September 15th, given this front office, is mostly heavy breathing.
The Mets are 1.5 games back of the Wild Card. Their pitching staff is poised to cover much of the offensive deficiencies. There’s real reason for optimism.
Ready to admit you were wrong about the beastly JD Davis?
No. It’s a good stretch against bad teams, and he has an unsustainable .352 BABIP and 50.5 GB%. If he’s finished the season this way, we can talk, but he’s going to regress.
I am really hoping that JD Davis can do what Dom Smith could not do against the winning clubs, that is, after inning six to hit singles, hit for power against better hurlers and to drive in runs.
That also goes for virtually the previous entire lineup. What I mean is with Cano.
I can handle almost anyone not succeeding in high leverage situations, especially Alonso, McNeil, Nido and Rosario.
If 2019 has Rosario on the cusp of being an All Star next year, improved Dee, stealing bases and you know the rest 2019 would have been a success.
Speaking of team play, I was the last on board on seeing Robinson Cano as a team player. Boy was I wrong.
The guy is as central as Cabrera was, was constantly in good spirits, easy around be team mates and front and center. Additionally in ABATS where he looks overmatched he is front and center and take the licking with humility.
Speaking of the unnamed, the cowards who will not take defeat, who disappear in the playoffs and WS and produce nada, those who are in the back of the dugout so they can smoke Marlboro who at 30 did not even do much self care or even know what the word hydration meant.
Here Cano has a torn hamstring and the guy is in the dugout, not even a game off away from his teammates. I was so wrong! I was so wrong about Cano.
Cano is no selfish dirt bag, also a coward who would rather not be with his teammates when he is on the IL but California dreaming…
Smith is a better player than Davis, so I have no idea why you would want Smith to be like Davis.
As for Cespedes, there’s no need to take shots at him. He’s been a really good player for the Mets when healthy.