What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets’ four-game winning streak came to an end with an ugly 9-6 loss to the Astros on Saturday afternoon (box)
RHP Tylor Megill was unable to put together a positive outing despite being handed an early 6-1 lead, allowing four runs over 5.1 innings on five hits and three walks
LHP Jake Diekman and RHP Reed Garrett combined to allow one hit, three runs, four walks and a wild pitch in the 8th inning, blowing a 6-4 lead
New York’s pitching staff combined to walk seven batters on Saturday, increasing their NL-leading total for the season
INF José Iglesias, starting one day after performing his new single “OMG” in front of the Citi Field crowd on Friday, went 3-for-4 with two doubles, an RBI and a run scored in the loss
3B Mark Vientos blasted his 10th home run of the season as part of a 2-for-4 day, giving him a .933 OPS for the season
C Francisco Álvarez saw his 10-game hitting streak come to an end, going 0-for-5 with a strikeout and a double play
New York is now 12-3 since Grimace’s first pitch, 16-7 in the month of June and 18-7 over their last 25 games
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Down on the Farm 🌾
SS Luisangel Acuña (No. 5 prospect, Triple-A): 1-for-5, HR (5), 2 runs scored
LHP Joey Lucchesi (Triple-A): 6.1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, BB, 8 K
SS Jesus Baez (No. 22 prospect, High-A): 1-for-4, HR (1)
BOX SCORES
Single-A STL | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG (PPD) | Triple-A SYR
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (40-40) vs. Astros (41-41)
Where: Citi Field — Flushing, NY
Starters: RHP Luis Severino (5-2, 3.29 ERA) vs. RHP Shawn Dubin (1-1, 5.64 ERA)
When: 1:40 PM
Where to Watch: WPIX
A Walk to Remember, or Seven… ✍️
I was hoping to write about the reasons behind the Mets’ season turnaround this morning, but sometimes baseball has other plans. Coming off of an ugly 9-6 loss to the Astros on Saturday, in which New York was incapable of holding onto an early 6-1 lead, some cracks in the armor of this team were exposed.
While the team has been playing incredibly inspired baseball over this last month going 18-7 over their last 25 games and vaulting themselves back into contention for a Wild Card spot, this is still a baseball team that needs to overcome some pretty legitimate flaws, specifically on their pitching staff.
You can’t expect this team to go out there and win every game, but what happened on Saturday afternoon at Citi Field was something that was brewing for this team for the last week or so. Since last Sunday’s win in Chicago the Mets have lost Drew Smith for the remainder of the season (most likely) and Edwin Díaz to a 10-game suspension, and have had four consecutive starts where their pitchers have not been able to complete six innings. In two of those games, Mets starters went less than five innings.
Those elements have combined to put this Mets bullpen at a major disadvantage, and it was only a matter of time before light began to shine through those cracks. That was certainly the case on Saturday, in large part due to what has plagued this Mets pitching staff all season long…
Walks.
In yesterday’s loss to Houston, it felt as if the Mets were slowly bleeding out over the course of four innings as Tylor Megill, Jake Diekman and Reed Garrett combined to surrender seven walks, as well as six hits, a hit-by-pitch, a wild pitch, and seven earned runs. It all started with Megill, who yet again continues to waste eye-popping stuff by pitching to an ERA over 5.00 (which matches up perfectly with his 4.76 ERA for his career in the major leagues), who was completely incapable of pitching with a big lead.
Despite the bullpen meltdown later on, this game truly began to be lost in the 4th inning when Megill, armed with a five-run lead, gifted the Astros back three runs. And though he did not allow any runs, Megill continued to doom himself in the 5th inning by surrendering a pair of walks and skyrocketing his pitch count in the process.
In the 4th and 5th innings, Megill allowed three runs to score on three hits, two walks and a hit batsman, and forced himself to throw 49 pitches in the process. Not only did those two innings allow Houston to get back into the game, but it also ensured that Megill would not be able to work deep into the game, forcing yet another long afternoon for an already depleted and over-worked Mets bullpen.
By the time we got to the 8th inning and the walks continued from Diekman and Garrett, both of whom pitched the night before, the result seemed all-but inevitable. Diekman surrendered two walks on his own and Garrett wasn’t much better, walking two more hitters, throwing a run-scoring wild pitch and giving up the go-ahead two-run single, all with two outs in the inning.
New York’s offense was unable to rally, scoring no runs after the third inning, and Danny Young didn’t give the club much of a fighters chance by allowing two extra runs in the 9th inning (again with two outs) to put things to rest.
After seven additional free passes on Saturday, the Mets added to their National League-leading total with 314 walks this season – 22 more than the second-ranking Rockies. New York also ranks second in all of baseball in total walks this season, trailing only the 23-61 White Sox by a mere four walks.
A large part of this is certainly a personnel issue, but pitching coach Jeremy Hefner really needs to find a way to get his staff to throw more strikes if the Mets want to continue to be successful this season. New York can only out-slug the opposition so much, as six runs was not nearly enough to get past their walk issues yesterday.
It’s also worth noting that of the teams that are ranked in the top 10 for most walks allowed this season, none of them are currently over .500 with only the Mets and Astros as teams without losing records. Beyond that, you have to go back to the 2021 season for the last time that a team that finished in top five in walks made the postseason (Cardinals, lost in NL Wild Card Game), and only three teams have done so in the last decade – not including the 2020 COVID-shortened season.
New York should have some reinforcements coming their way soon as Christian Scott is expected to be recalled at some point soon, Kodai Senga is on track to begin making rehab starts, and Edwin Díaz will be eligible to return on July 6th. That plus the likelihood of Megill either getting moved to the bullpen or being optioned to Triple-A, and the trade deadline coming up can all help this club, but they are still going to have to find a way to have the pitchers that are on this roster to cut down on their free passes if they want to get to October.
If not, there could be more games like Saturday on the horizon.
Around the League 🚩
Yankees RF Juan Soto avoided a major hand injury but the Bombers June skid continued as they were blown out by the Blue Jays, 9-3
Blue Jays 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a home run and six RBI in the victory over the Yankees
Orioles OF Anthony Santander clubbed his 13th home run in the month of June as Baltimore defeated the Rangers and moved into sole possession of first place in the AL East
Pirates phenom Paul Skenes dazzled once again with nine strikeouts, but the Braves outlasted Pittsburgh thanks to a walk-off single from Adam Duvall
