Simplicity Field

Some ballgames elude complexity. Sunday’s had on one side of Citi Field the team that was tied for best record in its league, and on the other side of the divide the team with the worst record in all of baseball. The team with a best-record claim had three world-class sluggers. The team with the undisputed worst record had to pitch to them.

Here’s what each of the three world-class sluggers did in a given at-bat in this game:

Pete Alonso homered.
Francisco Lindor homered.
Juan Soto homered.

Here’s what the worst team did in response:

Not enough.

Simple, the recently retired Johnny Mathis sang in his final Hot 100 hit, easy as 1-2-3. Alonso in the fourth with two on. Lindor in the fifth and Soto in the eighth in solo fashion. That made for five runs versus the three Clay Holmes allowed over seven innings — given the adequate support and his ongoing transition from reliever to starter, the seven was way bigger than the three — along with the pair of zeroes posted amid the usual stellar setting up and closing from Reed Garrett and Edwin Diaz. A straightforward 5-3 Mets victory over Colorado was present and easily accounted for.

That’s how three-game sweeps should be.

The Mets played up to their own level throughout the weekend sweep, while the Rockies stayed as averse to altitude as we needed them to be. Composite run totals: New York 17 Visitors 7. The team that dropped from 9-47 to 9-50 across the three-game series didn’t appear to be mind-blowingly horrible, just not very good. Meanwhile, the team that retook sole possession of first place in the NL East made the most of its schedule. The Mets got the Rockies. The Mets rolled the Rockies further downhill. All it took was a few concerted taps.

If your team has Alonso, Lindor, and Soto, and the other team has no such power trio available to it, chances are you wonder why every game from Friday to Sunday wasn’t won by a score of Crush, Kill, Destroy. But chances are better you understand baseball doesn’t really work that way. The Mets won their three games without a lot of muss or fuss, pitching well, hitting amply, and getting each contest over with in under two-and-a-half hours. Muss and fuss will be well-rested for the four-game set versus the Dodgers that begins tonight too late (when rest will be too little and facets of the opposing offense can be too much).

The Mets’ Big Three, if we’re calling them that, haven’t meaningfully synced their hot spells since their bats were conglomerated into a single unit. Two were on fire in April, noticeably chillier in May. One among them hasn’t yet truly generated palpable heat. Yet on the first Sunday in June, Alonso, Lindor, and Soto got together and unloaded as needed, and it was, simply wonderful, wonderful.