Before the Labor Day matinee against the Tigers, a friend asked me an alarming question: Who are the Mets’ starters for a playoff series?
Kodai Senga [1]? He’s been awful since returning from injury and Carlos Mendoza [2] didn’t exactly offer a ringing, unambiguous vote of confidence about him remaining in the rotation. David Peterson [3]? Bad start has followed bad start has followed bad start. Clay Holmes [4]? Better of late but in uncharted territory as far as innings pitched, which we saw catch up to multiple Mets pitchers against the Dodgers in October. Sean Manaea [5]? He hasn’t looked right all year, and has gone from “good early but ran out of gas” to “not good at all,” as was demonstrated against the Tigers.
Imagine a wild-card rotation of, say, Nolan McLean [6], Jonah Tong [7] and Holmes. Or McLean, Holmes and the endless possibilities of Tylor Megill [8]. Hell, call up Brandon Sproat [9] and go all raw rookies.
Seriously, what are the Mets going to do?
One answer would be to outhit their mistakes, which is what they did Monday against the Tigers on a gorgeous day at Comerica Park. Juan Soto [10] led the way, blasting a grand slam that ended Charlie Morton [11]‘s day (and saved Brett Baty [12] and Francisco Lindor [13] from fannish tut-tutting about not delivering gimme runs) and then adding a two-run triple. The Mets got enough to overcome Manaea and not so great bullpen work from Gregory Soto [14], Ryne Stanek [15] and walking disaster Ryan Helsley [16] (who was at least yanked quickly this time).
Fortunately Edwin Diaz [17] was up to the task, and the Mets didn’t so much win as survive [18]. Not the most elegant strategy, but hey, whatever works. I have my doubts it will work when there’s bunting and clueless national TV crews on hand … but I also have my doubts it will work for the rest of September. Let’s worry about the problem at hand, shall we?