It is early fall and late in the season. The weather isn’t interested in helping us sort out contradictions. It came to the Mid-Atlantic region with its own agenda, unaware there is still baseball to be played. The Washington Nationals responded to meteorological realities by rescheduling the second-to-last game of the year, against the New York Mets, from late Saturday afternoon to early in the day. As if to accentuate their decision, they started a pitcher whose last name is Early. It is early in Early’s career as a Nats starter. This was his first start, and it was moved up by three-and-a-half hours.
The Mets didn’t do much with the pitcher named Connelly Early. The Nats didn’t do much with the pitcher named Jonah Tong [1], who was a little early when it came to getting his first major league opportunity, late last season. He’s part of the rotation late this season after having been told to go back to the minors and hone his craft. He pitched Saturday like he plans to be a starter from the start of next season, striking out nine Nats over five innings and allowing only one run. He might have given up more except his right fielder, Carson Benge [2], dove for and nabbed a ball in right-center field so beautifully, Ron Swoboda had to have applauded had he come across the highlight. Swoboda was early to his big league career, hitting home runs at age 19 but striking out a lot. Lacking well-rounded development, it got late early for him. Benge is right on time and seems built to last. Too early to say for sure, but there’s nothing about him that doesn’t make a Mets fan wish to project outward and upward.
Carson’s running, diving, and nabbing mate, in center, is A.J. Ewing [3]. He was a little late getting to the majors in terms of the 2026 campaign, making it here in May. He’s been making the most of his chances. Saturday, with two runners on base and the Mets down, 1-0, in the seventh inning, A.J. launched a three-run homer. The seventh was by no means too late for that sort of thing. The Mets were suddenly ahead by two. More suddenly, they were ahead by three when Ronny Mauricio [4] hit one out. It seems kind of late for Ronny to get going, not only in the course of this almost-completed season, but in his career. We’ve had one eye on Mauricio since 2023, at least when he’s in sight. When you factor in his injuries, he hasn’t really had much of a chance. Ronny’s only 25. Yeah, it’s early enough for him to make more of an impact.
In the ninth inning, Ronny made more of an impact on Saturday’s game, hitting another homer, this one from the right side of the plate. The previous dinger was dung from the left. That’s right, Ronny Mauricio switch-hits with power. Not a big quantity of those guys running around and swinging away. When you have one who’s got that quality, it’s never too late to take a closer look.
It was too late Saturday to do anything about finishing in last place [5], but it didn’t mean the Mets were finished playing. They played well, thanks to players for whom it’s all pretty darn early in terms of age and experience. The Mets of Jonah Tong, Carson Benge, A.J. Ewing, and Ronny Mauricio defeated the Nats [6], 7-1.
One game remains to this season. It, too, will start earlier than anticipated (1:05 instead of 3:05) due to that nasty nor’easter’s insistence on sticking around. Then, when the last bit of baseball attached to this season is over, it will not be too early to anticipate the Met future. We saw just enough of it on Saturday to salivate a little in advance of it arriving in full. “The future is a constantly moving thing,” Brandon Nimmo philosophized to Steve Gelbs this week. With these kids and a few more around, we prefer to move toward it ASAP.