The Mets fell behind in the fifth inning Sunday night, as Matt Chapman launched a second home run off Kodai Senga. That made the score 3-2 Giants with 12 outs left for making up the deficit.
Funny what a six-game winning streak will do for you. “We’ll get ’em,” I assured my mother, and to my mild surprise I realized that I meant it.
And then the Mets proceeded to go out and get ’em.
It wasn’t as simple as me walking in my mom’s door, uttering this declaration and the Mets making it so (I’m not that good), but it was pretty close.
Ronny Mauricio led off the top of the seventh against San Francisco’s Randy Rodriguez, whose 0.82 ERA didn’t necessarily suggest confidence, to say nothing of hubris. Rodriguez’s second pitch was a slider in on Mauricio’s hands — not a bad pitch by any stretch. Mauricio showed off his uncanny bat speed by getting around on it and his easy power carried it out over the wall and into McCovey Cove, where I was glad to see it was scooped up by a kayaker and not the hedge-fund guy zooming around on some kind of Jetsons mini-hydrofoil. (If said guy is actually a tinkerer who heads a non-profit for removing microplastic from the ocean, well, my apologies.)
Mauricio may be wearing another team’s uniform by the weekend, and that might turn out to be a good deal for the Mets. But it might also be one we rue as bitterly as, say, Javy Baez for Pete Crow-Armstrong. (Ouch!) Mauricio has turned heads this year, mine most definitely included. The bat speed and power are rare gifts, but he’s also shored up his defense and cut down on the chasing that many thought would keep him from being a front-line MLB player. He finished Sunday 4-for-4, with a pair of doubles and a single in addition to the homer, and if you’ll forgive a bit of sabermetrics jargon, that shit will work.
Mauricio’s transformation of a baseball into a submersible tied the game. An understandably piqued Rodriguez then used his deadly slider to erase Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor, but left a fastball in the middle of the plate to Juan Soto, who clubbed it into the left-field stands to give the Mets the lead.
Newcomer Gregory Soto looked good in his Mets debut, showing no nerves as Carlos Mendoza started constructing the new bridge to Edwin Diaz. Reed Garrett and Brooks Raley got the Mets to the ninth, with back-to-back Mauricio-Nimmo doubles offering an insurance run.
Which turned out to be a good idea, as Diaz was shaky for a second straight day, loading the bases with one out on walks sandwiched around an HBP. The tying run was a single away, with a woeful walkoff too close for comfort, and Willy Adames and Chapman due up.
Diaz, as he often does, seemed to awaken to his peril and snap into focus. He retired Adames on three fastballs up in the zone, all looking and also all strikes. He then stayed with the fastball and the upper bounds of the strike zone against Chapman, putting the fourth pitch of the AB up on Chapman’s hands. Chapman committed, couldn’t get around on the pitch, and the Mets had won their seventh straight and completed a three-game sweep.*
Had it all the way, right? At least I’d thought so. It’s nice to be right on occasion.
* Tip of the cap to the woman in Mets garb spotted in the stands who’d brought along a full-size broom as a celebration accessory. Beyond the fear of waving a red flag in the faces of the baseball gods, I don’t think I’d want to be the guy lugging around a large broom after my team failed to sweep. Or even after they succeeded, come to think of it.
I would hold off on moving Mauricio; he seems to have a calm, cool demeanor (and a sense of humor) to go along with his obvious athletic gifts and developing 5 tools. Vientos (notwithstanding his key double) is continually pulling off the ball and is not the guy who consistently hit with power to right-center last year. The Mets have two choices: either move him (and reduce an already thin and less than reliable righthanded bench) or sign JD Martinez to come back and be his personal hitting guru. As you all may recall, earlier in the year Soto, Lindor and Marte were all gushing about Alcantara’s stuff. I would not be surprised to see him in Black is the new Orange and Blue (as opposed to whatever colors the Marlins are borrowing these days) sometime soon.
All of the four Baby Infielders (Acuna, Baty, Vientos and Mauricio) are very likable, which makes this a difficult moment for Mets fans and most likely the staff as well, but if the Marlins are really offering up Alcántara, a proven ace ( in fact a former Cy Young winner having a bad year), the Mets are almost certainly going to have to give one or more of them up. I don’t know what the Marlins’ needs are, but Alcántara would almost instantly improve the team.
I have long thought that Vientos, although a nice chip to have, is the most expendable from the Mets standpoint. Of the five tools that make a complete baseball player, the only one he really brings is power hitting If they keep him, the Mets should put him in the DH slot and leave him there, making Marte and probably Wimker somewhat expendable). He doesn’t bring speed ( that’s Acuna), defense ( Acuna again, and probably Mauricio and Baty as well), hitting for average (Baty and Mauricio have the potential), etc. Mauricio has the potential to bring them all.
I am beginning to think that the Mets should absolutely not trade Mauricio, whatever else they do. I think he has star power in a way most young ballplayers don’t. Of the remaining three, Vientos is the one I’d like to see go, but only for a proven ace. He’d be a good fit for Miami, and I’m wondering if the Mets could package him with a couple of other younger prospects, and if the Marlins would bite.
This is a rare thing for a Mets fan to say, and I hope I’m not tempting fate, but the Mets seem to have enough power bats right now, with Lindor, Soto and Alonso ( and others contributing too (Nimmo, Winker, Marte and also Alvarez, Mauricio and Baty). What they don’t have is a pitching ace (Manaea is probably the closest, with Peterson right behind him) but Montas, Holmes and even Senga are complementary pieces right now, at least in the very short term, as they can’t seem to make it out of the sixth inning. I think Alcántara, assuming he is injury-free, would instantly anchor that staff. It may take Baty and/or Acuna and/or Vientos to get him, but depending upon what else we get back, he might be worth it.
Hedge fund guy, lol. I’ve seen those boards before, they had them on the last season of Amazing Race. It actually looks hard.
Diaz will give me a heart attack yet!
“…woman in Mets garb spotted in the stands who’d brought along a full-size broom…”
And in enemy territory! That was pretty gutsy.
Well, it’s not like she was doing it in Philadelphia or in the Wrigley Field Bleachers…
“Mauricio may be wearing another team’s uniform by the weekend”
(Record scratch) S-s-say whaaat? OK, I totally do not understand how the game is played these days.
I would never trade Mauricio right now, even though I wanted to send him down with Alvarez a month ago.
Who would have ever thought the bottom 4 (or 5, happy Jeff) would be a better bet than the Phony 4 at the top of the lineup. With a .150 BA with RISP, did Juan Soto really deserve to be an All Star? Not according to the eye test, either.
Gregory Soto looked great last nite. Would have loved to see him go another inning last night.
Diaz DOES drive everybody crazy, but he DOES eventually get his act together. Can he do it every single time, and when it counts?