Mets sweep the Yankees season series and now they are in position to supplant Atlanta in the division standings.
Pretty surprising to see multiple bad plays by the Braves in the last three innings - a failed steal of third, a botched suicide squeeze, and the rightfielder overrunning a fly ball to turn it into a game-winning single. It's usually the Mets who do such things in games with the Braves!
Mets have traded for Seattle reliever Ryne Stanek, giving up minor league outfielder Rhylan Thomas. Stanek hasn't been particularly good the last couple of years (4.22 ERA), but had a 3.16 ERA in the five years before that, including a 1.15 ERA for the 2022 champion Astros. Any relief help is of course welcome. Meanwhile, JD Martinez has hit a grand slam for a fifth different team tonight, and Vientos and Alvarez joined in with dingers for an 8-2 lead after 4.
Mets amazingly pull ahead of Atlanta in the standings and into the top wild card pot. Unfortunately, all of the good news is tempered by Senga going out after 5 1/3 good innings with a strained calf.
You can't make this shit up. Dude gets injured for the season in his first start back... Typical mets.
Welp they ended up splitting with the Braves, too bad. Hopefully the Yankees can beat Philly this week and the Mets can keep it moving. So far I like their deadline deals.
Mets' big starter acquisition is Paul Blackburn of the A's, who is in his seventh straight season of an ERA of at least 4.25. Woo hoo! The two relievers, Huascar Brazoban and Tyler Zuber, seem much more promising to me.
Yeah, underwhelming for sure, but, I agree, the RP's will hopefully help. How much is Pete Alonzo worth? I'm so on the fence with him. How many years would you give him?
I'm not a good person to ask, since I haven't been a big fan of Alonso for a couple of years. He strikes out too much, doesn't walk enough, and is a mediocre-at-best fielder. I think there's a real possibility that the Alonso of the last two seasons (.228/.321/.489 split, with a 124 OPS+) is the guy moving forward, not the one of his first four seasons (.261/.349/.535 split, with a 140 OPS+). I expect he's going to want $200 million for five years, and he's not worth it. They would probably be willing to match what he gets offered elsewhere, but that doesn't mean he'll take it.
Of course, most of the teams they needed to lose the last 2 days lost, and the Mets couldn't take advantage. A day late and a dollar short like usual.
Manaea with his second straight start of at least 7 innings giving up no runs and having at least 10 strikeouts. Unbelievably (to me, anyway), he is only the third Mets pitcher to ever do that; unsurprisingly the other two are Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden.
I would say that this series is a pretty accurate reflection of the team's status as a legitimate playoff team. SEA's split for the series was .255/.368/.436, Mets' split was .179/.235/.263. 4-7 in their last 11 games.
Put a cork in the Mets, they are done. They are getting blown out and shut out repeatedly. They don't have a chance, there's too many decent teams in the mix.
The Mets' shitty bullpen once again costs them a game against a bad team. When Nimmo grimaced on his swing in the seventh before getting back in the batter's box, I immediately had the sequence in my mind: he would strike out, he would be pulled from the game, he would go on the IL, he would be out for the season. The first two immediately happened; we'll see about the second two. He has been absolutely terrible since the All-Star break, but had hit a home run in his previous at bat.