Mets

Mets: The real Francisco Lindor is showing up, and he is taking over games

by

During Sunday’s game against the New York Mets and the Yankees, we saw a rivalry, a spark that had been missing for a few years between the crosstown rivals. The Subway Series is a thing again, and the Mets took this weekend’s edition two games to one thanks, in large part, to the $341 million man: Francisco Lindor.

The Mets traded for him during the offseason and proceeded to extend him to a record-breaking 10-year, $341 million deal the day before the regular season started. He started slowly, and by May, he was getting booed because of his poor performance.

As he hit three home runs into the New York night on Sunday, the last one to provide the winning run in the 7-6 affair, we got confirmation that the Mets are finally enjoying the benefits of their huge investment.

“This is the Francisco we all expect,” manager Luis Rojas said. “This is the Francisco that Mets fans are going to get for years.”

“I don’t think Mets fans forget things,” Lindor added, “but it definitely probably helped them to start to believe in me a little bit more.”

An early-season spat with teammate Jeff McNeil over rats and raccoons, a forgettable slump, an untimely oblique injury, and a little conflict with fans over booing had marked Lindor’s first season with the Mets. But his performance is finally doing most of the talking.

The Mets are finally reaping the benefits of their investment

Lindor has been back to his former self for a while, but Sunday’s three home runs certainly didn’t hurt his numbers.

The Mets’ shortstop has a .857 OPS since May 29 (.260/.346/.511, 14 home runs, and a 133 wRC+ in 257 PA.) Per Mets’ blogger Tim Ryder, it equates to a 38-homer pace over a full season with an OPS .003 higher than his career-best .854 in 2019.

Rojas said to MLB.com on Sunday that it was “probably his best game of the year,” while Lindor’s longtime teammate in Cleveland, Carlos Carrasco, went even further and stated that it was one of the best games of his career.

“I’ve been booed for a very long time, so it felt good,” Lindor said. “How long I’ve been waiting for that? I don’t know. Every night when we’ve been down by one in the ninth, and I’m supposed to tie it or win the game for the team. Yeah, we all want that moment, because we do it for the fans and we do it for the organization.”

Mets: Noah Syndergaard inching closer to a return

by
New York Mets, Noah Syndergaard

By now, we know that the New York Mets don’t know if they will have Jacob deGrom back this season. His elbow injury has been well-covered, and while he is already throwing, he may not have enough time to return in 2021.

Noah Syndergaard, on the other hand, does have a chance to pitch for the Mets this season, although he will, most likely, do it as a reliever. He recently had a bout with COVID-19, but is now out of quarantine.

Syndergaard threw a bullpen Friday, and Mets’ manager Luis Rojas remains optimistic that the righty, who hasn’t pitched since 2019, will be able to take the ball before the season expires.

The Mets are optimistic he can pitch in 2021

“No date right now,” Rojas said, per WFAN. “He’s feeling good. He did a really good job…keeping his arm in shape and himself in shape. I talked to him earlier today, he’s pretty optimistic. Let’s see when that is. Even though we lost some time, we feel like he might be able to pitch for us at one point.”

The pitcher himself is itching to go back there.

“The quarantine was the most difficult part. I kind of had to rig up the mattress in my apartment and keep the arm going. I’m just itching to get back on the rehab program and get out there,” he said.

As for deGrom, there are no news: things remain exactly the same as a couple of days ago.

 

“He’s still playing catch,” Rojas said. “I think you guys heard Sandy the other day say it might be through the end of the season…let’s see how he progresses on the distancing. Today was 90 feet. He threw 120 the other day…we’ll see how he goes off the slope and we’ll start talking about dates and what’s gonna happen.”

Mets: Jacob deGrom talks about his elbow injury for the first time in weeks

by

New York Mets’ star Jacob deGrom talked to reporters on Thursday for the first time in weeks. As you can probably imagine, the health of his elbow and, specifically, his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) was a hot topic in the conversation.

DeGrom hasn’t pitched since early July with what was deemed at the time as forearm tightness. Then, it evolved to elbow inflammation, until the Mets’ president of baseball operations Sandy Alderson talked a few days ago and referred to it as a “very mild” UCL sprain that “resolved itself”.

During his brief meeting with reporters in Miami on September 9, deGrom said that his right UCL is “perfectly fine.”

“I know what we said, but my ligament is perfectly fine,” he explained, per SNY. “I’ve been throwing. I wouldn’t be throwing if I had a compromised ligament. So that’s the plan to continue to throw and build up.”

The Mets star is running out of time

DeGrom recently advanced to 120 feet in his catch progression, per Mets’ manager Luis Rojas, who added that he should be throwing off the mound soon.

While speaking about the injury, Alderson had stated that “a sprain is the lowest grade partial tear. At this point, the sprain has resolved itself. The elbow, at this point, is perfectly intact based on the MRI and the critical evaluations of our doctors. That’s just the technical term that the doctors have used.”

The pitcher is eligible to return from the injured list on September 13th, but he won’t be ready by then. A start in late-September is the most realistic scenario at this point.

When deGrom was healthy, the Mets were first in the NL East division by multiple games. Today, New York is third with a 70-70 record, 5.0 games behind the Atlanta Braves for the top spot.

Degrom, the Mets’ ace and quite possibly the best pitcher in the world, has a 1.08 ERA in 92 innings in 2021, with a mind-blowing 0.55 WHIP. Had he stayed healthy, he probably should have won his third Cy Young award.

Mets provide details of Jacob deGrom’s elbow injury

by
New York Mets, Jacob deGrom

The New York Mets haven’t had their ace, Jacob deGrom, throw in an MLB game since early July. His absence coincided with a rough patch that saw the Mets give away first place in the NL East division. It’s not easy to replace a starting pitcher with a 1.08 ERA, after all.

At the time, his injury was referred to as right elbow inflammation. After some time passed, a recent MRI showed significant improvement and he was given the green light to begin throwing again. He is currently throwing from flat ground, but won’t graduate to mound work until mid-September, complicating his prospects of returning this year.

However, it turns out the Mets’ star was dealing with more than just ‘inflammation’.

Team president Sandy Alderson said deGrom has been nursing a sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, but as he detailed to the Mets’ official site, it has healed and the ligament is “perfectly intact, based on the MRIs and our clinical evaluations through our doctors.”

The Mets say the issue has resolved itself

Alderson also said that the word sprain was a “technical term … another term for a very mild ligament condition,” and he called deGrom’s injury “a very low-grade thing that has resolved itself.”

The Mets don’t know where deGrom’s elbow issues came from.

“I don’t think we know exactly what has caused the problem, but if you were to look at it generally throughout baseball, I think velocity has something to do with a lot of these injuries,” Alderson said. “Whether it’s true in his case or not, I don’t know. I’m not a doctor, I haven’t done all the research. But I suspect there’s a correlation between the velocity that pitchers exhibit today and the rate of injury, which is a concern.”

DeGrom is one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in baseball, clocking up to 101 mph with his four-seam fastball.

Alonso Powers Mets To A 9-4 Victory Over Marlins

by
New York Mets, Pete Alonso

Every game for the New York Mets is a must-win at this point in the season, and their offense is starting to find its way at the right time. A two-homer game from Pete Alonso began and ended the Mets’ offensive output in their 9-4 win over the Miami Marlins.

Alonso’s first home run gave the Mets an early 2-0 lead, and it was the 100th of his career. His chase to 100 is the second-fastest of all-time behind the mercurial Ryan Howard. The rest of the team found creative ways to get their third and fourth runs as two hit-by-pitches allowed them to tack runs against Eduardo Cabrera. At one point, the Mets had four runs but just one hit in the entire game. Francisco Lindor added more with a two-run single and J.D. Davis had a pinch-hit RBI double.

The Mets pulled off the rare feat of scoring nine runs but needing six runs to get them. It was a weird night for both teams, who each committed three errors and combined to go 3-for-22 with runners in scoring position. Carlos Carrasco once again allowed a first-inning run but managed to battle through the errors behind him. Carrasco pitched five innings, allowing four runs (one earned), and did enough to give the Mets a chance to win. The Mets bullpen picked up the rest with four shutout innings to nurse the game to its conclusion.

The Mets did not gain any ground on the first-place Atlanta Braves, who defeated the Washington Nationals. They did gain on the second-place Philadelphia Phillies and have an opportunity to gain on the San Diego Padres for the second wild-card spot. On Wednesday, Rich Hill will take the mound against Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara. The first pitch is another early 6:40 p.m. ET start from LoanDepot Park.

Mets keep failing to produce with runners in scoring position

by

The New York Mets lost yet another one-run game this season, this time 4-3, on Monday in the finale against the Washington Nationals. They have a mediocre 27-27 mark in one-run games, according to SNY, and that can likely be blamed, at least partially, on two things: a not-so-reliable bullpen in the late innings, and a constant failure to capitalize with runners in scoring position.

On Monday, we saw the two situations: Edwin Diaz blew a 3-2 game and turned into a 4-3 defeat in the ninth inning, and the Mets went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

For the year, the Mets are batting .240 with men on second or third, which was the the eighth-worst batting average in that scenario before Monday’s game.

“We probably could have won more games, one-run, for sure,” Mets manager Luis Rojas after losing to the Nats.

The Mets need more timely hits

The Mets are currently 69-69, four games behind the division leaders, the Atlanta Braves. They are going to need more timely hits if they want to go to the postseason.

“We went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position today, and we had chances to score more runs, and it’d probably be a different game than 3-2 in the ninth. So I think that’s why most of those games weren’t probably won for the most part. The pitching has been responsible to keep us close. I know it’s a tough loss, and we’ll talk about that ninth inning and the walks and single there, but once again, 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, you just gotta finish. You gotta deliver. You gotta score the runs that you’re setting yourself up to score. It’s happened repeatedly for us this season,” Rojas explained.

Rojas also defended the Mets’ closer after he allowed two hits, two walks, and two runs to lose the game.

 

“Edwin’s done it for us all year. We’re not making drastic changes. I think the command is something he can bounce back from. He had a little stretch in the middle of the season where he was struggling with his command a little bit, and then he bounced back and started throwing more strikes. This is the last two games where he’s done it. For sure, he can work on things like this,” Rojas said.

The Mets are making a playoffs push, and Javier Baez is a big reason why

by
javier baez, mets

He may or may not have a future with the New York Mets: after all, he is a low-OBP guy who recently criticized fans for booing the team, resulting in a team statement and a tense atmosphere for a couple of days. But there is no denying that Javier Baez is one of the most exciting players in MLB when he is at his best, and right now, the Mets are benefiting from his torrid streak at the plate.

The past few weeks have been rough for Baez and the Mets, but things appear to be trending in the right direction. The team is playing much better, and earned its seventh victory in its last eight games by defeating the Washington Nationals 13-6 on the road on Sunday.

Baez, of course, went 4-for-4 with three RBI and two runs. The Mets are now over .500, 69-68, and will face the Nationals one last time on Monday.

“Sometimes, I struggle a lot,” said Báez, who entered Sunday’s game slashing .215/.262/.468 with five home runs and eight RBI in 22 games (20 starts) as a member of the Mets, to SNY. “And it feels great — it feels great to be hot at the plate right now and, hopefully, I keep it going.”

After a tough stretch that included a stint on the 10-day injured list with back spasms recently, Baez found himself at the center of the storm. He was hitting .171/.216/.343 with two home runs and three RBI through 10 games with New York. However, he came back from his ailment and has performed much better: he has three blasts and five RBI in 12 starts since returning.

The Mets’ infielder is red-hot at the plate

Over his last seven contests, Baez is hitting .360/.407/.800 with eight runs and five RBI.

Mets’ manager Luis Rojas is impressed by his “energy and the quality of the player” he is. “I think, from Day 1, when he showed up into the clubhouse, he can transmit a lot of good things — his good vibes and all the things that he can do out on the field to help a team win. But one of the things that a lot of people have been talking about — and, of course, we’re aware — is his approach at the plate and the chases, right, how much of a free-swinger he is and what we have here for a philosophy, just being aggressive in zone and not expanding too much. And I think that’s what he did today. If he can control the zone like he did today, he’s going to be a better offensive player. He laid off some pitches. He did chase a few times, but he laid off some pitches and he found a pitch in the zone and was able to drive it.

Plate discipline will always be the thing to watch with Baez: he has a 0/8 BB/K ratio over his last seven games despite his success.

The Mets are only 3.5 games behind the division-leading Braves. They need Baez to keep performing.

“We’re trying,” Báez said. “We’re obviously trying. Like I said, I’m trying to bring my mentality here. And we’ll see, we’ll see when the last game comes and if we’re out or we’re in. Together, we’ve just got to go pitch by pitch and game by game and not just worry about first place or second place. It will come if we focus on that.”

Mets’ ace Jacob deGrom is reportedly not close to returning

by
New York Mets, Jacob deGrom

Despite the news that his latest MRI showed significant improvement on a recent elbow inflammation diagnosis, New York Mets’ ace Jacob deGrom is not particularly close to making a return to action.

The Mets are currently streaking, winning their last six games and cutting their deficit in the division to just four games. They also got back to .500 on Friday night, taking their record to 67-67.

Yet, they are unlikely to have their ace back for at least a couple more weeks, if not more. Per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo, when asked Friday where he was at in his road back from right elbow inflammation, the pitcher replied: “I’m in Washington.”

Playful geographical jokes aside (the Mets are currently playing a weekend series in the nation’s capital), there is just not too much certainty about the star’s timeline to return to a major league mound.

The Mets’ star pitcher is improving, but is running out of time

DiComo did explain that a Mets official said that deGrom, despite feeling better, “is likely about 10 days away from advancing to bullpen sessions. He has been throwing off flat ground from 75 feet and must extend that to 120 before making it to the slope of a mound. That process should take deGrom into the third week of September; from there, he must throw multiple bullpen sessions and face live batters before he can even consider appearing in a game for the first time since July 7.”

In other words, the Mets are running out of time to get their star pitcher back. At this point, any realistic scenario of him coming back before the last week of the season is hard to imagine.

The Mets official, therefore, doesn’t expect to see deGrom for anything more than an outing or two near the end of the season. And if he experiences any kind of setback, the team will likely just shut him down, especially if they are out of the hunt by then.

Mets win sixth straight, get back to .500 and regain hope

by

Yes, the New York Mets have been bad in the second half, relinquishing a division lead they held onto for months. Yes, as of Saturday morning, they would still be out of the playoffs if the season ended today. But they sure have been playing better as of late and, after defeating the Washington Nationals 6-2 on Friday night, have gotten back to playing .500 ball.

The Mets’ 67-67 record is now good enough for them to be 4.0 games behind the Atlanta Braves after they lost on Friday. The Braves are 3-7 in their last 10 games and New York has won six straight contests. After looking dead a week and a half ago, there is now hope in Queens.

The Mets are within four games of the division lead for the first time since August 16.

“As you can imagine, it’s great,” first baseman Pete Alonso said to MLB.com about the postgame clubhouse mood. “It’s awesome to rip off six in a row, especially against teams in the division. We’re just really happy with how we’ve performed, and we’re really looking forward to the rest of the season.”

The Mets hung on for the victory

Mets’ closer Edwin Diaz blew a save in the ninth by allowing two runs. However, Alonso had a crucial run-scoring single in the tenth, a hit that started a four-run rally.

Despite the blip in the ninth, it was a good night overall for the Mets. Starting pitcher Rich Hill hurled six shutout innings to give his offense the best possible chance to win the ballgame, which they ultimately did.

“I feel like we’re playing good, clean baseball, and the wins show that,” Alonso said. “I’m really excited for this last month.”

After going 2-11 in their 13-game stretch against the Dodgers and Giants, the Mets are still alive by winning their last six.

“The most important part of how we’ve been playing is just how together and how united we’ve been,” Jonathan Villar said through an interpreter, “just to continue going out there and to continue battling so we can get the results that we want.”

Smith’s Seventh Inning Gives Mets Boost in 4-3 Win to Sweep Marlins

by
dominic smith, mets

The New York Mets season has been riddled with tough breaks and bad bounces, but things moved in their favor against the Miami Marlins. An error from the Marlins and a ball nicking of Jesus Aguilar‘s glove in the seventh inning resulted in Dominic Smith‘s RBI single, which gave the Mets just enough to win 4-3 and sweep the Marlins. The whole game was filled with errors as both teams combined for seven errors.

The Mets had themselves a situation they had failed in for a majority of the season. Patrick Mazeika‘s single and error by Jesus Sanchez allowed Jeff McNeil to get to third base with one out. Smith ripped the ball over the first-base bag, and since Aguilar was holding on Mazeika, he reached out his glove to attempt to make a play. If Aguilar let the ball go, it would have gone foul, but instincts took over, and it allowed the Mets to steal a run.

Carlos Carrasco had a typical start for his 2021 season. Miguel Rojas ambushed him on the first pitch to give the Marlins an early run, and the fish tacked on another to make it 2-0 in the first. Carrasco once again settled in after the first inning to put together 5.1 innings allowing three runs and striking out five. Aaron Loup relinquished the lead with two walks in relief but survived the keep the game tied. The following three relievers for the Mets all had hitless outings.

Battling Back

The Mets had their work cut out for them early against Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara but were up to the task. Jonathan Villar took notes from Rojas to drill a leadoff home run on Alcantara’s first pitch. It was the first time in MLB history where both team’s leadoff hitters homered on the first pitch. Mazeika was the only Met with multiple hits and also recorded a double. Francisco Lindor only had an RBI double on the night but could have easily had a couple more hits if he was not hitting the ball at people.

The win is the fifth consecutive for the Mets, and they have an opportunity to move within four games of the first-place Atlanta Braves. On Friday, they will begin a five-game series with the Washington Nationals. Two former Long Island Ducks face-off as Rich Hill takes the mound against Sean Nolin. The first pitch from Nationals Park is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET.