Steven Matz and three relievers combined on a five-hit shutout to give the Mets the rubber game of their series with the Marlins, 3-0. The nine-game road trip ended with the Mets holding a 5-4 mark.
- Matz won for the first time since May 27 with six shutout innings. He looked sharp, fanned six and lowered his ERA to 3.36 for the season.
- Hansel Robles and Addison Reed continued their strong pitching. Robles fanned two and extended his homerless streak to 18 games. Reed allowed a hit but came up with a key strikeout of Giancarlo Stanton. Jeurys Familia came on for a 1-2-3 ninth to tie Jose Valverde for his 51st straight regular season save, good for third place on the all-time list.
- The Mets scratched out three runs, scoring on an RBI triple by Jose Reyes and run-scoring singles by Yoenis Cespedes and James Loney.
- Michael Conforto started in center field and made a nice diving catch against the leadoff batter. He also had two hits and scored a run before being replaced by Juan Lagares in the seventh inning.
- The season series against the Marlins now has the Mets holding a 7-5 edge. They are 0-3 in games started by Jose Fernandez and 7-2 against everyone else.
Cardinals SP is laboring in the first inning right now. 40 pitches, 6 runs through 2/3.
I expect a tired Cardinals bullpen…let’s take advantage.
It was a successful road trip topped off by shutting out their direct playoff competition. Familia, Reed and Robles are a good back end of the bullpen and Blevins has also pitched well. They still need another strong arm in the pen. Robles has been great the last 22 innings, and he hasn’t given up a gopher ball, but his May results are still etched in my memory. Hopefully he has turned the corner in his career. The Cardinals, another playoff contender is next and to remain in the thick of it he Mets must win this upcoming series.
The White Sox are sellers and suspenders so could the Mets lure them into a Harvey and a prospect for Sales trade?
The Lucroy trade would also be a win now move. Opportunity is knocking and I would answer the door.
Harvey and a prospect for Sale is certainly interesting…
There is the same length of control of Harvey and Sale, and Sales contract is club extra friendly and locked in. Harvey is a repeated injury guy and will be facing arb increases. I cant envision dealing the second nastiest lefty in baseball for a repeatedly injured righty…unless you empty the next top 5 prospects in tow.
Chris, take into consideration that Sale has challenged management two times in four months. I’m sure there are GMs all over baseball not quite dying to put up with him, although the pitching will need to be weighed. Players get worse once they start feeling their oats.
Seriously Gus, read what you said in terms of Harvey.
In any event, I totally disagree. GMs, sadly, rapidly forget much bigger things, such as domestic violence, just to scratch out a win.
Sale is a far superior pitcher to Harvey. His baseball card shows it 100% clearly.