Seth Lugo threw a brilliant six scoreless innings to defeat the Reds 5 to 1 at Citi Field. Lugo was backed up by two Jose Reyes home runs and the first ever long ball from Travis Taijeron. Lugo looked in charge with a mix of his trademark tight spin curve and well-placed fastballs. He allowed some base runners, but made the big pitches when he had to to keep them from scoring.
Tommy Milone threw a scoreless frame and Paul Sewald and Jerry Blevins combined for another to keep the Reds off the board through eight innings. Blevins started the ninth and got into some trouble, but A.J. Ramos was able to bail him out and notch his 27th save of the season.
That’s three wins in a row for the Mets who are getting some consistent pitching and surprising power from a lineup who’s top home run hitters are all either on other rosters or on the DL. Tomorrow the resurgent Rafael Montero takes the hill against the struggling Homer Bailey. Let’s go Mets.
Jose Reyes 1st homerun was his 100th as a Met.Nice milestone.He now has over 100 triples and homeruns as a Met.
Very happy to see the wins and it seems ever since Brian called the Reds a good offense in his article, Mets pitchers have mostly overwhelmed them. While we all love wins, the Astros just swept us with ease. Beating the Phillies and the Reds is nice, but getting creamed by the good teams – Dodgers, Astros, Nationals – keeps us from getting too excited about the direction of this team.
Lugo pitched well. Among 74 ML starters that have pitched this year, Lugo with his 3.90 FIP his ranked 45th. That places him as a 3-4 starter in the league. Lugo has the partial tear making him an injury waiting to happen and for that reason he should not be relied on for the rotation. He would make an good middle relief pitcher, spot starter and injury replacement for a starter in 2018.
Reyes is batting .286/.332/.498 with nine home runs and 11 stolen bases in 69 game. He is an adequate defensive shortstop with his best defensive position being second base with third base being his weakest. He also was non existent at the beginning of the year and is 34 YOA. He is a better player than Cechinni and Reynolds. Based on these facts, he could have a role on the 2018 team.
Metsense, that’s a pretty spot on assessment. Reyes still has value to this team, especially if he’s willing to come back on a reasonable one or two year deal. Reynolds is what he is, a deep depth piece to keep in aaa for emergencies. I get the sense Cecchini is in the same category, which is a shame given how high he was drafted.
Even Dominic Smith managed a hit!
What a lineup, Nimmo easily with the highest BA (by .025) at .284.
Batting 5th: Taijeron @ .174
Batting 6th: Smith @ .196
Batting 7th: Cecchini @ .196
Batting 8th: Reynolds @ .202
Batting 9th: Lugo @ .182
Good Lord!
And they won, which I don’t believe is a good thing. It would be just like the Mets to go on a meaningless hot streak at the end of the season and slip back to the #9 overall pick.
Beating the Phillies and Reds is hardly much to talk about. Lets also not forget its September. And the sad thing is it is hurting the draft position. We are now down to 7. Id prefer if we stink, to at least get something out of it. I cant see the wins as anything more than a temporary “feel good”. Its curing the symptom, not the problem. I will say our near “all LV” line up is what I want to see. Good on Nimmo and Lagares, and ultimately Reyes.
Our big hurdle is what Alderson (I presume) does this off season. Unfotunately, I exect the whole staff to return (this year being blamed on injury) and some back end starter, coupled with the belief all the injury pitchers magically come back well.
I was good to see Metsense’s statistic on Jose’s 2nd half performance. Does this mean Jose has the one up on Cabrera’s option for next year? I think the team only needs one veteran insurance infielder especially if Jose is a better fielding shortstop.