Lessons from Mets-Nationals

Of all the NL East rivals the Nationals in recent times have been, well, the most rivalist. They have been the most successful overall, competed in a couple playoff races with the Mets, and since 2012 they have had the Mets number more than any other team. This why it feels so good to see the Mets have their number this week. Tomorrow will be the thirteenth meeting between the two teams; comprising over a quarter of each’s season to date. There have been plenty of opportunities to compare these two rivals, and a few keys attributes of these Nationals stand out.

The first is their bullpen. Closer Sean Doolittle has been his usual fantastic self outside of last night’s 8^th inning blowup, but before him has come many names that are unrecognizable. Unsurprisingly they have baseball’s worst bullpen ERA, and they have amazingly blown as many saves as they have earned. We have seen their pen on full unsightly display with late inning rallies in each of the first three games of this series.

Second is their defense. With three errors in the series it is clear they are not a great defensive team. When looking at numbers, it is clear that they are in fact a very poor defensive team. Not only are they bottom third in the league in errors, they are bottom three in the league in Defensive Runs Saved at -30. That is -30 runs in a season where they have only scored 214 thus far.

Building off of this, the Nationals seem to be a team that fails to do the little things. Their outfield shifting and communication was off last night, and the night before they threw a completely unnecessary ball to home plate after a runner had already scored. Watching them makes it understandable why a talented team can already have 30 losses.

The funny thing about the term “rival” is that it has a sense of equity. It isn’t a rivalry without some level of equity, and what bothers me about this series is that this is a rivalry. The Nationals despite their talent are no longer a good team, and since these series still feel like a rivalry perhaps neither are the Mets. Perhaps the Mets are another team that was good a few years ago but no more.

When looking at the aforementioned statistics this is undoubtedly accurate. The Mets bullpen has performed amicably in recent games, but it is still suffering with injuries and a subpar ERA. Defensively the Mets are even worse than the Nationals at -37 DRS.

The positive here is that the messy Mets also possess a similar talent-level to their washed-up Washington counterpart. With three great pitchers in each rotation paired to an elite closer, there is hope that during the season some middle relief saviors can emerge. This may already be happening for the Mets with the enhanced play of Drew Gagnon and Tyler Bashlor. Offensively neither of these teams have the deepest of lineups but they seem to have a nice mix of solid vets and improving younger players. Couple that with some impressive bench bats in Matt Adams and now Dominic Smith there is the making of two capable offenses here.

Sometimes you have to look at yourself in the mirror to do better. While it would have been nicer if this had happened last week in DC, this week the Mets are stepping up. In these three games they are not playing like their downtrodden cousin. Their bullpen has held on to games and their defense has looked sharper. They had Adeiny Hechavarria batting 3^rd in the order, Juan Lagares up with the basses loaded, and Rajai Davis making his season debut, but all came through. A similar sequence may happen for the Nationals tomorrow, but for now there is hope that when these two teams meet again in August we don’t think it a rivalry.