All the Mets needed to break their losing streak was to play a doubleheader. Either that are the offensively challenged Marlins. Either way, the Mets swept a twinbill on Tuesday, winning the opener, 5-2, and the nightcap, 2-1. It’s an open question if it’s in the Mets’ best interests to win any more games the rest of the way.
In the first game, Francisco Lindor had two hits, including a homer, and drove in three runs to power the Mets to victory. Marcus Stroman picked up his 10th win of the season and Edwin Diaz pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning to pick up his 31st save of the season.
The second game saw the return of Noah Syndergaard to the mound, the first time he’s pitched in the majors in over two years. Syndergaard needed just 10 pitches to complete his scheduled one inning of work. Tyler Williams relieved him in the second inning and gave up a homer on the first pitch he threw. It was the only run the Marlins would score the rest of the way, even with two innings with the zombie runner on second base in the eighth – against Jeurys Familia! – and ninth.
The Mets’ offense wasn’t much better but they have the excuse of facing the Marlins’ ace for five innings. Kevin Pillar tied the game in the sixth with an RBI single. James McCann hit a booming dribbler to bring home the winning run in the ninth, making a winner out of Brad Hand.
If you want to hear an interesting segment on hitting, listen to the archive of the audio of the first game and go to the1:56:00 mark. The segment opens about how Chili Davis would deal with each hitter individually and looked to break bad streaks by trying to get hitters out of the funk they have fallen into.
Lee Mazzilli, who I’m quickly learning is a professor of baseball-more thoughtful than even Keith Hernandez-talks about hitting and situational hitting. He says that hitters should stop worrying about what pitch a certain pitcher is liable to throw in a certain count, and look for a pitch in a certain spot. He doesn’t say it, but we can infer, the Mets have spent too many at bats being confused by what pitch is coming in that 2/5 of a second rather than identifying the spot they want the pitch to be in, and just making hard contact. Priceless. The first time in my life that I sat there re-hearing a game in my life.
Stroman pulled after 78 pitches. Not pinch hit for to try to add runs, but just pulled. No comment.
Also, the Mets pick 13th right now but really can’t fall passed 14th. They can jump up to 10th by “doing the right thing”. LOL
Gus,
I think the “blew it” with that sweep…maybe the new collective bargaining agreement will change those rules and make it a moot point.
From a layman’s observations, I agree with Maz 100%. Now, from the contrarian point of view, maybe the modern day hitter needs or feels the need to “guess” given that velocity has risen since the days of Maz or Chili…it is hard to speak to that from the living room recliner. But, I’ve seen countless times based on the swings and/or hitter reactions…that’s good pitching, but for the Mets it has happened in hitter’s counts, on fastballs, to middle of the line up hitters, way way too often.
Actually, Maz made a point of addressing that. He says that especially in light of the velocity, it’s easier to just narrow down to a particular area and not try to guess pitch type. It’s easier to look for a spot and adjust to the velocity. Even if you are late, you still are hitting it to the opposite field, or if you look fastball you can muscle an off speed pitch. Better than not hitting it, right?
One thing Maz hates is strikeouts. He says that accepting a strikeout is failing the team. This point was brought up by Wayne Randazzo by saying he interviewed Tony LaRussa before the game he worked this past Saturday and LaRussa just couldn’t understand why striking out is so acceptable. Maz agreed and elaborated.