It took 159 games but the offense we expected the Mets to have this year finally showed up. They hat 10 hits, with six of them going for extra-bases, along with seven walks and the end result was a 12-3 win over the Marlins Thursday night, giving them the series win by a 10-9 margin.
Pete Alonso cracked two homers, a solo shot in the second to give the Mets an early lead and a two-run knock in the eighth to cap the scoring. Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam in the eighth inning that put the game out of reach, extending the lead to 10-3 before Alonso’s second blast of the night.
Michael Conforto had a big night, going 3-5 with a double and two RBIS. Shoot, even James McCann got in on the act, as he had a double and a walk to go with two runs and two RBIs.
Rich Hill got his first win as a Met in his last start of the year. He didn’t pitch particularly well, as he allowed two runs in the third after Alonso gave him the lead and a run in the fourth after the Mets had tied the game. Hill’s final line with the Mets this year, barring a wacky relief appearance against the Braves, is: 63.1 IP, 3.84 ERA, 1.279 WHIP and a 3.11 K/BB ratio. Not bad for an old man.
I’m afraid that “too little too late” is kind of a Mets thing.
Hard to get excited about routing the Marlins after being eliminated from a mediocre division. I don’t have the numbers to back me up, but it seems that both Alonso and Lindor were underachievers with RISP. If so, these late season homers are good for them individually, but not what they get paid for…
I like Pete as a kid, but I would gladly trade him for two core pieces of a more solid team. He’s incredibly valuable as a DH… just as JDDavis is. But Pete’s defense will probably not get much better.
Brian sent out a link the other day to Baseball Reference with the Mets stats with RISP. Alonso has hot .252 and with a 351/469/819 line, so a little below his overall numbers but not by a ton.
Lindor has actually been great with RISP – .283 BA and a 410/543/954 line – I was surprised when I saw that. Like you Wobbit, I get the sense that a lot of Lindor’s numbers were compiled in low leverage situations. His 0.1 WPA seems to back that up.
Great nugget there about the wPA Bob.
It is reminiscent of last year Diaz where he had shiny traditional numbers on the surface but again when you looked at his wPA, it was only a meager 0.114 which means he failed a lot in big spots.
Agreed Name, and to further Wobbit’s point there’s some stat padding going on now in games that don’t even matter so they are likely adding wPA now in meaningless games.
It felt like Conforto night at Citifield. I think there is room for him as he has upside, but like Wobbit, I can move Alonso for two good young pitchers in a second. I kind of feel like I’m picking on him because I’ve been trying to trade Alonso since last offseason, but I just don’t see upside; he can only get worse and I don’t see better. Conforto on the other hand, had been in the top 15 in outfielder fWAR pre-2021 if you add up the previous three years. That’s top 15%, and Alonso is nowhere near that. Put Smith or Davis at 1B.