The Mets are now 7-3 against their NL East foes as they defeated the Braves 6-3 tonight. Steven Matz pitched six strong innings with eight strikeouts; he now carries a 1.65 ERA on the season.
Amed Rosario led the team on offense with 4 RBI: Pete Alonso added two insurance runs in the eighth with a two-run homerun with an exit velocity of 118 mph which is the hardest hit in the majors this season.
My Gut Reaction is that Matz is carrying the production that Zack Wheeler was supposed to provide. I also believe that Robinson Cano is lost at the plate as he went 0-5 with two K’s. Although a small sample size, Cano’s hard hit rate is 30 percentage points below last year and his K% is up eight points.
It’s crazy to think that the Mets are averaging over 6 rpg when their leadoff hitter has a .581 OPS and their #3 hitter has a .561 mark. Just shows how well everyone else is hitting.
I would have preferred to see Matz go out for the 7th. Weather wasn’t an issue and he had retired 14 of the last 15 hitters he faced.
Yeah Cano isn’t hitting the ball hard and has played every game and should sit a game for sure.
Maybe Matz is figuring it out and moving him to the other side of the rubber will pay some dividends and he’s definitely looked great and was better than his final line due to shoddy OF defense. I thought Rosario would have a good year this year, but not quite breakout, but he’s hitting the ball harder and walking more and while he’s still chasing some he looks a lot better this April than he did at anytime in the first half of last year. What can you say about Alonso? He’s looking like a much less buff version of Stanton and his numbers vs starters vs relievers are short sample size craziness. Not sure what Snitker was thinking letting Venters a loogy face Alonso just like I don’t understand why Avilan was allowed to face Acuna. The Mets bullpen is a tire fire as is every teams bullpen in the division, pretty crazy. Familia owes the home plate ump a gift basket and Diaz looked shaky too and I was sure he was gonna walk Freeman and give up a walk off granny to Acuna thankfully it didn’t happen.
Gut Reaction: Rosario is mirroring the career of Jose Reyes ( just a little less) and also has a .353 OBP which is a really good sign.
Alonso is amazing. I am very excited.
It is great that Matz is stepping up his game especially when Wheeler is struggling.
Nice first game of a difficult four game road series and the blockwork of a possible series win. LGM