Zack Wheeler tossed seven shutout innings, lifting the Mets to a sweep of the White Sox as they posted a 4-0 victory. It’s the seventh-straight win for the Mets, raises their record since the All-Star break to 13-5 and brings them within two games of .500 for the year.
Wheeler was great for five innings last time out before tiring in the sixth in his first game action in 19 days. This time, he gave the Mets a longer start, as he allowed just four baserunners in his seven frames and notched seven strikeouts. He’s now 5-1 in games this year when he hasn’t allowed a homer, 8-6 overall.
Robinson Cano gave the Mets the early lead with a solo homer to lead off the second inning. It was an opposite field wall scraper. Cano later added an RBI double and came around to score on a play where it looked like he was going to be out by 10 feet. But the throw came in on a bounce and was unable to be corralled by the White Sox catcher and was scored an error. Wilson Ramos also had a two-hit game for the Mets.
Luis Avilan pitched 1.1 scoreless innings before giving way to Jeurys Familia, who retired the only two batters he faced in an outing that had us all holding our breath. Mets now head to Pittsburgh, where they hope to continue their strong recent performance against a Pirates squad that may be down a few players after their big brawl with the Reds.
weaker competition sure, but still…starting pitching has been en fleek!
Missed the game, but it looks like a nice win. Yes, it’s the White Sox, but they got the job done and need to keep the pedal down in Pittsburgh. Not much margin for error, but for the time being the team is fun to follow.
7 in a row, we upgraded our rotation and Pete Alonso got #LFGM trending on Twitter. Not a bad week to be a Mets fan.
4 games back of the second wild card but more importantly 5 teams to pass.
Re: their pace. I saw this tweet but haven’t fact checked it yet. Thought it was interesting.
“If Mets win today, they’re 53-55.
They’ll be 30-42 vs. teams at/above .500
23-13 against sub. 500 teams
They have 30 games left vs. contenders. 24 vs. non.
Using their current statistics, they’d be projected to go 28-26* which has them 81-81.”
I’m sure the info in the tweet is true.
But so much depends on when you play a team and how well you’re doing at the time and it’s impossible to say that one means more than the other on anything resembling a consistent basis.
Just recently, the Mets played the Padres and Pirates at a good time and the Giants at a bad time. But what are the odds that a team wins three extra-inning games in a four-game series? Any outcome in that series was possible. And right now it goes down as 1-3 against a +.500 team. I wouldn’t wager on the Giants being an above .500 team at the end of the year.
And from June 9 to July 15, the Phillies were 5-18 against every non-Mets team they played. Yet, somehow, they were 6-1 against the Mets. It was a good time for the Mets to play them, because everyone else was kicking dirt in their face. But the Mets were in such sad shape – that didn’t matter.
You have no control who you play when. You just show up ready to compete that day. I make no apologies for who the Mets play whenever they put together a good stretch. No one feels sorry for you when you go on a losing stretch when you play good teams – why should you make apologies for beating the bad teams?
And given that the Mets have to play the Yankees every year while the Nationals get the Orioles and the Cardinals get the Royals – I refuse to make schedule apologies, ever.
My eyes are wide open about the strength of schedule here so far in the second half. No one will give them any credit until they beat the three teams ahead of them in the East. And that’s fine. I’m happy to get the much-needed wins and look forward to playing the Nats and Phillies and Braves when the starting pitchers are performing up to expectations.
There are 21 games against those three teams. They’ll have to do significantly better than the 16-20 mark they have against them to date. I’m eager to see what happens.
I look at the schedule and I see the Mets winning 84 games provided they continued to play competitively. If they can when one more game when they play Philadelphia, Washington and Atlanta then they could end up with 87 wins. In 2016, during August, I predicted there wild card run using this same ideology. In 2019 I don’t have the same confidence in the bullpen or the manager. I think their ceiling is only 84 games and that is being an optimist.
Poor Callaway – being compared unfavorably to TC.
It would be easier to compare if we knew the level of interference that each had to put up with. Do we criticize Callaway for all things Cano-related or does that go elsewhere? Was the LOOGY madness all TC or on orders from above?
Push comes to shove, I’ll take Callaway managing a game over TC
The Dodgers are 41-13 against sub.500 teams. No on is talking about how easy their schedule has been. (of course they are also 31-26 against above .500 teams, but still…)
Exactly.
You’ve got to do well against the sub .500 teams because virtually no team is going 41-13 against the good teams in the league. Last year in the NL, the Dodgers were 13 games above .500 against those teams, the Cardinals were 7 games above .500 and the Rockies were 4 games above .500 — those are the best marks.
The Braves won 90 games last year because they went 52-32 against sub-.500 teams. The 2015 Mets went 62-34 against sub-.500 teams.
People see the Mets winning now against the bad teams and say – “So what? It doesn’t matter because the competition level isn’t there.” But that’s completely missing the point. You absolutely, positively have to beat these teams. So, when you beat these teams consistently, the reaction should be — “Good, we’re doing what needs to be done.”
Right now the Mets are 10 games above .500 against sub-.500 teams and 12 games below .500 against .500 and better squads. They need to improve both halves of that split. They double the “below” advantage and cut the “above” deficit in half and you get 90 wins. But time is a huge factor and it’s playing against them.
Mr Cano owes the Mets, certainly owes BVW.
Good for him on Thurs, but he must deliver all of Aug and Sept to justify his salary, and his legacy !
He cannot be another Carlos Baerga, Roberto Alomar, wonderful 2B’smen that came to stink once they became Mets. There is still time for Cano,
he can make a statement, but it has to be now, like yesterday, and his 3 HR day. If he finishes up something like .260 / 20 / 50 and Mets make the WC, no one will remember Cano was awful April – July, no one will care either. Mets need him bad.
Looks like Alonso is hitting a bit of a brick wall and the team defense is overall not good, likely not going to be a strength the remainder of the year, so the team needs to hit and pitch, period. Squirrel, Conforto, Rosario are helping out tons now. Cano and Alonso back hitting as they can will make the lineup very difficult for opposing pitchers.
Pitching should be there with starters to include Stroman, going later into games, saving the BP. Come on Cano, you owe it to all Mets fans and to yourself to show who you are (with no juice) !
Gut reaction: The last six games have been against teams that:
1. Swung at pitches by their neck in clutch 9th inning situations.
2. Aside from Giolito’s great start, haven’t had overwhelming pitching.
3. Teams that are playing like they are out of it.
This isn’t meant to splash cold water on the win streak, nor is it claiming that the Mets really aren’t better, but if in fact they are to climb into the mix, they need to clean up their lineup issues because a team with as bad a defense as the Mets cannot expect a suboptimal lineup to overcome the worst defense in the league. They need to maximize their strengths, and minimize their weaknesses. That means Frazier to the bottom, Cano to 7th, Ramos to 6th, Davis 5th, Alonso 4th, McNeil 3rd, Conforto 2nd and Rosario at the top. This, until Nimmo comes back. Enough ass kissing on that team already, if they really want to win.
we definitely caught a break against the white sox in the first game with some of those 9th inning swings. but earlier in the year, we lose that game. this time, we caught a good bounce so to speak. All win streaks include moments / games like that.