Chris Bassitt pitched six scoreless innings in his Mets debut and Pete Alonso hit his first career grand slam in the majors to power the Mets to a 5-0 win over the Nationals Saturday night in D.C.
Bassitt showed excellent breaking stuff, which helped his low 90s fastball look more impressive than you’d think that type of heater would be. He gave up just three hits and two of those did not leave the infield. He also finished with 8 Ks in a dominating outing against a weak lineup.
The Mets didn’t reach double digits in hits tonight but that had more to do with the Nats’ defense than good pitching. There were several hard-hit balls that were tracked down in the outfield, including two by Brandon Nimmo and one by Alonso. Still, they finished with nine hits, three of which went for extra-bases. Nimmo and Travis Jankowski had two hits apiece.
Alonso was robbed of an extra-base hit in the third inning by a nice running catch by Victor Robles. But he more than made up for it with a towering grand slam homer that broke a scoreless tie in the fifth. Alonso crushed it and did a little bat flip/twirl in celebration. But it was hit so high and the wind was fairly strong that it ended up closer to a wall scraper than an upper deck shot. But no one should complain about a grand slam at any point.
And for the small-ball fans out there, after being denied two extra-base hits with balls hit deep in the outfield, Nimmo hit a fairly routine ground ball into the shift that bounced off the glove of a running Maikel Franco (who cut in front of a teammate who could have easily made the play) that was ruled a double. He went to third on a fly to right field and scored on a wild pitch.
Three relievers finished up, with newly-acquired Joely Rodriguez looking good in his 4-out appearance, with the extra out coming when he got Juan Soto to ground out to lead off the ninth. The Mets starters are 3-0 and the bullpen has given up 1 ER in 10 IP. Yeah, yeah – it’s against the worst team in the division. But it’s still great to see.
As I look at the box scores around baseball, seems like offense is way down. However, it is nice to see the Mets pitchers rolling and it’s great to see the good control while the other eight provide crisp defense, no errors, and tacking on runs. No matter the quality of the opponent, those are good signs. Lastly, it’s good to see the Mets not being distracted by the National pitchers’ plunking them. The Mets have a look of a focused team. Who are these guys?
Yes, Gus, a focused team taking care of business. A lot of tough competition ahead, but a team can go a long way in a season just by winning the games they are supposed to win.
I think we’re all kind of holding our breath with Carrasco & Walker, not sure what we’ll get. Before the knee injury, I was very optimistic about Walker. I think the example of Max pitching within himself while not 100% had to be a good thing for Walker to witness. I hope he’s ready to go. If one of these two guys can pitch up to his capabilities, that would be huge.
Meeting expectations (like beating a bad nationals team) hasnt exactly been a Mets consistency of late. So its a very encouraging start. Way better than the alternative.
Gut Reaction: The Bassitt trade was a good trade and last night was the proof. He was terrific. It reminds me of the trade for Bobby Ojeda in 1986 and everyone knows how that turned out.
The bullpen also had three scoreless innings again.
Mission accomplished by taking three games in Washington. Now let’s see if they have a new found “killer instinct” and sweep them.