Tylor Megill out-battled Mets nemesis Madison Bumgarner and J.D. Davis reached base three times, leading the Mets to a 6-2 win over the Diamondbacks in Arizona Sunday afternoon. The win gave the Mets’ their fifth-straight series win to open the season. And they’re done with the Diamondbacks, going 4-2 against them this year. It’s the fourth-straight year they’ve won the season series against this team, a span in which the Mets hold a 19-7 lead.
The Mets got an unearned run in the first off Bumgarner, the only time they scored in the five innings he was in the game. But once the D’Backs went to the bullpen, the Mets cashed in repeatedly. They took the lead for good in the sixth inning when Starling Marte hit a one-out double. Marte then stole third for the 300th stolen base of his career and came home on a throwing error by the catcher.
It was the BB and HBP offense in the seventh inning as the Mets plated two more runs. Davis opened the inning with a walk and after a single by Luis Guillorme, James McCann was HBP to load the bases and Travis Jankowski drove in the first run with a walk. Marte was hit to drive in the second run. The Mets have now been hit by pitches 14 times in 17 games, a pace that would result in 133 HBP in a 162-game season. The Mets’ record in a season is 95, accomplished by the 2019 squad.
Meanwhile, Megill fanned seen in 6.2 IP and allowed just one run, a homer. He lowered his season ERA to 2.35 in 23 IP, although three of his four games have come against the Nationals and D’Backs, who are a combined 12-22 this season.
Davis hit his first home run of the season in the eighth inning. Playing time has been scarce for Davis so far but with an .805 OPS he’s making his case to be used more going forward than both Robinson Cano and Dominic Smith.
If we use hockey’s three stars of the game approach, Megill is first, Davis second, but I would Guillorme ahead of Lugo’s excellent outing due to not just the two hits but a few solid defensive plays also. Guillorme needs more playing time. Send Smith down to get swings, sit Cano, float McNeil all around, get Guillorme in there more, and convince Cano that he would have a great chance at the Hall of Fame if he could become a catcher.
Gut Reaction: The Diamondbacks are a terrible team and this game showed it. Errors, HBP and walks resulted with runs for the Mets to doom Arizona.
Davis should get more AB’s. Rodriquez continued his march from oblivion. Megill delivered good pitching and length. Jankowski is making a positive impression.
Five straight series wins. This upcoming series with a good Cardinals team will be tough to continue the streak.
Does anyone know how many series wins to start a season is the Mets best? We must be getting close. We got M A X imum starting in StL and we also face a 5+ ERA Matz, so perhaps a 6th series win is in the “cards”.
You opening for Chris Rock?
Earlier, I read that the 2018 Mets also won the first five series to start the season. In today’s column at The Athletic, Tim Britton mentioned that five series wins to start the season ties a franchise record.
Edit: It was Rustin Dodd, aping the format that Britton uses for his Monday morning column.
Good weekend overall.
Some thoughts:
Essentially, we have three LH-batting 2nd basemen, two of whom can’t hit very well. Cano should not be out there at all nor at DH and Guillorme can field but doesn’t hit that well. McNeil needs to be out there most of the time.
We didn’t sign Conforto (despite a bunch of Mets fans clamoring for his return)—thank goodness. Instead we have Marte and Canha out in the OF.
We didn’t sign Matz, who will probably have a mediocre career. Instead we have Bassitt.
We didn’t sign Thor, whom I wanted. But we now have Scherzer.
Lindor and McNeil are having the year now that we expected last year. Thank goodness we didn’t trade the latter player. Same for JD Davis, whom I agree needs to get more ABs.
The trade for Joely Rodriguez doesn’t look bad anymore. He looks good out there after a rough beginning with us. Castro has a good arm, but his control was suspect, and Rodriguez is needed more on the Mets, I think. Rodriguez’s control is a bit better.
Megill and Peterson are young pitchers who are perfecting their craft, like a lot of young pitchers. The Mets patience is paying off now.
Megill came through big… s-t-r-o-n-g future.
Guillorme can hit. .280 plus if he gets the ABs… tough out (like Canha).
Not so fast Steve… McNeil isn’t there yet. Valuable utility tho.
Lindor looking good.
I like Marte… lots of hard hit balls up the middle… will climb with time.
JD has pop… play him.
Pete not striking out as much… a better hitter this year.
Love “E squared”… a baseball player.
I notice Dom Smith makes a lot of outs.
Cano is just done.
I agree with a lot of your comments Wobbit, but I’m having trouble understanding why you are so certain on Guillorme who has been a below average offensive player all of his career, but that McNeil, who was one of the best hitters in MLB before a down year last year isn’t there yet. I agree that it’s too early to say that McNeil is back, but he’s been very good so far. I agree with Steve that McNeil should be the everyday guy at second and fill in in the outfield from time to time,
I’m rooting for McNeil, but he’s very erratic in how he hits and when. He leaves runners on base far too much. He hits fly balls way too much, and he is not as dependable on a given at bat as I would like. I do like how he looks so far, but he has to show that he is out of last year’s funk, outgrown his immature mood swings, and that he is the hitter that everyone seems ready to grant him.
Guillorme has never really had that much consistency in his number of ABs. I believe if he does, he would be the pesky hitter that sprays the ball around, make the opposing pitcher work hard, and get on base perhaps more than even McNeil. Guillorme is a nice end of the order guy who elevates the defense. I’m not screaming for Luis here, but just saying that he should be a viable option that apparently Buck is well aware of.
I’m ready to give the guy his chance. But I love tight defense up the middle… and McNeil is likely to be needed in LF more and more as injuries begin to rear their heads.
Overall, I’d like another good D infielder who bats from the right side.
I agree mostly. I want to see more before I am convinced he is back, but in terms of leaving runners on I think you are off base (pun intended). Here are his stats with runners in scoring position, runners on base and no one on:
2022
RISP 375/444/563
Runners on 346/393/500
No runners 259/355/370
Career
RISP 280/354/438
Runners on 313/382/486
No runners 290/353/439
I like Guillorme, and he draws walks which is good, but with his complete lack of extra base hit power, he is severely limited even if he hits .280.