Pete Alonso blasted two homers in the nightcap, powering the Mets to a 6-1 win over the Phillies and a split of the doubleheader Sunday in Philadelphia. The home team claimed a 3-2 win in the opener. The split gave the Mets another series victory, their eighth in nine series to open the season. The Mets are now 20-10 on the season.
Alonso had a 2-run homer in the first inning to give the Mets the early lead. And in the fifth inning he added a 3-run shot. Both homers went to left field, a nice thing to see after all of the opposite-field hitting he’s done recently. Alonso also had a single in the game, giving him a three-hit outing.
The homers made a winner out of Chris Bassitt, who raised his record to 4-2 on the season. He went 5.2 IP with 4 Ks. The only run he gave up was a homer to Jean Segura. Chasen Shreve finished out the sixth inning and also pitched the seventh. Drew Smith took care of the eighth and Seth Lugo closed out the game.
The doubleheader worked out pretty well for the bullpen, as five relievers got work ahead of Monday’s day off. Buck Showalter was able to get both his lefties work in appropriate situations. Among the top short relievers, only Edwin Diaz will have an extended time off between appearances and will almost certainly pitch on Tuesday.
In the opener, Max Scherzer gave up a couple of loud hits to Bryce Harper and a bunch of bloops and bleeders to the rest of the Phillies’ lineup which allowed Philadelphia to race out to a 3-0 lead. The Mets battled back for two runs in the sixth inning. But they did not hit the ball out of the infield over the final three frames, a fact that really hurt given that they got the first two batters on in the seventh thanks to walks. The end result was no additional runs and a one-run setback
It’s hard for Mets fans to accept losing a close game, especially when it was right there for the taking. Lindor’s foul pole blast, which would have tied the game, inexplicably stayed in the park. Although it plated Nimmo, McNeil struck out with Lindor at second. It happens.
With two on and no out late in the game, Buck had options but chose none of them, which was also an option. Hard to imagine that Smith (cooled off after one great game?), Marte, and Guillorme would all strike out. Mark that one down, Buck… sometimes you have to put something on to force the action… if Smith bunts successfully (highly unlikely), they probably walk Marte and pitch to Guillorme with the bases loaded… hard to imagine the Mets not scoring… but still possible.
There were several times in the second game that the Mets did not run on the catcher not named Realmuto. Nimmo on with Canha ahead in the count… why not? Pete made the point moot, but I am sensing a relaxing of the aggressive running attitude… and I hope it’s my imagination.
Gut Reaction: The Mets took care of business in Philadelphia. The doubleheader spit and series win projects to a 108 win season. That’s wishful thinking.
The two homeruns for Alonso raised his SLG to .500 and his OPS above .800, finally.
Showalter is managing the bullpen adaptly and he ⅕was rewarded with scoreless innings by them.
On to Washington and continue their .667 winning percentage with a 2-1 series win. LGM
We won the series. That is what matters. Yesterday owning I was wondering, where were the home runs for Pete. Well, I got my answer. Thanks Pete !
Should it concern us that they haven’t been able to sweep a series or establish a winning streak of more than 3 games?
the flip side of that is they might be due for a nice little streak pretty soon. In fact, it’s not hard to see them winning the next 5 (a sweet against the nats, and the first two against the mariners with Scherzer and Bassit lined up). 10 games over feels pretty good, but how much better does 25-10 feel and look?
If you take 10% of the schedule,sixteen games, and when one more game than .500,9-7, then you will get a 90 win season. 90 wins has been enough since then playoffs expanded to 5 teams.
Interesting thought about “winning the series”. The series was 4 games, with the last ppd game being played later in the year. Is 2/4 really a series win? At the very least, it will not be a series lost.
Im not worried about streaks at all. One thing us fans often lament is the lack of consistency. If you told me the Mets would stay on track and not have runs of 10+ wins or 5+ losses, Id sign up for that no questions.
Series by series…
The Giants won 107 games last year. Their longest winning streak? 9 games. Longest losing streak? 4 games
The Dodgers won 106 games last year. Their longest winning streak? 9 games. Longest losing streak? 4 games
i definitely think holding the losing streaks at bay is more important than long winning streaks. Win the majority of the series, then do no worse then split the majority of what’s left and you should be a playoff team.
I’d be curious though (and am too busy to look) how many winning streaks of 4 games or more did both the Giants and Dodgers have, and how many losing streaks of 4 games or more did they have? My guess would be they each had at least 5 separate 4-6 game winning streaks and no more than 3 separate 4 game losing streaks.
It is a series win. You cannot win games you don’ play.
I believe in winning one series at a time. It is a sure way to keep the eye on the task in front of you. If you win every series by one game, you finish 52 games over .500, or 107 games. Hard to argue with those results.
Current trendings:
McNeil slightly down
Lindor down
Smith down
JD up
Marte up
Alonso up
Escobar down
Canha down
Nimmo up
Winning anything requires gambling (I play the stock market)… you have to catch things on the rise and mitigate the losses. Play JD and Guillorme more this week! Give Escobar and Lindor some time off. Maybe use Jankowski for Canha a bit more… trends shift and reverse with time… I’m hoping Buck is left free enough to trust his gut.
I hope Buck’s “gut” realizes he’s coaching men and not trading stocks.