One day after holding the HR-happy Braves to just a solo homer, Atlanta belted two, 2-run homers en route to a 4-1 victory over the Mets Tuesday night.
Following up Monday’s golden sombrero, Matt Olson got his revenge. After just missing by inches on a home run previously in his AB in the sixth inning, Olson crushed one to center field to give the Braves a 2-1 lead. Adam Duvall hit his two-run blast the following inning to clinch the win.
The Mets drew first blood in the fifth inning, as Brandon Nimmo drew a walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch and then came home on a hit by Francisco Lindor. Ronald Acuna tried to cut the ball off but was unable and the ball went all the way to the wall. Lindor was credited with a triple.
But that’s the only offense the Mets were able to muster all night.
David Peterson started and pitched a strong game until Olson’s AB in the sixth. He was removed for Seth Lugo, who got out of the sixth but was then sent back in the seventh and eventually surrendered the gopher ball to Duvall.
It was curious bullpen management by Buck Showalter, especially with the pen in fairly good shape, Edwin Diaz aside. Using Lugo this way – both mid-inning and for an up/down – was just asking for trouble and that’s what they got. It seemed early to bring him in the game, too. Colin Holderman threw a scoreless 1.1 IP to finish up.
The Mets look to win the series with a 12:20 start on Wednesday.
Pretty surprised to see Peterson throw 105 pitches. Also, it seems that Showalter hasn’t gotten the memo that Olsen hits more homeruns against lefties than any other lefty in baseball. Second time Showalter has been burned that way this year, and this one from a tired pitcher. Do we need to see a hat trick?
Has anyone heard if Trevor May is still alive? What happened to his being back soon?
Alderson went on the NY Post’s pod to break the news that the Mets needed a DH. I am more of the opinion they need arms Showalter can count on. I would downgrade Lugo on the totem pole. Problem is, who is ready to take Lugo’s place? Drew Smith, Holderman, Rodriguez, Ottavino and Diaz are fine. I don’t know when Lugo will be effective because he has thrown more than one scoreless inning a few times, and he has absolutely sucked other times. May is MIA, Trevor Williams can go to the bullpen but he has been a good starter. Medina has been good and I don’t know how much more they need to see of the guy. Szapucki should be an option, but they won’t use him as a reliever. Tommy Hunter hasn’t been very good in six years. So for me, that’s the area that the good organizations have abundance of: quality arms that are healthy.
It doesn’t help to have three starters out with replacements that don’t hit. Clearly one more big arm in the pen would be a game changer, but I agree with Alderson that we need a DH or in more simple terms a bit bat. The DH spot should be a huge luxury for us but it has been far from that. We need a Cepedes type addition to blow up the status quo. If you remember, when he came to us, not only was he on fire but he made everyone else better who batted around him. Sure, when healthy we can play small ball and put up a five spot but there is nothing more oppressive to an opponent when you can blast some HRs at the end of a game to get the win. After Lindor and Alonso, the HR bats pretty much disappear. Pitch around them and make them chase after a pitch to hit has been the recipe for throwing those two into a slump. Maybe time to bring up Vientos and give him a week at DH. Could not do worse than Dom and JD. And there should still be a good market for Smith to be someone else’s starting 1B. We face Morton today in trying for the series win. Fingers crossed.
Gut Reaction: the Braves home run bug bit the Mets in this game.
Peterson pitched good but he wasn’t efficient, throwing 105 pitches and only 59 that were strikes, resulting in 16 outs.
Again the relief corps gave up another home run. Alderson said that they are looking for a set up relief pitcher because of the influx of home runs by present crew. He also said they they are looking for DH.
Let’s face it, Smith, Escobar, Jankowski and Mazeika doesn’t scare a RHP. Let’s win this afternoon and take the series. LGM
I’m baffled by this:
>> It was curious bullpen management by Buck Showalter, especially with the pen in fairly good shape, Edwin Diaz aside. Using Lugo this way – both mid-inning and for an up/down – was just asking for trouble and that’s what they got. It seemed early to bring him in the game, too. <<
Lugo entered the game having thrown 15 pitches in the last 5 days, with two complete days of rest. Showalter is doing everything he can to coddle this guy into effectiveness. Sure, in an ideal world, he starts a clean inning — but, um, this is *baseball.*
For years you've argued for relievers to be used for more than one inning. Now you complain at an "up-and-down?" To me, this is a guy who can’t bounceback, needs a lot of rest, and the ideal way — maybe the last hope — is to rest him fully (2 days) and then use him for 2 innings, up to 30 pitches, then rest him again. Because we know he useless the next day, and the day after that is also a worry.
Also, he's awful. Early in the game to use him? He's pretty much squandered a late-game role. This is an area where the Mets have a clear need. I remember how great Seth used to be, his incredible 2019 season. This isn't that guy and his constant N/A puts a strain on the rest of the pen.
I agree that using Lugo — in any capacity — was asking for trouble. But what can a manager do? At this point, what role works for this guy? Last night was his night. He was super rested and Diaz was out. The Mets needed some outs and he couldn't deliver.
But go ahead, blame Buck.
My hope going into the season was that Lugo could be used for multiple innings. He’s proven incapable of that, regardless of how much rest he’s had. Just because I want him to fill that role doesn’t mean that he can. And if you continue to try something that doesn’t work – well, you need to be held accountable.
I feel like I’ve bent over backwards to praise Showalter for being the Mets’ best bullpen manager in over a decade – and multiple times I’ve said that. But that doesn’t mean he’s immune to having his bullpen moves questioned.
It’s pretty obvious at this point in time that you don’t pitch Lugo in back-to-back days and you don’t pitch him for more than an inning at a time. Is that ideal? No, far from it. But if you give him rest, don’t use him mid-inning and don’t ask for multiple innings – he’s still effective. If the team can use Diaz only in the 9th inning and only when they have a lead and only one of three runs or fewer 95% of the time, there’s really no reason they can’t use Lugo in a similar complex-rules way.
That Buck chooses to pitch him in roles that he’s no longer suited for here in the fourth month of the season – well, sorry, that’s completely on him.
You saw that Diaz pitched 3 games in a row, right? What are you advocating for?
Lugo’s health has made him a nearly-useless pitcher — certainly the role that you outline for him is so marginal that he’s inches from being DFA’d. The N/A stuff forces Buck to burn other relievers in the pen. He’s not only bad, his chronic N/A negatively effects other pitchers in the bullpen.
This was a big game, the Braves, and Lugo was very well rested and *needed.*
The problem is the player, not the manager who is still trying to get some value out of the guy who is basically useless most games & only questionable when the stars align and he’s available.
Blaming the manager for this state of affairs is, IMO, complete denial.
My hope at this point is that 45 days on the IL maybe helps him recover something. This is a guy whose fastball used to be electric at 97 mph, playing off a curveball that had real bite. He dominated. These days Lugo can summon that from time to time, but without consistency or reliability. I don’t believe in saying that a player is “done,” but he’s pitching like it this season.
My preference would have been to use Lugo in the 9th inning on Monday with a 3-run lead. He was rested and it was right in his wheelhouse of a 1-inning outing. However, I understood Buck not wanting to risk losing a great start by Scherzer. So, not what I would have done but nothing which I strongly objected to, either.
As for
Saturday’sTuesday’s game in particular, I would have absolutely used Lugo. But I would have used him after Holderman. Instead of using Holderman to clean up after Lugo and pitch another inning, I would have used him to clean up after Peterson. So, Holderman gets the 6th and 7th. And then Smith & Lugo to finish the game, in some order. And since the Mets didn’t score, it’s likely you only use one of them.Look at games this year where Lugo has had at least a day between appearances, comes on at the start of an inning and pitches only one inning. I don’t have time to do it now but it’s somewhere around 20 games and a 2.00 ERA. And those include high-leverage spots, too, not mop-up innings. There’s no reason you couldn’t use Lugo in this way for 60 games and 60 IP. That’s an extremely valuable reliever and, in all honesty, it’s not really that hard for a manager to do.
You can essentially use Ottavino in the same exact way. If you can take two relievers and get 120 IP from them at a sub-3.00 – why on earth wouldn’t you? Especially with both of them capable of pitching high-leverage innings.