For the second time this season, the Mets swept a doubleheader from the Braves, winning the opener by an 8-5 score and the nightcap by a 6-2 margin Saturday at Citi Field.
The common denominator in the two games was excellent starting pitching for the Mets. David Peterson was recalled from the minors and he gave 5.1 scoreless innings. And in the second game, Max Scherzer threw seven shutout innings.
The other thing the two games had in common was that the Mets put up a bunch of runs without the benefit of a homer. After beating the Braves at their own game by clubbing four homers in the opening game of the series, the Mets scored 13 runs in the doubleheader by every other means possible, including timely hitting, aggressive baserunning and even a suicide squeeze.
The only negative over the two games was some less than stellar bullpen action. Maybe Buck Showalter went to the pen earlier than he had to in the opener. But doing that meant that both Seth Lugo and Adam Ottavino had to come on mid-inning, which is less than ideal, as well as having an up/down.
But that was far from the worst thing that happened for the pen. Yoan Lopez, just promoted from the minors for this game, was sent in for the ninth inning with an 8-2 lead. But he couldn’t keep the Braves off the board and he forced Showalter to bring on Edwin Diaz, who got the final two outs and picked up his 25th save.
In the nightcap, Showalter called on Mychal Givens to replace Scherzer in the eighth inning. In his third outing with the Mets, Givens again gave up a run. Trevor May pitched the ninth and he gave up a run, too.
In all, the bullpen gave up 7 ER in 5.2 IP over the two games.
But on a day where the starters were outstanding and the hitters were extremely productive, we can hold off on losing our minds over the bullpen, at least for a day or so. The two wins pushed the Mets’ lead to 5.5 games. And the Mets look to extend that in the final game of the series on Sunday with Jacob deGrom on the mound.
Niiiiice job guys! If it wasn’t for Walker spiking a heel and getting rattled, my prediction would have a better chance.
The pen also gave 8 innings of 1 run yesterday. Ebb and flow.
What more can you say abt this team. They are on a path that leads to the mt rushmore of mets team’s. 4 games back of the 86 squad. With big game Max taling the rubber in the playoffs…They can do it too
Mean while thr Padres emptied their farm and cant beat the Dodgers.
The team continues to impress. Even in the loss, they battled.
Game 2 plays at home plate huge – Alonso safe by a spike, Guillorme with a spectacular play to nail TDA. The successful Nido squeeze. The small details can and do have huge effects.
It has been a team effort, but special kudos to Peterson and Lindor, the latter has been performing like a top 10 player for several weeks now. They are a different team when he does.
Let’s see what Jake can do vs. a big league line up today, with Diaz available.
top 5 in WRC+ since July 1 (Judge, Riley, Freeman, Seager)
its a team worth watching…and it would be great to see more folks in chat.
Its time to realize this team can score runs many ways. Being in TN, im forced to watch the Brave telecast and they berate the Mets as “lucky” hitters because every hit isnt a HR. They continue to say the Mets a team of lucky infield hits. The fact is, because of Buck, the Mets have learned that contact and balls in play matter. They are a threat for long ball and small ball…and I couldnt be happier. And we know they can pitch. The glaring hole is a lack of 7th and 8th inning relievers that can be counted on. Long relief is in place as is closer.
The team has passed the 2/3 pole and now sit at a 104 W pace. We hit the Braves with the best possible rotation and now get 3 with the Reds, which should be super helpful to keep the pressure on without the best pitching. Id like to see deGrom get some runs today, then we wipe out the Reds as the rest of the month looks pretty tough: 4 ATL, 7 Phillies, 2 NYY, and 3Dodgers. Mercifully, Sept is the easiest month of the season.
Oh yeah, were 30 over .500, and now only 1 behind the Yankees.
Tell the Braves broadcasters that if their team doesn’t throw the ball all over the field and make boneheaded base running plays they don’t have to worry about the other team getting lucky.
Great day overall. One smaller thing that I noticed that I was very happy about was that despite the HR, May looked very good. On the HR it seemed that he just tried to pump a fastball by him for strike three and left it in the middle. With a 5 run league that probably was not a bad strategy. Here’s hoping he can find his top form.