Pete Alonso was one of three Mets to homer, pacing a 13-hit attack, as the Mets opened up their four-game series against the Giants with a 9-4 win Thursday night in San Francisco.
Following a leadoff HBP to Francisco Lindor in the fourth inning, Alonso followed with a laser-beam HR to left, one that barely cleared the wall, to give the Mets a 2-0 lead. Alonso would add a two-run single in the seventh, one that Lindor scored thanks to an aggressive send by third base coach Joey Cora. The ball was hit up the middle and Lindor initially headed back to second base. But he turned on the jets when the ball went thru the infield and scored easily with the throw up the line.
Eduardo Escobar, who was earlier robbed of a hit and an RBI, got revenge by blasting a two-run homer to left field, one where he pulled a Carlton Fisk by pleading with his body language for the ball to stay fair. That came one batter after Jeff McNeil was hit by a pitch.
The Mets’ staked Kodai Senga to a 5-0 lead but like it has previously, a long inning by the Met in the fourth led to Senga having trouble in the fifth. He allowed four runs, including two homers in the fifth, after throwing four scoreless innings previously. The tying run was on second base but Senga got out of the inning with a soft line drive out.
The hope was that Senga could go longer after the bullpen had to go six innings on Wednesday. But he was pulled after just five innings. The Mets got four scoreless innings out of their pen, including the best outing so far this season from Brooks Raley.
Buck Showalter gets high marks for getting his relievers rest. But he made some curious moves, pitching Drew Smith a second consecutive night and Jeff Brigham for the third straight day. This despite having nine bullpen arms at his disposal for this game. Showalter could have opted for the recently activated Tommy Hunter or the recently promoted Edwin Uceta. The Mets will have to make a move to get Joey Lucchesi on the roster and it would be a shame if Brigham was sent down because he pitched three straight days. If you’re not going to use Uceta with a five-run lead, when are you going to use him?
Both Brandon Nimmo and McNeil continued to rake, as each of them had 3-hit games. Nimmo had an RBI double in the fourth inning and McNeil led off the sixth with his first homer of the year.
Gut Reaction: the offense is starting to gel more. Alonso is on a 73 pace for home runs. Senga has got you pitch more than five innings. I’m confident that he will . The bullpen use with very puzzling. Nimmo and McNeil are on fire right now. Finally, Escobar caught a break having the home run stay fair. He has been hitting in bad luck lately. He has been getting bad press but I think he has a useful place on this team.
So after the first 20 games of the season, we have yet to see the SP do much of anything for the team. I’ve noted the following #s between the SP and the BP. I’m sure Brian and others will do a much better job with the information provided. First column is for SP, the second for the BP.
IP 100.2 77.6 HA 96 63 HRA 21 9 ER 53 28 Ks 91 75 BB 54 30 ERA 4.76 3.60
Starting pitchers have gone 9-6 in the W-L column while the bullpen is 4-1 with just 1 blown save.
Overall, the numbers provided by the BP is what has been the difference between us going 13-7, rather then 7-13. Pretty remarkable without a Diaz!
I appreciate the work that you put in to your comment. It was very informative.
The starting pitching has been disappointing.
But I think there’s a discrepancy between perception and reality here. The perception is that it’s been irredeemable. The reality is that they’re 7th in the NL in IP from starters and their 4.74 ERA is closer to first (3.05) than to last (6.60).
The SP needs to improve. But the starting point is higher than bottom 3 in the league.
Professional, disciplined, well-coached team. The starting pitching can only improve (right?) meaning the sky’s the limit.
Sorry if my previous comment about our SP sounded so negative….. Brian & BoomBoom are correct; the SP will improve, of that we are sure. The comment given was to give more of a praise to the overall performance of the BP, especially since many individuals went gloom & doom over the loss of Diaz. Hopefully with more innings from our starters, the bullpen will even do better.
Nice to see Alonso doing so well. Hopefully it’s not just one of his hot streaks with a cold spell following. It does seem though, that he (so far) just a much better hitter with him not chasing bad pitches. A week ago, people were showing concern about McNeil & Nimmo starting off slow. I’m not as optimistic about Escobar as Metsense is though. I agree that he can be a useful piece on this team, but just not as our everyday 3B. Hopefully, Baty will take advantage of this opportunity. We really could use his bat.