Conventional wisdom used to be that the good teams knew how to win the close ones. And while it’s true that generally good teams have good records in one-run games, where they really shine is in blowouts, games decided by five or more runs. A team can “luck” its way to one-run wins. It’s a lot tougher to do that in five-run wins.
The 2024 Mets are good in both of these categories, with a 26-16 mark in one-run games and a 27-18 ledger in blowouts.
One thing that’s caught my eye here recently is how many blow-out wins the Mets have here in the second half along with how many of their losses are close games, either one or two runs.
Since the disaster series in Seattle August 9-11, the Mets are 10-2 in games decided by five or more runs. That’s, um, spectacular. And on the flip side of things, five of their last 11 losses have been by one or two runs. Both of those things speak to the good pitching the Mets have had for the most part here in the second half. Here’s how the SP have done since the Seattle series, listed in desdcending order of IP:
2.81 ERA – Sean Manaea
2.17 ERA – David Peterson
2.64 ERA – Luis Severino
2.63 ERA – Jose Quintana
1.69 ERA – Tylor Megill
You know things are good when in a stretch of 35 games, your starter with the worst ERA has a 2.81 mark. And now the offense has scored 30 runs in the past three games.
It’s a fun time to be a Mets fan.
3rd in the NL, 4th in MLB in runs scored after leapfrogging the Phillies last night (we have 1 more run scored than they do). 5th most doubles in MLB. 5th most HR (tied with Arizona, 1 behind Atlanta). 6th best ERA in NL, 3rd most strikeouts. Lowest batting average against.
This is a really good team top to bottom.
In the midst of the 10-6 win what stood out was the same thing that stood out the previous game against the Nats. They scored big and then basically the offense shut down. Credit the Phillies relief pitching for holding them at bay and it was a gift to face Walker. Let’s face it, the Phillies have a good but not a great team. It’s is likely that no team will reach 100 wins, with the Phillies and Dodgers needing to win out over the last eight games to do so. Last year the Dodgers, Braves and Orioles reached or exceeded that win total.
Yesterday they managed four hits and could not take advantage of Sanchez giving up five walks. Broadcasting on Apple TV meant I could not remotely set up the DVR and just as well. Big matchup today between Manaea and Sanchez at 4:10 before they throw resurgent Megill against Wheeler. Need the bats to come alive and no one bigger than 0-forever JD Martinez. Can’t understand why Taylor did not start in CF in place of Pinky Bader and surprised that Alvarez, who seems to be swinging much better if late, sat the bench.
Phillies are still battling the Dodgers for playoff placement so they won’t rollover until that has been decided. Might get a break the last three games against the Brewers if they are moving things around it set their post season rotation. Either way, it’s time to put on their big boy pants and take game three to at least set them up for a split.