Brandon Nimmo did a lot of celebrating the other night after providing a run that ensured an exact tie in runs scored between his Mets and the Yankees. He seemed so excited, mostly because the walkoff eradicated the memory of an earlier base running error, but the Yankees and Mets both score 10 runs over the 2-game half series. Nobody's really come out on top yet. You have Cole and Verlander against each other, shit's gonna be pretty even.
To be honest, this half of the subway series came at a somewhat even period for both teams. The Yankees are down a ton of great players due to injuries, and are starting a lot of replacement players right now. The Mets, meanwhile, are coming off a truly horrid stretch of games, getting swept by the Jays and Braves and losing two out of three to the Pirates. And while the Mets are missing a rather crucial piece thanks to injuries, that being Pete Alonso, whose home run lead is currently being threatened by a red-hot Shohei Ohtani, the majority of their best pieces are still active. The team just...isn't as good as one would expect.
Which isn't really all that irregular for the Mets this decade. You know, 'we just spent millions on two guys in their late 30s, why aren't we winning games?'
I know, it's more complex than that. Cohen dished out a truckload to keep Francisco Lindor in Queens, and while he's been good, and has 43 RBIs, he's not the well-rounded, versatile player he was in Cleveland. Starling Marte's here for another 3 years, but at 34 he's beginning to show cracks, which isn't ideal. And Verlander and Scherzer are just...okay right now. Very okay. Not overwhelmingly good or bad, just okay. Verlander looked good the other night against the Yankees, but this is 40-year-old JV, and even if he can stymie some batters, he's nowhere near, like, 2007 JV. He's got a 4.40 ERA, and Scherzer has a 4.45. Thank god Kodai Senga's been somewhat affirming for this bankroll, as he's 6-3 with 79 Ks. But a lot of time and energy was spent on curating this rotation and a lot of them are either hurt or not pitching to their usual standard.
What is somewhat promising is the beginnings of the next generation of Mets, which is finally beginning to populate these teams. Not all of them are completely ready yet admittedly, as evidenced by an error Mark Vientos made covering first the other night, but they're getting there. Brett Baty's bat is catching up slowly, he has 18 RBIs in 47 games. The big crowd-pleaser is clearly Francisco Alvarez, who did a phenomenal job covering for Omar Narvaez, with 12 homers and 25 RBIs in 46 games. The fans were waiting for Alvarez to properly sprout, and he seems to be performing to what people expected. I'm intrigued as to what's gonna happen now that Narvaez is back, I assume the other catcher will DH when the first one starts? I can't imagine the Mets bringing Alvarez down now. Maybe they deal Narvaez for a rental in July.
The Mets have fallen a bit since the beginning of the year, but they're battling back, and could still hang around long enough to be formidable again once Alonso returns. There's visible flaws, but a lot of perks that could keep them in the conversation even as other NL East teams lap them in the standings.
Coming Tonight: Could it be that this Tigers hitter took off the second a well-known baseball card blogger jinxed him?
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