Yeah, that headline you are reading is correct. After a dreadful start to the season, especially with the offense, the Mets have turned everything around. The New York Mets have now won four straight games, ten of their last 14, and their last four series! Personally, I was at rock bottom to begin the season, and in the past three weeks, the Mets have me ready to run through a brick wall.
There are so many positive things I can say about this team, but the man who gets all the praise to start this glazing blog is Reed Garrett. There are a lot of things you can say about the Mets bullpen. It’s been really good for the most part, but Garrett deserves all the praise. Out of nowhere, this relief pitcher has become unhittable. He has 17 strikeouts against the 31 batters he has faced and came up clutch against the Pirates Tuesday night. The Mets bullpen has been outstanding this season as they have a combined 2.97 ERA, which is 7th in the MLB and 1st in the NL.
The Mets bullpen has been really good this season, but the starting pitching deserves some praise, too. The Mets starting pitching has a combined ERA of 3.29, which is 4th in the MLB and 2nd in the NL. Jose Quintana and Luis Severino have been good, but the star has been Jose Butto. In Butto’s two starts, he has only given up one run and has 15 strikeouts through 12 innings pitched. The Mets needed pitchers to step up because of Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill’s injury, and Jose Butto stepped up in and earned his spot to stay in the rotation.
The next thing I wanted to touch on was how good the bottom of the lineup has been. Nimmo, McNeil, Alonso, and Lindor have all picked things up in these last two series. But players like Bader, Taylor, and Stewart have been red hot. So far this season, the Mets 6-9 spots have a .276 average, 6 home runs, and 37 RBIs. For a team to be successful, everyone has to do their part. If the last three paragraphs of this blog have taught you anything, everyone contributes to the win. If a pitcher has a bad game, the hitters and the bullpen will pick them up. If the hitters are having a bad day at the plate, the pitchers will help them out.
Finally, the big thing that happened this week was the release of the new City Connect Jerseys. After years of other teams getting their City Connect jerseys, the Mets finally got theirs, and it kind of sucks. Gray jerseys don’t do it for me. Gray jerseys are for road games. I like the purple design, but black would have been a better choice for this. After over a decade of Mets fans wanting black jerseys and finally getting them in 2022, maybe the MLB and Nike should have thought to go a similar route. Black and purple would have been a fire design, but this is nothing new for the City Connect jerseys. Since Nike has taken control of making new jerseys in any sport, they have been pretty shit. Outside of San Diego and a few others, most City Connect jerseys suck. So this is just par for the course. I will say that Kodai Senga’s Japanese lettering jersey is amazing.
Players of the Week:
- Pete Alonso: 7 H, .368 AVG, 3 HR, 4 RBI, 5 BB, .500 OBP, .895 SLG, 1.395 OPS
- Tyrone Taylor: 11 AB, 5 H, .455 AVG, 3 RBI, .417 OBP, .455 SLG, .871 OPS
- Tyrone Taylor’s success at the plate has come out of nowhere. The way he’s been playing, he will get more opportunities.Â
- Harrison Bader: .353 AVG, 1 HR, 5 RBI, .421 OBP, .588 SLG, 1.009 OPS
- Brett Baty: .286 AVG, 3 RBI, .375 OBP, .357 SLG, .732 OPS\
- Baty continues to be hot at the plate. Hopefully, he can continue when he returns from injury
- DJ Stewart: 6 AB, 3 H, 2 2B, 3 RBI, BB
- Starling Marte: 7 H, 2B, 2 HR, 3 RBI, .804 OPS
- Jose Butto: 1 GS, 6.0 IP, 2 H, 9K, 0 ER
- Luis Severino: 2 GS, 2-0, 11.0 IP, 8 K, 1 ER
- Reed Garrett: 2 G, 1-0, 3.1 IP, 1 H, 8 K, 0 ER
- Brooks Raley: 2 G, 1-0, 2.0 IP, 0 H, 4 K, 0 ER
- Jorge Lopez: 4 G, 3.2 IP, 2 H, 4 K, 0 ER
Needs Improvement:
- Francisco Alvarez: 17 AB, 2 H, .118 AVG, 4 K .211 OBP, .118 SLG, .328 OPS
- He has been ice-cold since his red-hot start. He needs to get back on track.
- Sean Manaea: 1 GS, 0-1, 3.2 IP, 9 H, 6 ER
Now, let’s check out what the Mets have coming up.
The Mets start their week in Los Angeles to play the Dodgers. The Dodgers have been very streaky so far this season, recently losing two games to the Nationals and having a record of 12-9. I, like most people, expected the Dodgers to be much better. The pitching matchups will be Sean Manaea V. Yoshinobu Yamamoto in game one, Jose Butto V. Gavin Stone in game two, and Adrian Houser V. James Paxton in game three. Game one, the Dodgers have the pitching matchups, while games two and three are up in the air. The only way the Mets will beat the Dodgers is if they can continue their hot hitting. The Dodgers offense has been very solid so far as they have three players (Betts, Ohtani, Smith) all batting over .300 and have hit the most home runs in the NL. The Mets need to stay on par with Los Angeles and attack the Dodgers pitching, who has a league average 4.14 ERA.
After that, the Mets head up to Northern California to take on the San Francisco Giants. Sadly, the New York Giants won’t be here to have dinner with the San Francisco Giants, but it should still be a fun series. The projected pitching matchups will be Jose Quintan V. Keaton Winn, Luis Severino V. Logan Webb, and finally Sean Manaea V. Blake Snell. As I said, this should be a fun series because these are two evenly matched-teams. Both the Giants and the Mets are middle-of-the-pack teams, but the Mets could easily sweep this series. The Giants’ pitching has been horrible this season, as they have the 6th worst ERA, 4.50, in the MLB. Obviously, they face some tough challenges in Logan Webb and Blake Snell, but Snell is still not 100% ready yet from missing all of Spring Training. If the Mets’ pitching can continue to keep hitters from scoring, they should have no problem winning this series.Â
Until next time, let’s go Mets!
SmallDog Sports 
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