\u201cI\u2019m not sure I can win this, but it\u2019s the right thing to lose.\u201d
\u2014Abraham Zwerdling in \u201cThe Containment\u201d by Michelle Adams<\/p>\n
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. \u2014 And now, however briefly, the Mets can breathe.<\/p>\n
They won consecutive games over the weekend. They claimed a series for the first time this month. They even looked like a good baseball team doing it, thanks to improved starting pitching and an offense coming out of a months-long shell.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s break down two important developments from Sunday\u2019s 7-3 win over the Seattle Mariners.<\/p>\n
The offense continues to click<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019d known at the start of the week that the Mets would\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026you\u2019d probably hope for more than a 3-3 week.<\/p>\n Indeed, New York\u2019s offense was largely free of blame for some of the recent losses. Going back to Aug. 10, the Mets have scored 47 runs in seven games, with contributions up and down the lineup.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Franciscos Lindor and Alvarez led the way. Lindor had three more hits, giving him multiple hits in five straight games (and 13 total in that span). Alvarez had three knocks, including an RBI double to open the scoring. His OPS is up to .787; it was .702 last week and .621 the day before he was sent to the minors in June.<\/p>\n (Alvarez\u2019s hot streak made his departure in the seventh inning with a right hand injury especially concerning. He injured it while sliding headfirst to beat out a double. He has missed time in each of the past two seasons with hand issues, though both times on his left hand.)<\/p>\n Mark Vientos provided the game\u2019s critical blow: a two-out, three-run, opposite-field home run in the fifth inning off Kirby. That created a 6-1 lead, providing some breathing room for a pitching staff that needs every insurance run it can get. The Mets got nine hits from the bottom five in the order.<\/p>\n \u201cOverall, we got him up,\u201d manager Carlos Mendoza said of the approach against Kirby. \u201cWe were aggressive with his fastball, and we executed.\u201d<\/p>\n Clay Holmes was good enough<\/strong><\/p>\n As Holmes\u2019 innings climbed and his results have faded dramatically over the last seven starts, the Mets remained steadfast that his underlying stuff was fine \u2014 better, even, than it had been earlier in the season. The issues for Holmes were of continued refinement with his pitch mix and of command \u2014 not of fatigue.<\/p>\n In that regard, Sunday marked a step forward. Holmes allowed a run on five hits in five innings, walking only one. There were some anxious moments, of course, especially when he went 3-0 on ninth hitter Cole Young with the bases loaded in the fourth. But he rebounded to induce a pop-up, and he retired the top of the Seattle lineup in order in his final frame.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was really good in the strike zone,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cHe stayed on the attack.\u201d<\/p>\n Holmes achieved his end results by pitching backward. Whereas he\u2019d emphasized his sinker in recent outings, on Sunday he was heavy with his breaking pitches to keep Seattle off balance.<\/p>\n Holmes had thrown his sinker more than 60 percent of the time in each of his past two starts; when he walked five last outing against Atlanta, Carlos Mendoza and Jeremy Hefner suggested Holmes stuck too long with a sinker he couldn\u2019t command as well as usual. So on Sunday, Holmes cut the sinker usage to one-third of the time, with his sweeper and slider filling the void. The Mariners are in the bottom five in baseball against sliders, and they went 1-for-8 off the sweeper and slider to finish at-bats on Sunday.<\/p>\n Holmes talked about pitching more freely, \u201cinstead of forcing my best stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes you\u2019ve got to trust your stuff and get a good mix going,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While imperfect, it was exactly the kind of serviceable outing Holmes delivered time after time early in the season. That\u2019s what the Mets need from him moving forward.<\/p>\n The exposition<\/p>\n The Mets took two of three from the Mariners \u2014 their first series win since the sweep in San Francisco in late July. At 66-58, New York maintained a 1 1\/2-game lead over Cincinnati for the final wild card spot in the National League.<\/p>\n Washington split four games with Philadelphia. The Nationals are 50-74.<\/p>\n Atlanta finished a sweep of Cleveland and has now won eight of its last nine games. It remains too little too late, with the club still just 56-68. The White Sox visit Truist Park for three starting Monday.<\/p>\n The pitching possibles<\/p>\n at Washington<\/p>\n LHP David Peterson (7-5, 3.30 ERA) v. RHP Jake Irvin (8-7, 5.14 ERA) at Atlanta<\/p>\n RHP Nolan McLean (1-0, 0.00) v. LHP Joey Wentz (4-3, 4.72) Injury updates<\/p>\n Mets’ injured list<\/p>\n Player<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Injury<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Elig.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n ETA<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/tr>\n Right elbow sprain<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Now<\/p>\n<\/td>\n September<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Lower back inflammation<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Sept. 9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n September<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Fractured left tibia<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Now<\/p>\n<\/td>\n September<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Left lat strain<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Now<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 2026<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Tommy John surgery<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Now<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 2026<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Elbow surgery<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Now<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 2026<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Ruptured left Achilles tendon<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Aug. 26<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 2026<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Tommy John surgery<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Now<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 2026<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Tommy John surgery<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Now<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 2026<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Left shoulder fracture<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Now<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 2026<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Tommy John surgery<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Sept. 1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n 2027<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Red = 60-day IL Minor-league schedule<\/p>\n Triple-A: Syracuse v. Indianapolis (Pittsburgh) Last week in MetsA note on the epigraph<\/p>\n A history of the case that nearly desegregated schools in metropolitan Detroit, \u201cThe Containment\u201d caught my eye when a reviewer compared it to J. Anthony Lukas\u2019 outstanding \u201cCommon Ground,\u201d one of my favorite works of non-fiction. The books approach the same topic \u2014 school desegregation and the opposition to busing in the 1970s \u2014 in different ways. Whereas \u201cCommon Ground\u201d explored the issue through various characters on the ground in Boston, \u201cThe Containment\u201d is a more thorough examination of the legal arguments. If you read one, I still prefer \u201cCommon Ground,\u201d but I liked \u201cThe Containment\u201d more than I initially expected I would.<\/p>\n Trivia time<\/p>\n Dick Rusteck\u2019s shutout in his major-league debut in 1966 is the best debut start for a Met according to GameScore. Which Mets pitcher, who debuted in 2012, ranks second on that list?<\/p>\n (I\u2019ll reply to the correct answer in the comments.)<\/p>\n (Photo: Kyle Ross \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m not sure I can win this, but it\u2019s the right thing to lose.\u201d\u2014Abraham Zwerdling in \u201cThe Containment\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":156179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,1305,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-156178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-new-york-mets","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115050782777174108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
RHP Kodai Senga (7-4, 2.35) v. RHP Brad Lord (3-6, 3.26)
LHP Sean Manaea (1-1, 4.78) v. LHP MacKenzie Gore (5-12, 4.04)<\/p>\n
RHP Clay Holmes (10-6, 3.64) v. RHP Erick Fedde (4-12, 5.52)
LHP David Peterson v. RHP Spencer Strider (5-10, 4.69)<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n
Orange = 15-day IL
Blue = 10-day IL<\/p>\n\n
Double-A: Binghamton at Portland (Boston)
High-A: Brooklyn at Abedeen (Baltimore)
Low-A: St. Lucie at Palm Beach (St. Louis)<\/p>\n