Decades ago, I entered a national sports talk radio show contest and won a trip to Las Vegas. Being a crafty college undergraduate, I took the trip when it coincided with my 21st birthday. So when I turned the legal drinking age, I was in a city where they hand drinks out for free. But patience in planning as a juvenile is not maturity. While I did play club college rugby and drove with others my age to various locations, that wasn’t with aged professional athletes against each others in top-quality competition. With the Mets down to their last strike against Arizona last Wednesday, it was ludicrous to expect maturity from Francisco Alvarez after his home run evened the score at 1-1.
“I saw them all jumping around and everything,” Alvarez said to Mike Puma of the NY post. “That’s when it hit me, ‘Man, we just tied the game up,’ and right there my immediate thought was we were going to win the game.”
Brett Baty, the fellow rookie looking to remain a Met for the next decade, kept his hands in and followed with a hard-hit single through the right side of the infield. Mark Canha hit a triple to score the third baseman and just like that, Alvarez became a prophet.
We refer to them as kids only because the rest of the team are seasoned veterans we watched last year win 101 games. But the kids are generating an addictive level of confidence that seemingly is flowing through the entire Mets dugout. So it’s not surprising that when Alvarez was nicked by an inside fastball by Jose Ruiz on Thursday, the entire dugout cleared in his defense.
The benches and bullpens clear in Arizona after Francisco Álvarez is hit by a pitch pic.twitter.com/Kmyb6U3z10
— SNY (@SNYtv) July 7, 2023
Alvarez appears to glance towards the mound before putting his head down adding that as he was walking to first base, Ruiz told him: “My bad, my bad.” There is visual proof this viral moment was generated by the umpire overreacting to ensure calm which is for the best for all involved. It also gave the bullpen something to do, jogging in from the outfield for little reason. They needed the workout with little to do over the last two games. From flexing to his teammates to setting the Mets rookie catcher record for home runs for a season, the Alvarez antics may have hidden that Mets starters have thrown back to back eight inning gems.
Is it more impressive that neither starter is a former Cy Young Award winner? I lean towards Carlos Carrasco since he’s a No. 5 starter who relies on off-speed stuff and has struggled with consistency all year. Despite his years in the Nippon Professional League, Kodai Senga is a highly paid rookie who is still adjusting. However, it was clear he had the goods from Day 1. His 3.31 ERA is Top 10 in the National League and issuing only 11 walks in his last five appearances is a vast improvement. It only calls for more improvement from the front end of the rotation as the team heads to San Diego.
With just three games before the four-day All-Star break, the biggest start may belong to David Peterson. Much was expected from the 27-year old lefty after an interesting 2022 season. The vocal fan base expected growth and when it didn’t occur immediately, they revolted and with good reason. Despite the team’s initial intentions for further grooming at Triple-A, Peterson has made 10 starts allowing just one run over 10 innings in the last two.
Maybe the time in Syracuse was enough for Peterson to rediscover the backfoot slider that’s a necessary staple for his big league success. But with Jose Quintana set to make his first start after the break, general manager Billy Eppler actually has enviable starting pitcher problems, but is more likely to use a six-man rotation for the foreseeable future. That is under the optimistic assumption that the Mets stay hot and end the weekend with an eight-game win streak. Even two out of three over the other franchise that loudly raised their payroll over a quarter-billion dollars last offseason might not be enough to tame the turncoats.
There are countless columns and commenters who’ve called for Uncle Stevie to fire everyone and blood in the streets since this season went off the rails. A few weeks ago, Steve Cohen spoke with the New York Post’s Joel Sherman about the fans wanting ‘bold action’ amidst the team’s poor play.
“They care so much, they want immediate fixes. And sometimes there aren’t immediate fixes. Sometimes you can do a lot of damage by being impulsive. Not just in the short term, but in the long term. If I were incredibly reactionary and started doing irrational things, why would anybody want to come to this organization and be subjected to that?”
Cohen showed how the Evil Empire in the 21st century operates. When he did finally speak about the team's poor play to the media, it wasn’t in a crowded stadium hallway with tens of microphones and electronic devices visible in the camera shot. Instead, Cohen sat down for a 20-minute question and answer session and was completely available to all. His comments were sensible and focused on a long-term method, looking forward to developing pitching labs and the minor league system overall.
“We haven’t really developed that many pitchers, which is actually pretty shocking.
If we don’t have them in the system at least, we have the luxury of going out and spending the money and get players.”
They have enough players currently on the roster. In the coming days before the trade deadline, maybe some of them move to other clubs and bring back future talent like Eduardo Escobar. Let his transaction serve as a reminder of wealth being used towards the team when loading up the MLB trade machine. But it’s hard to not believe the talent to win right now isn’t already wearing Orange and Blue.
“We know it’s possible. We know we’re capable of doing it.
Obviously we came in with higher hopes than making the last wild card, but that’s where we are (and) the season’s not over.”
It’s not over by a long shot and that’s the truth.
Upcoming Series: New York Mets at San Diego Padres
Friday, July 7 - 9:40 PM
Justin Verlander (3-4, 3.66 ERA) vs. Yu Darvish (5-6, 4.84 ERA)
Saturday, July 8 - 10:10 PM
David Peterson (2-6, 6.61 ERA) vs. Blake Snell (5-7, 3.03 ERA)
Sunday, July 9 - 4:10 PM
TBD vs. TBD
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