Livescore
So the Mets showed some fight when they absolutely had to on Sunday, which is in line with what they’ve done all season, and their star shortstop looked like an MVP again, offering a lot more reason to believe this team will at least be playing baseball in October.
Beyond that, well, we’ll see.
But then with all of their doom-and-gloom history in Atlanta, it’s hard to imagine the Mets won’t win at least one game Monday and advance to the postseason.
Indeed, a split of the doubleheader with the Braves feels almost inevitable, as the winner of Game 1 would clinch a spot and thus be saving all their best pitchers for the Wild Card series that begins on Tuesday.
The Mets’ only incentive for winning both games, in fact, would be to gain the No. 2 wild card spot and play in San Diego against the Padres rather than Milwaukee against these same Brewers.
But even if they believe the Padres are a better matchup, they’re not about to sacrifice significant pitching for seeding, not when they’ll need all of it they can get in the coming days.
And while the Mets looked like they were playing tight in the three losses this past week, it just doesn’t seem possible they’d be shut down in both games Monday, especially against whatever low-leverage arms the Braves would throw at them if they’d already clinched in Game 1.
All of which means it sure feels like the Mets will be right back in Milwaukee on Tuesday.
And maybe they’ll be a looser team at that point, having accomplished something significant, but there’s also no getting around it: the Brewers appear to be a very difficult matchup.
Put it this way, going into Sunday’s game they weren’t 5-0 against the Mets this season by accident.
They have the second-best bullpen ERA in all of baseball, and they’re a scrappy offensive team that puts the ball in play and manufactures runs, partly with the speed that gave the Mets fits, as they went 17-for-17 in stolen bases against them.
And while David Peterson deserves all the respect in the world for coming up big on Sunday, delivering seven shutout innings in the 5-0 victory, it’s also fair to wonder if the Brewers were less than fully invested.
They had already knocked the Mets on their heels to win the first two games and weren’t about to use any of their high-leverage relievers in this final game. As it was, they allowed Colin Rea to throw a season-high 106 pitches even though he was shaky from the start, as he wound up giving up 10 hits and three walks in 5.2 innings.
So the bottom line is that it’s hard to know how much to make of the Mets at the moment. They still left a lot of runners on base in the early innings against Rea, just as there is still significant concern about some of their key hitters.
Brandon Nimmo did break the ice for the Mets in the first inning, which was important, lining a single to center to drive in Francisco Lindor from second. But he proceeded to go 0-for-4 from there and Pete Alonso went 0-for-3; he’s now 1-for-17 in his last five games and continues to look bad chasing pitches.
But that may matter less if Lindor is back to his MVP-like form, as it appeared on Sunday.
In fact, Lindor set the tone for the day by stealing second on the first pitch after he reached on a walk to lead off the game. It was an aggressive move, especially coming off his back injury, and a necessary one for a team that needed to shake off three days of mostly lifeless offense.
It was also a sign that Lindor’s back is feeling better. He looked more comfortable at shortstop and clearly felt good swinging the bat, hammering a solo home run to go with an RBI single as part of a 2-for-4 day that included two runs scored, two RBI, and two stolen bases.
Such a performance could have a galvanizing effect on the Mets because Lindor has been the driving force to their turnaround season, the guy they count on to lead the way offensively.
The next step for the Mets would be going out and putting up some runs in Game 1 on Monday against rookie Spencer Schwellenbach, who has shut them down in two starts this season, including last Tuesday in Atlanta.
That would go a long way to making everyone forget about how tight they looked in those three straight losses, especially if they win and take all the stress out of Game 2.
With that in mind, I would have started Luis Severino in Game 1 rather than Tylor Megill, as SNY’s Andy Martino is reporting.
I think it’s much more important they get their mojo back than potentially save Severino for Game 1 of the Wild Card series.
And while things never seem to end well for them in Atlanta, this is a unique situation, to put it mildly.
Put it this way: if the Mets don’t find a way to win one game on Monday, that could well rank as their all-time low moment in Atlanta, considering that at worst they’d be playing a must-win Game 2 against a team that would be packing its bags for San Diego, far more concerned about resting players than getting the sweep.
Hey, you never know. But after Lindor made a statement on Sunday it feels like the Mets still have plenty of fight in them.
Read the full article here
