Glass-half-full approach as Mets enter All-Star break on loss
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - JULY 17: Pete Alonso #20 of the New York Mets hits a single to right field to drive in a run in the fifth inning at Wrigley Field on July 17, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Chase Agnello-Dean/Getty Images) Credit: Getty Images/Chase Agnello-Dean
LOS ANGELES - On Monday night, when Pete Alonso will be going for his “3-Pete” in the Home Run Derby at Dodger Stadium, nobody is going to remember that the Mets finished the first half praying that his 150-foot pop-up for an RBI single was going to be enough to beat the feeble Cubs.
It wasn’t. Alonso did provide the go-ahead run in the fifth inning with the little rainbow, a bloop hit that registered 75.4 mph on the radar gun with a .010 expected batting average, but the Mets did little else in the 3-2 loss at Wrigley Field. (The “else” being Starling Marte dashing home from third base when the Cubs blew their pickoff attempt of a slippery Francisco Lindor in the first inning.)
But we digress.
Sure, kicking away the potential four-game sweep of the Cubs was a bit of a buzzkill for the Mets heading into the All-Star break, especially knowing that Atlanta helped out by losing.
So the Mets didn’t get the nice bow on the first half. No biggie. What they do have is a 2 1⁄2-game lead in the NL East, thanks to wrapping up the final week with a 5-2 road trip that included a huge series win in Atlanta.
It’s only the second time in franchise history that the Mets have put together back-to-back seasons of being in first place at the All-Star break. The other was 2006-07, and we all know what happened in that second year. Because it’s the Mets, they can’t escape the darker parts of their past, even if the demolished Shea Stadium was the crime scene of that blown seven-game lead to the Phillies with only 17 games to play.
Still, that history has never felt further away than this season. And maybe one of the best attributes of these Mets is having a short memory. No point dwelling on the old failures, or what they were unable to do on July 17 at Wrigley.
Better to trumpet the fact that the Mets’ 58 wins before the break are second only to the ’86 world champs (59-25) for this franchise, and they piled up those victories without Max Scherzer for six weeks or Jacob deGrom throwing a pitch that counted.
Or as David Peterson said Sunday, “Something’s working.”
Count Peterson among that something, as he pitched to a 3.24 ERA in the first half while patching holes in the rotation. He issued a bases-loaded walk for his only run Sunday, but it was unearned after Eduardo Escobar bobbled what should have been a double-play grounder to end the fourth. That was the Mets’ lone error in four games at Wrigley, and they wound up getting torched by it.
A day earlier, the Mets got a couple of fortuitous bounces in sweeping a doubleheader that included two extra-inning games, so perhaps this was the baseball gods balancing things out. But the Mets are going to win a large percentage of the time when their starting pitcher allows two or fewer runs, as they did over these last 11 games, and the odds suggest that’s going to continue with deGrom’s return after the break.
“I’m happy,” Lindor said. “We played good ball the first half, showed a lot of professionalism, a lot of days that we bounced back well. Very pleased with the way we played in the first half.”
Lindor got hung up on the pickoff attempt in the first inning, but his gymnastics on the basepaths — with an assist from the Cubs’ ineptitude — still enabled Marte to score.
That’s encoded in the Mets’ DNA, too. Their ability to capitalize on mistakes, exploit the smallest cracks. Some of that credit goes to Buck Showalter, who thrives on the tiniest details, but also to general manager Billy Eppler, who brought in some new players who can excel in those margins.
Despite having the second-most wins in the NL, the Mets aren’t steamrollers. Their 92 homers and .397 slugging percentage may put them in the middle of the MLB pack, but their 437 runs still rank fourth overall.
Was it alarming when their 10 1⁄2-game lead plunged to 1 1⁄2 in just over five weeks? Absolutely. But they stabilized themselves and help (bullpen, DH) is on the way before the Aug. 2 trade deadline. “We will seek our level,” Showalter said. “And our curiosity will be satisfied when 162 are over.”
In the meantime, the Mets can use the All-Star break to relax. And maybe watch Alonso hit a few bombs into the Hollywood sunset.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
