Laura Albanese: Mets' Bo Bichette, Freddy Peralta looked as advertised vs. Mariners
Mets' Freddy Peralta reacts during the sixth inning against the Mariners at T-Mobile Park on Wednesday in Seattle, Washington. Credit: Getty Images/Steph Chambers
SEATTLE – It was as if the Mets had entered a parallel dimension Wednesday afternoon – jumped to a timeline where this off-season’s “best-case scenario” came to pass.
In this world, Bo Bichette is the guy who sprays the ball all over the field – a humming engine and perpetual pest to the opposing team’s pitcher. In this world, Freddy Peralta takes the reins, using his sharp instincts and natural stuff to frustrate a lineup that may threaten, but never quite manages to do damage.
In this world, the Mets are winners – propelled by strong defensive performances, carried by the youth and vigor of Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing, and bolstered by an efficient, fearless bullpen.
Sounds kind of nice, doesn’t it?
We’ve of course seen hints of all this, even before the Mets beat the Mariners, 7-1, at T-Mobile Park, snapping that team’s eight-game win streak and solving a staff that had pitched to a 1.92 ERA in that span.
The question, though, is - what do they have to do to actually build off any of this?
A good bit of it comes down to Bichette, who Wednesday snapped an 0-for-16 streak by going 4-for-4 with three RBIs; all of his hits were singles, and it didn’t matter a whit. Because, for one of just a handful of times this season, Bichette, whose offense has plummeted thanks to a sky-high chase rate and genuine bad luck, looked every bit like the type of player who can spark an offense. He has just 12 multi-hit games this year, despite playing in all but two innings so far, and is batting .226 with a tauntingly high expected batting average of .276.
Put in that No. 2 slot ahead of Juan Soto, Bichette this year has shown a penchant for hard hit balls that seem to find only leather – a pretty significant liability on those many days when Soto is the only thing going right for this MLB-worst offense.
What’s more, it was getting to the point where you had to wonder if Bichette’s struggles were becoming self-perpetuating.
“He needs to find grass,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “They’re human and when you look up and the numbers are not what they’re supposed to be at, [and] everybody keeps telling you ‘good swing’ after a bullet [but nothing comes of it], it gets tired. They want to see results and hopefully, now he continues to get results and he gets going here. But I feel like this guy has been very unlucky – I hate to say it. He’s a good hitter.”
As for being tired of hearing about his bad luck, “I think it’s more tiring being a part of it,” Bichette said. “I’m not going to sit here and say I’ve been at my best. There’s been a lot of at-bats that could be better, so [I’m] just trying to focus on being more consistent.”
And that’s been the name of the (losing) game for a team that’s still eight games under .500. There have been ephemeral flashes of this parallel dimension – the one that makes good on all of David Stearns’ hopes – but they simply can’t seem to hold on.
Take, for instance, Peralta. No one can say that Peralta has been bad this year – far from it, in fact. He’s got a respectable 3.38 ERA and can generally give you five nail-biting but decent innings. He’s who he’s been his entire career, but Stearns no doubt hoped he’d continue to build on a highly successful 2025 campaign (for what it’s worth, Peralta only averaged a little over 5 1/3 innings then, too).
Wednesday, we saw more of what that could look like. He allowed one run and six hits with two walks and six strikeouts over six innings and was pulled after 101 pitches – not bad, considering the 24-pitch first inning that started off with J.P. Crawford’s 409-foot bomb. It was his 13th start this year, but only the fifth time he’s completed six innings or more.
Now, it’s probably unfair to expect Peralta to suddenly become efficient, but the Mets are in such dire straits, that everyone needs to level up. “Obviously we need this guy to go deep in games,” Mendoza said before his start.
And Peralta managed it, bolstered by pivotal double plays in the third and fifth innings. His fastball had life, and he was particularly pleased with his slider.
“I think it’s really important” to provide length, he said. “Whenever I’m on the mound competing, [I’m] trying to give my best…I had that responsibility today to do my best.”
The Mets all do. Generally speaking, a team needs about 85 wins or so to sneak into the playoffs, meaning that they need to play at about an eight-game over .500 pace over the last 100 games to have a decent shot. That’s not doesn’t happen if they’re just “good.” They need to be their best.
“Every win is important," Mendoza said.
Take it a few steps further: Every win, every at-bat, and every individual performance is important, too.
Wednesday, they jumped timelines for a day. To stay there, they’ll need much, much more.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
