Roar, I Guess

As I was doing my baseball research for my other job, I saw that from June 18th, when Pete Alonso came back from the injury to his wrist caused by Charlie Morton, through the White Sox series, Alonso hit .137 with an OPS of .547 in 111 plate appearances spanning 26 games. Obviously, not good. But here’s what shocked me about the Mets in those 26 games:

Are you ready? Because I’m not sure you are …

…

…

The team was 12-14 in that span.

Not great, but much better than I thought they’d be with their cleanup  hitter playing every day hitting .137 without hitting a home run for two weeks. I always thought that starting pitching was the biggest factor in whether the Mets lived or died this season. But I didn’t expect the relative lack of consequence that Pete Alonso hitting .137 would have on them.

Of course, I’m going to wonder where the Mets would be in this race if Charlie Morton had not come inside on Alonso … if Alonso had just been around those eight games that he missed (the Mets went 3-5 in those games). If Alonso had hit .237 during those 26 games, which isn’t a huge ask. But in the last four games Alonso went 8-for-16 … and the team went 2-2.

And if the bullpen succeeded in their mission to blow a 7-0 lead to the Yankees after Alonso drove in five runs with a single and his first two HR’s since the Arizona series, they would have gone 1-3 during Alonso’s hot streak. So really, what does a good Pete Alonso even matter at this point? (Pete probably shouldn’t hire me as his agent.) But Alonso’s big night did help to nulify the bullpen’s folly later in the game. And Pete being good down the stretch would not only be good for him, but it would illustrate how this team was felled by a mass regression more than anything else. That would give everyone a little hope for next season that a bounce back might be in order, even if it’s not all the way back to the 101 victories that they got in ’22.

Thankfully, the bullpen’s best efforts were thwarted, the Mets won 9-3, and Alonso looks like Alonso again. It’s too little too late for this season, but I’ll grip any good vibes I can get a hold of for the next two months.

Today’s Hate List

Albert Abreu.

Can you please try not to hit all of our players in their damn knuckles? Please?