The regular season has come to an end for the New York Mets, and unfortunately for them and their fans it will not extend into October. Despite going 17-10 over the final month of the year, the Mets did not win enough games to get to the playoffs, finishing 86-76 on the year, three games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the second wild card spot in the National League. The ending isn’t what the Mets wanted, but they did show a lot that can be used to build towards a very exciting 2020 season.
Throughout the month, the Mets played very good baseball, losing only two series, but they could never quite get close enough to the red hot Brewers to make things really interesting. The Mets won their fair share of series, including a big four game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks and a sweep of the Atlanta Braves on the season’s final weekend, but a woeful June and an ill-timed six game losing streak at the end of August doomed their hopes.
A big key to the Mets’ success in September was an explosive offense, headlined by Pete Alonso, who slugged 11 home runs and drove in 19 more to lead the majors in long balls for the season. Other standouts included J.D. Davis (.348/3/8), Todd Frazier (.328/3/8), Robinson Cano (.286/3/6), Jeff McNeil (.277/7/18), Amed Rosario (.277/3/14), and Brandon Nimmo (.262/5/15).
On the mound, Jacob deGrom was brilliant again as he closed out what should be another Cy Young winning campaign with style. deGrom started five times, going 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA and striking out 41 in 35 innings pitched. Marcus Stroman also posted his strongest performance as a Met, going 3-1 with a 2.91 ERA in six starts, while Zack Wheeler went 2-1 with a 1.85 ERA in his five starts. The Mets also got good efforts out of relievers like Seth Lugo (1.29 ERA in 10 appearances) and Brad Brach (1.35 ERA in 7 appearances).
The season didn’t end how the Mets wanted it too, but their strong finish to the year has them in position to put together a contender in 2020. The Mets should be able to build off the momentum from this stretch run, which saw their young core gel and experience the pressure of a pennant race, and form a roster that is capable of making a deep run next year. This season almost feels reminiscent of 2005, when the Mets came up short down the stretch but finished well. The 2006 Mets made a few major additions in the offseason and won 97 games along with the National League East, so hopefully history repeats itself in that regard (with a better finish of course).
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