Through Any Lens, A Good Split

There are three things in life that I enjoy at this point in my life:

• Warm summer breezes
• A good hamburger
• Spencer Strider getting knocked around with high exit velocity

The Mets didn’t provide me with the first two, but they delivered on the last one in Game 1 of Monday’s doubleheader against the Braves, touching him up for four runs in 107 pitches over five innings. That’s what makes Game 1’s loss so frustrating. You score 8 runs in a Spencer Strider start, you should win that game. But it magnifies what the Mets are going through with their starting pitching today. They wanted Danyi Reyes to give them three innings out of the gate. Their expectations were low. He gave them one as Sean Murphy smacked a three run dinger in the first. Then John Curtiss gave up a dinger to Kevin Pillar, and a solo homer to Ronald Acuna which served drinks at cruising altitude. It was 6-1 after an inning and a half and all that work they did against Strider and the rest of the Braves were done in catch up mode, especially after Murphy hit another three run HR off Jeff Brigham to make it 9-5 after Pete Alonso and Brett Baty closed that initial gap with home runs.

It’s why Tylor Megill’s outing in Game 2 was so important. He gave up three runs in 5 and 2/3’s innings, getting touched up in the 6th, but at least he got to the sixth. Again, low bar. But after having to slog through a bullpen game that didn’t follow the script, Megill getting almost to the end of the 6th was huge, even if he nibbled too much with Murphy before Eddie Rosario hit a bases loaded double to knock him out in the 6th.

The kids have really shown up today. That's a hard-hit, go-ahead, two-run double for Francisco Álvarez.

Mets 4, Braves 3, bottom six. pic.twitter.com/8FInY8B4Gr

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) May 1, 2023

Francisco Alvarez got the Mets a huge hit in the bottom of the 6th with that two out double above to bring in two runs to give the Mets the lead, and Drew Smith combined with David Robertson to shut the Braves down the rest of the way (Robertson, with plenty of rest, pitched two innings to get the save and help Smith preserve his victory). Jeff McNeil added an insurance dinger to get the Mets the doubleheader split … the 25th straight Mets doubleheader where they didn’t get swept.

So you can look at this one of two ways: The Mets dominated offensively for two games and only got a split, or that Sean Murphy kicked the Mets’ collective glutes for 18 innings, and the Mets were still able to come away with a split. Either way you look at it, the second victory was huge. Even as they’re about a 50 foot putt away from the Braves, the win puts them on the same green as Atlanta (leading the divsiion in May is overrated anyway.) Alvarez and Brett Baty are starting to come on offensively (Baty went 3-for-9 in the DH with a dinger), and the calvary coming back as Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander are ready for action. Their former organization in Detroit will host their welcome back parties, and the Mets sure could use a break from the bullpenapalooza games like we saw in Game 1.

Today’s Hate List

1. Spencer Strider
2. Sean Murphy
3. Chadwick Tromp
4. Eddie Rosario
5. Michael McLeod