It wasn’t an especially impressive win, and for that matter, the late innings nearly turned into a catastrophe. In the end, however, all that mattered on this day was the Mets found a way to stop the bleeding — and the booing.
Judging by the way the fans let their team hear it on Saturday after another listless loss, in fact, the mood at Citi Field could have turned downright ugly had the Mets let this one get away on Sunday.
As it was, they still didn’t hit much. And, indeed, the play everybody was talking about afterward was Juan Soto’s baserunning, as he got a good jump from third base on a contact play to score the go-ahead run on Luis Torrens’ ground ball in the eighth inning.
“That’s the way you teach it,” manager Carlos Mendoza said afterward. “There are going to be stretches when it’s hard to score runs. You’ve gotta do the little things.”
Baby steps, right?
That’s kind of where the Mets are at the moment, needing to find ways to make up for the ongoing lack of offense from what was supposed to be among the most imposing lineups in baseball.
And so on this day, while they got a strong start from David Peterson, their ability to pull out a 3-2 win over the Reds and avoid a sweep was indeed due largely to the little things:
- A sacrifice bunt by Luisangel Acuña that led to a Brandon Nimmo RBI single, the only hit that he, Francisco Lindor, and Soto could muster at the top of the lineup.
- A stolen base by Brett Baty, allowing him to score on Acuña's double to left.
- Soto’s jump, which followed his leadoff walk and Jeff McNeil’s well-placed double into right-center.
Soto himself may have put his baserunning in the best perspective. He could have been speaking for the team when he said, “Hitting isn’t going my way right now. So any way to help the team is great.”
Any which way on this day. The Mets needed the win, as much for their mojo as to stop the three-game losing streak that spanned the All-Star break.
And even more so, after Edwin Diaz couldn’t get the job done when Mendoza turned to him for a potential four-out save in the eighth inning. Coming on with a runner at first, Diaz was struggling with his command from the start and wound up allowing the Reds to tie the score 2-2 on a walk, a single to deep short, and a hit-by-pitch.
At that point, the home crowd was groaning practically in unison. The boos were coming next, had Diaz not gotten out of the inning, and it didn’t look good when he fell behind 3-1 to Tyler Stephenson.
But the Mets’ closer dug deep to strike out Stephenson and allow everyone to exhale.
Diaz has been so dominant this season that his brief lack of command was probably nothing more than a hiccup. The timing, however, made it feel as if the sky was falling for the Mets, considering not just their poor play on Friday and Saturday, but their 10-20 stretch entering Sunday that has exposed more flaws than expected from this team.
In that respect, pulling out the win, with Ryne Stanek closing it out, felt more important than a win in July for a 56-44 team probably should feel, at least, on the outside looking in. But such is the nature of huge expectations.
And gritty win or not, it did little to make the pressing questions disappear.
After all, the Mets managed two extra-base hits. Their big guns aren’t hitting at all. Soto admitted to his own struggles, while the numbers on Lindor speak for themselves, as an 0-for-4 day stretched his hitless streak to 0-for-19, and his under-.200 run to 39 games.
On top of that, Pete Alonso was out of the lineup with a hand injury after getting jammed during his pre-game hitting Saturday against a pitching machine, of all things.
After hours of treatment Saturday night and Sunday, he felt good enough to enter the game in the later innings. And though he struck out looking in the eighth inning, he said afterward that he feels good enough to be in the lineup on Monday.
In any case, the Mets’ lack of offense is becoming more and more of an issue, especially as often as they’ve failed with runners in scoring position throughout the season.
On Sunday, they got some production from the bottom of the lineup, a rarity in itself. Baty has swung the bat well lately and Acuña’s laser double off the left-field wall was a reminder of his impressive September last season, subbing for the injured Lindor.
On the other hand, Mark Vientos didn’t build on his impressive weekend in Kansas City before the break, and Ronny Mauricio has gone cold again, 2-for-his-last-21.
That’s the problem: for all the occasional flashes, not one of the Mets’ young hopefuls has done enough to be an obvious answer offensively this season or beyond.
As such, David Stearns is facing some hard questions approaching the trade deadline. One that needs answering quickly is whether Francisco Alvarez’s home-run binge in Syracuse is simply the result of Triple-A pitching or something more significant.
Alvarez’s defense was no small factor in his demotion, but that’s a lot easier to live with if he adds some thump to the offense. With his call-up coming Monday, they will get a look before July 31.
The bottom line, of course, is the Mets' need for Lindor, Soto, and Alonso to be less streaky and carry the load offensively.
And while they have obvious pitching needs, everyone kind of expected they could use the trade deadline for help in that area. At this point, however, the need for an impact bat becomes more glaring by the day.
Bunts and good jumps will only go so far.
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