I’ll take two wins in three games, even if the price is one loss in the middle. Not that that’s how series of baseball games work, exactly, but that is how the Mets-Braves to-do went down. We won Monday. They won Tuesday. We won Wednesday. That’s math as good as it gets when you don’t sweep.
Such simplicity in viewing the world of the National League East through this prism…it’s very relaxing. The Mets were in first place when they arrived in Atlanta; they’re still in first place; they’re in first place by a little more than they were 48 hours earlier. It’s a good three days’ work. It’s not a definitive statement. It may not even be a statement. It may just be three games. Better to have captured more of them rather than drop a majority of an admittedly small sample size.
The strong starting pitching that has been the club’s trademark since at least last week continued on through the finale at Truist Park. Chris Bassitt was mostly impenetrable for six innings. By the time he gave up a solo home run to Chipper Olson, the Mets had five on the board. The rotation is five starters deep at the moment. It’s a good moment to be in.
Whereas Met power has mostly flickered of late, it returned all bulbs flashing Wednesday. If you couldn’t for one day embrace Luis Guillorme batting cleanup, you have no soul (besides, he hit the Mets’ previous home run, on Monday night). Luis’s slump seems to be closing up along with the cut on his hand that none of us knew about because the Mets are pretty good about minimizing excuses. He didn’t homer off Charlie Morton on Wednesday, but his presence in the four-hole seemed to inspire several of his teammates. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Eduardo Escobar made like a groundhog and saw his power stroke’s shadow in the second. Francisco Lindor drove in runs the way the most productive RBI shortstop in the majors should (three-run shot). Mark Canha made like an orange and blue green giant and opened his own Canha taters. The power trio, accounting for the five runs that amply supported Bassitt, dined out on what Morton served up and nobody here protested. Later came Luis doubling home a sixth run and Lindor scoring on a balk, all of it in service to the eventual 7-3 victory.
Seven runs. Plenty for Bassitt plus Drew Smith (2 IP) and Tommy Hunter (1 IP). Granted, each reliever, like the starter, gave up a solo homer. The Braves are gonna go deep. They went deep off Scherzer and Peterson, too. Nice to see nobody on base when they did. Hunter was mopping up. As for Smith, I had a dream that he sent my wife and me a note of apology on a folded, horizontal, cream-colored card for having given up a two-run homer. He also included a drawing of some sort that I don’t remember. Isn’t it enough that I remember the color of the notecard?
Anyway, Smith giving up a solo home run with a large lead doesn’t concern me. The other Smith on the team, Dom, never homering is a more of an issue in my consciousness. I grew curious enough to search via Baseball-Reference’s Stathead tool to see where Dom Smith’s homerless drought ranks within franchise annals. Now that it’s reached 103 games (that’s games with one or more plate appearance(s) and no home runs hit), it is the 45th-longest in the 61-season history of the New York Mets; Luis Guillorme’s longest homerless streak was 89 games…broken on the day in 2021 that Smith last sent a baseball over a fence. Mind you, almost everybody ahead of Dom on this list is either a middle infielder who was in there every day for his glove — Buddy Harrelson holds the record, with 299 consecutive homerless games, and has six streaks of more than 100 homerless games — or an aging pinch-hitter or a backup catcher who played once or twice a week or a then-youngster still developing into an occasional home threat or a singles hitter you forgot didn’t hit many home runs.
There’s one genuine outlier. John Stearns went nearly 200 games without homering between 1979 and 1981, making his third All-Star team in between regardless. Stearns hit 46 home runs as a Met. His drought ended with a bang (he beat Steve Carlton on a night when Carlton struck out 15, an echo of Ron Swoboda a dozen years earlier). Dom Smith has hit 46 home runs as a Met. He wasn’t exactly a classic slugger when going yard wasn’t a novelty for him, but you didn’t find yourself counting games between his home runs. Dom nowadays usually plays a position that contains “hitter” in the title, so it’s more than a little concerning he’s neither hitting (.198) nor slugging (.294). On Wednesday, he came to bat four times. He walked once (.280 OBP). He didn’t homer (and hasn’t since July 21 of last year). Let’s hope Wrigley Field shakes the clout out of him.
Or, if it doesn’t, maybe somebody else will pick him up (and I don’t mean on waivers, wise guy). Twenty-six players compose the active roster. The Mets have won two out of three and 55 of 89 by getting something out of just about all of them when they really needed it. Keep that math going.
With the All-Star Game fast approaching, it’s time to remember how to root for players representing teams we usually can’t stand, because for one night those players will be teammates of Mets players we really do like. This week, then, join National League Town in a spasm of National League Solidarity. Warning: nice things will be said about opponents.
[insert obligatory meat loaf reference here]
I’m thinking, sadly, that Dom Smith’s usefulness to this team is nearing its end. His power (such as it was) has totally deserted him, and he’s looking overmatched at the plate in general. His tuneup in the minors doesn’t seem to have done him much good. He’s been reduced to being a late inning defensive replacement at first. While admittedly an excellent defensive first baseman, he really can’t play any other position, so you don’t have the versatility you usually want in a backup infielder. Also, Pete Alonso has been a far better fielder these days than he used to be; and there are others on the team, like Canha and Guillorme, who can play first when necessary. His lack of power also saps his usefulness as a DH. His presence on the active roster may be a luxury the Mets can no longer afford. I say this sadly, because I like Dom Smith, and his walkoff of 2019 remains one of my favorite non-postseason Met memories of all time. But when it’s time, it’s time.
i too have a fondness for dom and count that 2019 walk-off – against the braves, no less – as a terrific storybook ending, one i am grateful to have attended.
but also like you, i am reluctantly coming to the conclusion his best service to the mets at this point could well be in a trade package for a lefty reliever.
Round one to the Mets. For all the trepidation and hype for this series, the Mets ended up taking their usual 2 out of 3 from the Braves, just like they’ve done against most of their opponents all season. That’s a statement in itself.
Better yet, the Phillies have suddenly lost 4 in a row. Maybe their bump from firing Girardi has run dry.
The Braves are a home run waiting to happen, but they’re a strikeout waiting to happen, too.
As impressive as anything else they achieved this series, the Mets ran up the pitch counts of Fried, Strider, and Morton, all quality starters.
Also, no errors by the Mets in the series and I don’t recall a misplay that wasn’t recorded as an error.
Using Diaz for the save in game one on a 3rd straight day of work paid off as he wasn’t needed the last two games.
A Guillorme who’s once again hitting like McNeil has no reason to sit. I wish I could say the same for Dom Smith since an infield with Lindor, Guillorme, and Smith together can defend with anyone.
Also, it happened in the 1st inning, so it’s lost in the shuffle, but Nido’s throw and Guillorme’s tag on Acuna’s 1st steal attempt was a thing of beauty. One for the instructional videos. The play set an early tone for the game.