Another crazy game. Nice comeback at the end to get it into extra innings, where there was another explosion of runs in the 10th.
Weird game. Manaea was terrific. With solid defense, he gives up zero runs. Ended up getting through 7 innings, which is huge for a team with a troubled bullpen.
The Mets defense has generally been good this year but not last night. Alonso made a bad error. Lindor booted a ball for an error and blew another play when he took his time and looked home instead of throwing to first right away with Abrams running.
Vientos did not charge a grounder and the runner beat his throw on what should have been a routine out. Later Mark made a bad throw to the 2B on what should have been a double play that caused a late throw to first. And then he got a grounder hit right to him but it got caught in his glove and he was not able to even make a throw.
Bader is a fine center fielder but when there is a ball hit to a gap near the wall, he seems very uncomfortable and rarely makes the catch on balls he has gotten to. It happened again last night and was costly. Not just to the team; Bader hit the base of the outfield wall with his back and was shaken up, leaving the game shortly afterwards. Hope he is okay. Not a fan of the outfield wall at the stadium Washington play in. It is a scoreboard so there is no pad and the only thing protecting the players from hitting it is a black cyclone fence. It is pretty worthless for that and really seems to be there more to protect the scoreboard than the players. I hope they rip that out and put in a padded fence soon before more players get hurt due to a stupid design.
For a long time this season, the Big 4 veterans (Lindor, Alonso, Nimmo and McNeil have all struggled. All were hitting around .200 near the start of June. The first three all got hot around then and all of them have brought their batting averages to the .250 range, which has been a big reason for the Met resurgence. Only McNeil remains struggling. His versatility and injuries to others might be the only reasons he is still regularly playing. I hope he gets it together soon because it looks like Iglesias is here to stay.
Improved depth is making an impact at other positions. Torrens is really playing well and has made a good contribution both on offense and on defense.
But the turnaround centers around Alvarez. His impact on the pitching staff is big. Manaea has an ERA above 5 not pitching to Alvaez, and below 2 while pitching to him. I am confident most if not all the other pitchers do better pitching when he is catching. Not sure if it is his enthusiasm, his acumen calling pitches, his ability to frame pitchers, his impact shutting down the running game of other teams (no one gets a big lead when he is catching). It is probably a little of all of these things.
Add in his impact on offense, where he is hitting really well and you get a really impactful player. Let's hope he stays healthy the rest of the season and shows what he can do.
Glad they brought up Butto. He should have been up earlier but better late than never. Scott pitches tonight. I doubt they let him pitch more than 5 innings so brace for impact the last 4. Probably going to need Howser to pitch most of it and maybe let Reed handle the ninth.
Man, Nunez has been a godsend. That said, Diaz can't get back soon enough. I think there are 4 more games in his suspension.
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