For most of the evening, Wheeler found himself locked in a tight pitcher’s duel with Giants’ lefty Andrew Suarez as both hurlers left the opposing offense befuddled basically all night. Both men tossed seven innings, and of the 14 combined frames the starters pitched, eight were 1-2-3 innings.

The Mets’ first real threat came in the seventh when Jeff McNeil was hit by a pitch to start the inning and Austin Jackson followed with a single. After a Wilmer Flores fly out scooted McNeil to third, up stepped Jay Bruce with a golden opportunity to break the ice in this one and push the game’s first run across. Instead, the veteran bounced into an inning-ending 3-6-3 double play to send the momentum back to the home dugout. And San Francisco would take advantage.

Brandon Belt pulled the first pitch of the home seventh down the right field line for a lead-off double, and he advanced to third base on a groundout. Young Chris Shaw, playing in his first Major League game, then got just enough of a fly ball to center to put the Giants up 1-0.

The Mets briefly threatened in the eighth when Brandon Nimmo doubled with one out against San Francisco’s Tony Watson, but the veteran southpaw was able to get Jose Reyes and Michael Conforto out to end the threat. And in the bottom of that inning, the Giants were able to easily put the game out of reach.

Young catcher Aramis Garcia crushed his first big league bomb to lead off the inning and, before the frame was over, Robert Gsellman, Daniel Zamora, Drew Smith and Jacob Rhame would combine to allow six Giants to score and put the Mets down 7-0. New York went down 1-2-3 in the ninth against Ty Blach to end a disappointing series opener for New York.

Up next, the Mets will send Steven Matz to the bump against fellow left hander Derek Holland later this afternoon.

 Photo credit: Stan Szeto – USA Today Sports

But the offense broke out immediately in this one, with Todd Frazier blasting a grand slam into the left field bleachers in the first inning. And, amazingly, it was basically all over but the shouting from there. Vargas continued his run of actually pitching well, reaching the sixth inning in his fourth consecutive start, while only allowing one run on four hits and two walks, with six strikeouts. The outing lowered Vargas’s ERA to a shiny 6.56 on the year.

Hey look, I’m trying not to be too snarky, okay? I’m trying not to turn wins into negatives. That said, though, the success of Vargas comes with a side of malaise and dread for Mets fans who have been paying attention, because we know what it means. With this team, and Vargas’s salary, it’s almost depressingly easy to expect the team to use his late-season competency as a reason to justify handing the struggling veteran a rotation spot next season. Guaranteeing anything to Vargas is, of course, a terrible idea, because even if he pitches well over the last handful of starts here, under no circumstances is he a viable rotation option on any team hoping to compete next season; he will be 36 years old next year, and coming into this game, he had a 6.36 ERA over his last 30 starts dating back to July 17, 2017. Don’t be fooled; he’s still not good.

Anyway, the Mets led 4-1 going into the seventh when they struck for four more runs. Singles by Amed Rosario and Austin Jackson drove in two, and then Jose Reyes tripled in two more [snarky comment redacted]. The lead was now 8-1.

But they still weren’t done. Frazier added his fifth RBI of the game in the ninth inning on an RBI single, and Brandon Nimmo got in on the fun with an RBI single of his own a few pitches later. The Mets led 10-1 at the time, and even though Jacob Rhame did his best Jacob Rhame impression and served up a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning, the Mets held on to win 10-3.

OTHER NEWS OF THE DAY

Whether or not David Wright plays for the New York Mets in 2018 is apparently his call, and he seems pretty damn intent on playing Major League Baseball in 2018.

The Mets released their 2019 Spring Training Schedule, in case you want to try pinpointing the exact day you talk yourself into Jay Bruce, full-time first baseman.

WHAT’S NEXT

Off day today, but the Mets finish off August by traveling to the Bay Area to take on the Giants in AT&T Park. Zack Wheeler takes the hill against Andrew Suarez at 10:15 p.m..

Photo credit: Jim Young – USA Today Sports

The Mets lost to a team below them in the standings? The further they can drop the better, as a couple of wins are seemingly meaningless with the team already out of playoff possibilities.

David Wright is going out on a rehab assignment! In what’s practically been an entirely lost season for the fan base, The Captain’s return to the lineup would be the premier highlight. No one –- including me — thought Wright would ever play in the big leagues again. Now he’s one step closer and on track to reaching the bigs before seasons end.

Corey Oswalt gave the Mets a quality start Saturday and added to his resume, cementing his case as a potential rotation piece in 2019. Oswalt as the team’s fifth starter would be a welcome sign, not only because he’s 11 years younger than Jason Vargas, but because he pitches better than him as well.

THE BAD

Jacob Rhame has been a disappointment so far; instead of shutting opposing teams lineups down in the latter innings, Rhame has pitched to a 7.97 ERA. The 25-year-old needs to rack up some more strikeouts while walking fewer men in his appearances.

Amed Rosario’s OPS is down to .627. No, I don’t think a stint in Triple-A is necessary at all, but Rosario needs time to develop and the Mets ought to give it to him to round out the season. Still a large part of the future of the organization, Rosario putting it together at the end of the season would instill some much-needed confidence for 2019.

THE UGLY

The Mets will reportedly keep Peter Alonso down in Triple-A for the remainder of the season. The main reason being given is so they can gain an extra year of control on Alonso in his age-30 season. The right-handed slugger should’ve been called up by now, but the Mets aren’t contending and seemingly won’t open up a spot for him.

The organizational starting pitching depth is at a supreme low point. With health in the rotation such an uncertainty, the Mets need their five starters to stay healthy in 2019. If anyone were to go down, the Mets would likely need to add a pitcher to the 40-man, such as Nabil Crismatt, who should get a long look in September regardless.

Photo credit: Steve Mitchell – USA Today Sports

It’s a Jason Vargas start. Don’t think much more really needs to be said.

At least the greatest second baseman of all time – Jeff McNeil – is still in the lineup.

Game Recap

Mercifully, Jason Vargas wasn’t in the game for long. After recording only one out and giving up three hits, an almost two-hour rain delay chased the struggling left-hander from the game. Paul Sewald replaced Vargas and allowed the two runners he inherited to score, closing the book on Vargas after 0.1 innings and three runs. By the time the top of the first ended at 9:10, the Mets trailed 3-0.

Sal Romano, meanwhile, continued with his regularly scheduled start after the rain delay, and he dominated the Mets. Brandon Nimmo and Jose Bautista managed their only two hits off the righty, both of which came in the second inning and led to the Mets’ only run. Romano also walked three, including two starting the seventh inning before he was pulled. Jared Hughes relieved Romano and worked out of that jam with little trouble, recording a strikeout, fly out and ground out to strand two.

The Mets, meanwhile, had to patch together a game from their bullpen. Sewald got through the second inning and was replaced by Bobby Wahl, who gave up two more runs in the third. Tyler Bashlor kept the Reds off the board in the fourth and fifth, and Drew Smith did the same in the sixth and seventh. Jacob Rhame kept that trend going in the eighth, but gave up a home run to former Met Dilson Herrera (traded for Jay Bruce in 2016) that stretched the Reds’ lead to 6-1.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Mets had one last chance, with singles from Nimmo and Todd Frazier putting two men on with one out. That chance was squandered too, of course, as Bautista and Kevin Plawecki both popped up to end the game. The loss drops the Mets to 46-65.

Thoughts from the Game

It’s a little sad and entirely unsurprising that most of us were hoping the rain would just cancel the game rather than delay it. More importantly, the fact that the Mets’ win expectancy probably went up with Vargas out of the game is a problem, and it’s one that will, in all likelihood, not go addressed in the offseason. There’s no reason for Vargas to be on the Opening Day roster next season, but the Mets front office literally doesn’t know the meaning of the term “sunk cost,” so expect him to be pencilled in as the third starter from the first day of spring training.

As a more uplifting tidbit, enjoy this pregame Jeff McNeil factoid:

Jeff McNeil is 8-for-12 in his last three games. The last Mets rookie with 8 or more hits over a 3-game span was David Wright in 2004.#Mets host #Reds
7 pm on @SNYtv

— Elias Sports Bureau (@EliasSports) August 7, 2018

Other Met News

Chris Flexen underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his knee, which will end his season. The 24-year-old was in the midst of a disastrous season, recording an ERA of 12.79 in the majors and putting up an unimpressive 4.40 in Triple-A to go with unremarkable peripherals. Hopefully some of his struggles can be explained away by his injury and he he can hit the ground running next year as viable starting pitcher depth.

Photo credit: Andy Marlin – USA Today Sports

The night couldn’t have started much better for the Mets, as following a Brandon Nimmo walk and a Wilmer Flores single, suddenly hot Michael Conforto deposited a 2-2 pitch from Ivan Nova into the right field seats to quickly put the visitors up 3-0.

Lefty Jason Vargas, making his first start in six weeks, took the mound in the bottom of the first and encouragingly retired the top of the Pittsburgh line-up in order. But after the Mets went quietly in the second, Vargas’ follow-up inning of work did not quite go as swimmingly.

Elias Diaz led off the frame with a hit, and Freese then contributed his first dose of damage, blasting a two-run shot to left to cut the New York lead to 3-2.

After the bumpy first inning, Nova was able to settle in and navigate through the middle innings with minimal difficulty, and while Vargas tossed a 1-2-3 third, he ran into significant trouble after that. In the fourth, he gave up a single to Diaz and a pair of walks before getting Jordy Mercer to fly out to left to strand the bases loaded. But in the fifth, Vargas wasn’t as lucky. A one-out walk to Jordan Luplow chased the southpaw from the game, but relief ace Seth Lugo was not in top form. After getting his first batter, Josh Harrison, to fly to right, Lugo allowed a hit and a walk that brought Freese to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded. Predictably, he ripped one right up the middle for a two-run single that flipped the game and put Pittsburgh up 4-3.

The Mets quickly responded in the next half inning, but they did so in strange fashion.

Conforto and Jose Bautista both walked to start the road sixth, which prompted Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle to replace Nova with hard-throwing righty Edgar Santana. Mets’ new everyday second baseman, (more on that later) Jeff McNeil, was then asked to lay down a sacrifice bunt, and he did even better than that. McNeil dropped a perfect bunt down the third base line, causing Santana to rush the throw to first without setting his feet and, after the throwing error, New York had the bases loaded with nobody out. Kevin Plawecki then struck out for the first out, but then things got weird. Jose Reyes hit a hard line drive to left field that Luplow caught on the run, and while the ball was clearly not deep enough to score Conforto from third base, Luplow unleashed a downright terrible throw to the plate that sailed to the backstop and allowed the Mets to tie the game on the throwing error.

New York got scoreless relief work from all of Tyler Bashlor, Jacob Rhame, Jerry Blevins and Anthony Swarzak, while Pittsburgh’s Kyle Crick and Felipe Vazquez were close to untouchable, and thus this game headed to the bottom of the ninth still tied at four apiece. On came Tim Peterson, the Mets’ seventh pitcher of the evening, and he was not quite as fortunate as the previous relievers.

Harrison led off the Pirates’ ninth with an infield hit, and when Gregory Polanco pulled a hit of his own through the hole, the Mets’ chances of getting this game to extra innings suddenly looked exceedingly bleak. New York intentionally walked Diaz to load the bases and set up a force at every base, but in doing so they brought Freese to the plate, whom they hadn’t retired all night. On the first pitch Peterson threw him, Freese crushed a line drive to the right center field fence to walk off the game and send the home fans home happy.

Tonight, New York will send ace right hander Jacob deGrom to the hill against the Pirates Trevor Williams, a game that looks like a pitcher’s dual on paper.

***

Roughly an hour before this game started news surfaced that the Mets had traded second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera to the division rival Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for Double-A right-hander Franklyn Kilome. It doesn’t mean much in the Mets organization, but our own Jeffrey Paternostro estimated that Kilome, who has shown some inconsistency throughout his career and is likely to end up as a reliever, could jump right into the top 5 in the system. Considering the fact that Cabrera is a rental, Kilome could easily end up being a great deal for the Mets.

Originally in the starting lineup, Cabrera was scratched and McNeil moved to second base with Reyes joining the the starting lineup at third. With the late transaction, the Mets were obviously unable to get a roster replacement to Pittsburgh in time to be active for the game, and thus played a man short on Friday night. One man who did make it in time was new Met Austin Jackson, who is either going to replace Jose Bautista or fit in as a fourth outfielder or maybe be the new closer.

Photo credit: Charles LeClaire – USA Today Sports

It seemed like the same old story was unfolding at Chase Field: a decent outing by a starting pitcher, anemic offense and an imploding bullpen would converge for a desultory loss by the Mets in Arizona. And other than a late rally and generally close game, things otherwise followed the script.

Jason Vargas, who is the first pitcher in Mets history to not go more than five innings in any of his first eight starts, pitched lasted five, allowing three runs and striking out five, keeping the team within striking distance, helped in no small part by Todd Frazier sparking two double plays behind him.

The Mets had clawed to within a run by the time Vargas gave way to Hansel Robles, who pitched a scoreless sixth; Robles and Jerry Blevins teamed up to load the bases with two out in the seventh, yielding to Paul Sewald, who forced in a run, walking Nick Ahmed before managing to strike out Paul Goldschmidt. Jacob Rhame made the bullpen’s efforts not to be terrible for naught, surrendering two solo home runs to David Peralta and Jake Lamb in the eighth.

The Mets’ three runs came on solo homers: Brandon Nimmo in the first inning, his ninth; Michael Conforto beginning to right the ship with a booming home run to center field in the sixth, his eighth of the year; and Amed Rosario off Archie Bradley in the top of the eighth. They were the only hits the Mets scratched out, aside from a single by Dominic Smith in the fifth.

Former Mets draft pick Matt Koch went six innings for Arizona, yielding two runs and striking out five. Brad Boxberger earned his fifteenth save. Just another night in paradise.

Seth Lugo (2-1, 1.77) will face Zach Godley (6-5, 4.97) tonight at 9:40 p.m.

Photo credit: Rick Scuteri – USA Today Sports

After Monday’s day of arguably-too-much-baseball, the Mets and Braves were back at it again on Tuesday night after yet another rain delay. Steven Matz took the mound for the Mets, giving New York what appeared to be a significant advantage over Braves starter Anibal Sanchez. In more nightmarish news, Jose Reyes was in the lineup again, and Jose Bautista was batting third. Your 2018 Mets in a nutshell, folks.

Game Recap

This game went much like every other game for the past week. Starting on a positive note, they took a first inning lead again, when Brandon Nimmo reached on an HBP and scored on a double from Bautista. The Mets would stretch that lead further in the third on a two-run home run from Asdrubal Cabrera. Matz was cruising on the other side of the ball, working around a handful of Braves’ baserunners over the first three inning, and the Mets got him another run in the top of the fourth on a home run from Adrian Gonzalez.

At that point, the hits (the other kind of hits) started coming. Matz left the game before throwing a pitch in the fourth with a finger injury suffered on a swing, a burden the strained Mets’ pitching staff is ill-equipped to handle at the moment. Paul Sewald entered and promptly started serving up hard contact, allowing two runs on three hits, a walk and a passed ball. The Met lead was cut to 4-2.

Unlike previous games, the Mets managed to add on after their bullpen stumbled. Cabrera homered again in the fifth to get one of those runs back, and an RBI double from Nimmo in the sixth reestablished a four-run lead. The bullpen, meanwhile, stabilized a bit, with Sewald and Jerry Blevins combining to keep the Braves off the board in the fifth and sixth respectively.

You can probably guess where things went from here. Blevins, forced into a two-inning appearance by the Mets’ decimated pitching staff, struggled, allowing two out hits to Freddie Freeman and NIck Markakis that pushed another Braves run across. Jacob Rhame finished out the seventh, but was shellacked in the eighth, blowing a three-run lead with, of course, the help of a bloop single for Dansby Swanson. The game was tied again.

Fittingly, the Mets threatened but squandered an opportunity in the top of the ninth, putting two men on with nobody out and then not scoring. Gerson Bautista entered for the bottom of the ninth and, after recording one out, served up a walkoff home run to light hitting Johan Camargo. It was something of a mercy, as the Mets simply did not have the arms for an extra-inning game, but blowing yet another big lead late in the game is more than a little disheartening.

Thoughts from the Game

Admittedly, I’m a bit too young to have 100% accurate memories of the 2007 stretch run, and I’m too lazy to go through the play logs and get the details. Regardless, this recent stretch has felt like hopping in a time machine, watching that 2007 team blow any and every lead they could get their hands on. This current Mets team could be leading by 20 and I wouldn’t feel confident, and I doubt many other fans would either at this point.

This was totally predictable though. This is what happens when, in lieu of signing real relievers, you put your starting pitching depth in the bullpen. This is what happens when, instead of upgrading on an injury-plagued group of starters, you sign Jason Vargas and call things good. This is what happens when you prioritize saving money over adding talent in deadline deals in the previous offseason. This organization simply does not have enough major league quality arms, and that problem is made more acute by their injury problems that, at this point, are persistent enough that they must be something more than bad luck.

Other Mets News

Noah Syndergaard hit the DL yesterday with a strained ligament in his right ring finger. It’s a minor injury and he should be back in the minimum amount of time, in theory. Of course, rather than encouraging a player who self-reported an injury and kept it from becoming more serious (one who has done just the opposite in the past), the team put out veiled comments suggesting that Thor could pitch anyway and he was simply being a wimp. There’s some heavy reading between the lines required there, but the fact that even a hint of such a sentiment is present is just the kind of dysfunction you expect from this team.

Elsewhere, Anthony Swarzak had a stellar rehab appearance for the Las Vegas 51s. He can’t rejoin the team soon enough.

Photo credit: Brett Davis – USA Today Sports

Belfast Blur Struggles

Strapped for starting pitching, the Mets turned to P.J. Conlon to take the ball in Game 2 of their Memorial Day doubleheader. Let’s just say that Conlon’s second major league start went a little worse than his last one. The Belfast Blur (trademark pending) was only able to last two innings on 46 pitches. The Mets desperately needed length out of their starter and did not get it. The good news: Conlon did not surrender a walk. The bad news: the left-hander got tagged for eight hits and four runs. Conlon is not a particularly hard thrower, with a fastball that tops out in the high 80s, so it’s a long shot to believe he’ll carve out a long-term position in this rotation even with how thin their depth is.

Fear the Plaw

A lot has happened since the last time we saw Kevin Plawecki on April 11. In the 39 games since, the Mets have gone from a dominant force to a barely .500 team. Acquiring Devin Mesoraco stopped the bleeding at catcher, but the return of Plawecki from a broken bone in his left hand should provide depth and make for a decent platoon behind the plate.

Plaw returned to action last night after going 3-13 with a home run in his Las Vegas rehab stint and boy did he not disappoint. The Mets’ backstop was on base five times Monday, recording a walk, three singles, an RBI and a run scored. He reached on an error in the first inning after he hit a comebacker to Brandon McCarthy that the hurler simply just threw away. I should also note that his infield single in the sixth should have been scored an error as Johan Camargo blatantly dropped the ball. The Mets need production at the catcher position and whether it’s Mesoraco or Plawecki doesn’t matter as long as it helps this team turn around.

Everybody Getting Involved

Despite how inept they were during the afternoon, the Mets were able to post eight runs on 15 hits in the nightcap. Adrian Gonzalez opened the scoring in the first with an RBI single and the Mets jumped to 2-0 after Plawecki reached on an error, scoring Jay Bruce. Brandon Nimmo blasted a homer in the third, but this lead wouldn’t stand up long.

The Mets gave it back to the Braves but regained the lead after Amed Rosario singled home Plawecki and Jose Reyes in the sixth. The Mets were able to dismantle Atlanta’s Brandon McCarthy, who finished with a line of 5.1 innings pitched, nine hits, five runs and two strikeouts.

Unfortunately, that lead didn’t last very long either, but the Mets rallied back quickly. Singles from Luis Guillorme and Rosario netted three runs in the seventh, giving the Mets the 8-5 lead that went final.

Overall, every Mets starting position player netted at hit tonight. Michael Conforto and Plawecki finished with three-hit games, Guillorme and Rosario each had a total of four hits and five RBIs between them, and Nimmo, Gonzalez and Plawecki each recorded an RBI.

The Pen Rebounds

Watching Seth Lugo surrender a walk-off home run to Charlie Culberson cannot be defined as anything other than a gut punch. Thankfully, things went much better for the Mets’ relief unit in the nightcap. Hansel Robles came out with one of his best performances of 2018, keeping the Braves off the board for three innings.

Robert Gsellman did not have one of his better games but limited the damage to one run that the Mets were able to regain it the following inning. Jacob Rhame pitched an impressive seventh, netting a perfect inning with two strikeouts.

Jeurys Familia came up big too. After a long day, Familia shut the door in the eighth, pitching a clean inning. He returned for the ninth, where he completed a six-out save (his first this year), grabbing his 14th save of the season. Combined, the bullpen ate seven innings, surrendered five hits, one run, two walks and struck out nine. Gsellman winds up the winning pitcher of record, his fifth victory of 2018.

Fun fact: Braves prospect Dustin Peterson made his major league debut as a pinch hitter on the last out of the game. Technically, he made his debut on May 29 because the game ran past midnight, but the official record will pencil him in for the day prior. He also walked to first base after three balls thinking he walked before eventually striking out. Embarrassing.

The Mets and Braves pick up where they left off at 7:35 p.m. Game 3 of the series pits Steven Matz against Anibal Sanchez.

Photo credit: Dale Zanine – USA Today Sports

You’ll forgive Mets fans for not knowing what to do with games like last night. Wednesday night’s late-inning implosion against the Marlins makes sense; that kind of collapse and waste of individual effort is baked into our DNA. Thursday’s display of exemplary starting pitching, extra-base hits and bullpen competence is simply unfathomable. So just lean in, Mets fans; in  a division where rebuilding Atlanta and Philadelphia teams sit atop the NL East, a ho-hum victory in the midwest is just what 2018 looks like now.

Brandon Nimmo continued to be the offensive engine for the Mets, reaching base for eight consecutive plate appearances in the last two games, with three extra base hits (two doubles and a triple), a walk and an infield single.

For the second game in a row, the Mets forced a starting pitcher to preserve a razor-thin, one-run lead, and Steven Matz was up to the challenge, especially when pitching out of a one-out, bases loaded jam in the third. (Asdrubal Cabrera would finally buy him some breathing room with a two-run double in the fifth, snapping an 0-for-11 stretch.)

Matz was great: the lefty went six innings, allowing four hits, three walks and striking out three. Brilliant starting pitching is actually a familiar sight; the idea that the team could preserve the win, however, just feels strange.

Questionable reclamation project Jose Bautista (a.k.a. Jose Reyes without the egregious inability to not keep his hands off women) gave us the good stuff, reaching base on a pinch-hit walk in the seventh, but got picked off first in the seventh to kill a rally. Without that mishap, the Mets wouldn’t even be the Mets.

Out the bullpen, Paul Sewald pitched two innings in scoreless relief, striking out two. Jacob Rhame pitched a scoreless ninth.

The Mets play the second game in the series at 8:10 p.m., as Noah Syndergaard (4-1, 2.91 ERA) takes on Junior Guerra (3-3, 2.98 ERA) at Miller Park.

Photo credit: Benny Sieu – USA Today Sports

After struggling to score only 17 collective runs in their past eight games, the Mets offense exploded for 12 runs on 16 hits in Tuesday night’s series-opening win over Toronto, an even more impressive feat when you consider both Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto did not play.

After waiting out a rain delay of nearly an hour and a half, Noah Syndergaard took the mound and overpowered the Blue Jays’ in the first inning, striking out the side with relative ease. After a Mets threat died in the bottom of the inning, Syndergaard labored a little bit in his second frame, but worked around a hit and a walk to carry the game into the bottom of the second scoreless.

Devin Mesoraco has been a substantial upgrade for New York at catcher, both offensively and behind the plate. On this night, he helped the home team grab an early lead, as he walked to begin the Mets half of the 2nd, and later scored on a double from Syndergaard. Back on the mound though, Syndergaard’s second inning struggles carried into the third, as after he surrendered two singles and hit a batter to load the bases, Yangervis Solarte found a hole for a two-run single that gave Toronto a 2-1 lead. That score would hold into the bottom of the fourth, when seemingly out of nowhere the Mets offense came to life.

Leading off for New York, Jay Bruce blooped an opposite field ground rule double, and another Mesoraco walk followed by a single from Jose Reyes loaded the bases with nobody out. Syndergaard then drove a fly ball deep enough to center to score Bruce with the tying run on a sacrifice fly, but the Mets were far from done. Amed Rosario crushed a ball to right center that literally struck the orange stripe atop the wall at just the right angle to keep it in play, missing his first home run of the season by mere inches and having to settle for an RBI double. Two batters later, Juan Lagares rifled a hit through the left side of the infield to score both Reyes and Rosario, and New York had suddenly put up a five-spot in the fourth, their biggest offensive inning since April 29.

Syndergaard’s pitch count was far too elevated for him to go past five innings, a frustrating trend, but on Tuesday night it really didn’t matter all that much. New York added three in the fifth on RBI’s from Rosario, Brandon Nimmo and Lagares and the rout was officially on. Mesoraco put a capper on the night by launching his second home run as a Met in the bottom of the eighth, putting New York up 12-2, which would be the final margin.

Seth Lugo relieved Syndergaard in the sixth and did what what we’ve grown accustomed to, powering through three scoreless innings before ceding the ball to Jacob Rhame, who tossed a 1-2-3 inning to finish the game.

The biggest takeaways coming out of this game aside from the collective offensive performance were the individual games turned in by Lagares, Rosario and Mesoraco. Lagares been one of the Mets’ most consistent hitters all year, and going 4-5 with a triple, stolen base and two RBIs should put him in position for more playing time, particularly with Cespedes potentially going on the DL any day (it’s literally a 10-day DL).

Rosario has slumped for much of 2018 but has turned it on of late, and this quite possibly was his best game of the year. The youngster contributed three hits and a pair of RBIs himself and, as I mentioned earlier, missed a home run by just inches.

Mesoraco, acquired for Matt Harvey last week, is clearly light year’s ahead of what the Mets were getting behind the plate from Tomas Nido and Jose Lobaton. Last night, the former Red went 2-2 with a homer and 2 RBI’s, while drawing three walks and scoring four runs.

The Amazins will look to sweep this short two game set this afternoon when they send Zack Wheeler to the mound against J.A. Happ.

Photo credit: Brad Penner – USA Today Sports