Mets have flipped narrative; now they are measuring stick for MLB
New York Mets pitcher Griffin Canning (46) pitches against the Chicago Cubs during the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, May 11, 2025, in New York. Credit: Noah K. Murray
Only because it’s the Mets, a franchise with a little-brother complex since its birth in 1962, do we always feel compelled to see how they measure up against the top competition, whether it’s the division, league or entire sport.
But here in mid-May, after Sunday’s rousing 6-2 victory secured an impressive series win over the Cubs — a team playing as well as anyone in baseball — the Mets have flipped that narrative. There’s really nothing to prove. Not after the season’s first six weeks, anyway.
The Mets are now the measuring stick, the standard by which the rest of the league should judge themselves, a message that came through loud and clear Sunday when they outclassed the NL Central leader. The ever-reliable Griffin Canning held MLB’s most prolific offense to a pair of hits through six innings — one a soft grounder off his glove, the other Pete Crow-Armstrong’s solo homer — and Francisco Lindor’s go-ahead blast sparked a four-run eighth inning for the Mets, who are 15-4 at Citi Field.
Lindor, still carrying the disappointment from Saturday’s rally-killing double-play grounder in the ninth, showed a bit more emotion than usual when he unloaded on an 84-mph sweeper from Cubs reliever Porter Hodge. Instead of Lindor’s typical been-there, done-that reaction, he executed a little bat flip at the plate while watching the ball soar into the Mets’ bullpen, then pumped his fists and screamed rounding the bases.
As Lindor goes, so do the Mets, and he’s up to .301 with nine homers — tops among MLB shortstops — and an .877 OPS. But Sunday wasn’t all Lindor’s show. Backup catcher Luis Torrens gave the Mets their first lead with a second-inning triple (he exited in the sixth after taking a painful foul ball to, well, let’s say a bit below the waist) and the slow-starting Mark Vientos had a pair of hits and two RBIs, including his tiebreaking fifth homer in the sixth.
Canning, who lowered his ERA to 2.36 — less than half of what it was last season (5.19) with the Angels — should’ve earned his sixth consecutive win if not for Reed Garrett getting burned by a leadoff walk and Nico Hoerner’s tying RBI double in the seventh. But Garrett stranded Hoerner before Ryne Stanek and Edwin Diaz each supplied a perfect inning for the Mets (26-15).
“To end up where we want to end up, we’ve got to do things like this,” Lindor said. “To accomplish the ultimate goal, we gotta play like today.”
Lindor’s heroics are a given by now. Getting everyone else up to speed is when the Mets will become their most dangerous, and Exhibit A is Vientos, who has struggled to live up to the “Swaggy V” persona of a year ago.
Entering Sunday, Vientos was batting .091 (2-for-22) against lefties, but he barreled up a first-pitch fastball from Matthew Boyd for a badly needed ego boost. Coming around third base, Vientos flashed a heart sign with his hands in honor of Mother’s Day.
“That’s Mommy power right there,” said Vientos, who went deep for the first time since April 30. “That was for my mom. Crazy stat, but for the past five years, I’ve hit four home runs on Mother’s Day. So Mommy power is real.”
Vientos’ claim couldn’t be immediately verified, but we’ll take his word on it. Who would lie about something like that relating to Mother’s Day? And from the Mets’ perspective, whatever Vientos needs to get the real Swaggy back, they’ll roll with him. Part of that motivation, however, could be coming from a few lockers down in the Mets’ clubhouse, where fellow third baseman Brett Baty seems to be re-establishing himself at the major-league level.
Baty was summoned from Triple-A Syracuse to replace the injured Jesse Winker on the roster, but now that he’s showing power to all fields — including three homers in his previous two games — Baty could end up pushing Vientos for playing time. Or at least nudging him into a more regular DH role, depending on the pitching matchups. If this Baty bump is legit, that would be a huge bonus for the Mets’ lineup.
“Brett’s a great player,” Vientos said. “He’s been doing his thing and I’m glad he’s been doing it. We just got to keep chipping away and keep fighting.”
File that under ways these Mets can actually get better. They’re in first place, with a run differential (plus-67) that’s second only to the Tigers (plus-77), and Canning’s gem improved the rotation’s ERA to 2.67, the best in baseball (the Padres are the next-closest NL team at 3.26).
Offensively, the Mets’ .769 OPS just hopped over the Cubs for fourth place, and that’s with Juan Soto still not functioning at full capacity. He and Tyrone Taylor were the only starters to go hitless Sunday.
“I don’t want to put too much into it this early,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “But it’s good to play the way we did against a team like [the Cubs].”
The next two weekends include a Subway Series trip to the Bronx followed by a visit from the Dodgers. Both of those baseball Goliaths should be interested to see how they measure up to the Mets, not the other way around. Mendoza & Co. already know where they stand.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
