Split in Boston puts off Mets' 'seller or buyer' question to another day
Mets manger Buck Showalter watches with teammates from the dugout during the ninth inning of a game against the Red Sox on Saturday in Boston. Credit: AP/Michael Dwyer
BOSTON
For the Mets, it’s not getting any easier this weekend to separate reality from fiction at Fenway Park, a baseball fantasyland of its own.
Stretching Friday night’s series opener against the Red Sox into Saturday afternoon didn’t help matters, courtesy of the biblical rains that made Jersey Street resemble the nearby Charles River.
Everyone is anxious to put a definitive stamp on the 2023 Mets — buy or sell, frauds or contenders — but we don’t seem to be getting any closer to an unassailable truth with this group.
Saturday’s split with the Sox, a 5-4 victory in the early five-inning completion followed by an 8-6 loss, really didn’t do much to make that big picture any clearer — other than further delaying a verdict.
The Mets are 4-4 since the All-Star break, basically treading water. Now Sunday night’s Fenway finale becomes all that more critical with Carlos Carrasco opposing a bullpen scramble for Boston.
“I think every game right now is a must-win,” said Jeff McNeil, who had three hits in the two games, including a two-run double in Saturday’s nightcap that morphed into a Little League inside-the-parker thanks to more shoddy defense by the Sox. “Got to play well, got to start with [Sunday’s] game and hopefully get a W.”
Hope isn’t a strategy, of course. And neither is putting too much faith in Max Scherzer, who killed the momentum from the first victory by teeing up four homers, two by Triston Casas.
Last week, Scherzer believed that he had fixed his slider, saying that his mud-encrusted cleats helped him keep his front foot down, and by proxy, that troublesome pitch.
Well, only Yu Chang’s homer into the Green Monster seats came on a slider, but that hardly feels like progress against a .159-hitting shortstop.
Also, Jarren Duran stung him on the game’s opening at-bat, smacking one off the Pesky Pole.
Scherzer has surrendered a stunning 22 homers in 100 2⁄3 innings, which is a tough number to trust going forward.
“Baseball’s funny,” said Scherzer, who dropped to 8-4 with a 4.20 ERA. “The game always finds a way to surprise you and punch you in the face.”
The Mets are wobbling around as they approach the Aug. 1 deadline, stuck at seven games out of the third wild-card spot.
There’s zero time left for moral victories, as McNeil mentioned, which is why some of this weekend’s positive signs may feel like too little, too late.
Pete Alonso had a triple and double in the second game, giving him four hits for the series, and the Mets even mounted a furious rally in the ninth, spurred by RBI singles by Francisco Alvarez, Mark Vientos and Brett Baty.
The Baby Mets coming through would be a reason for optimism in May or June. But with July winding down and a considerable wild-card deficit to trim — including five teams to hurdle — it’s all about the bottom line now.
And nearly every positive was counterbalanced with a negative at some point Saturday.
For all the success manager Buck Showalter had in the first game as he used five pitchers to get 17 outs, starting with Grant Hartwig — the aspiring doc turned reliever — it was blown up later when Trevor Gott (11.57 ERA with the Mets) lit another match in the seventh inning of the nightcap.
Along with the bullpen, the resurgence of Alonso and McNeil probably was the most encouraging sign, as both began to heat up in the first game. Alonso’s double off the Monster was his first extra-base hit since he homered on July 6, which happened to be his last multihit game (he singled in the eighth, too).
McNeil also chipped in with a pair of hits, a fourth-inning double Friday night (scoring on Daniel Vogelbach’s blast) and a single Saturday that kicked off Justin Turner’s glove to open the eighth.
“I know I’m a much better player than what my numbers show,” said McNeil, who’s hitting .248, 80 points below last year’s batting crown. “It just gets frustrating. Feels like I’m chasing .300, which is really hard to do right now where I’m at. It just puts a lot of pressure on myself to go out there and perform, and I don’t think anyone’s harder on themselves than me. I just want to do what I know I can do out there.”
Even so, it felt as if the Mets should have scored in double-digits in the rain-extended two-day marathon in the first game. They went 5-for-17 with runners in scoring position, and two of those were singles that failed to push anyone across the plate.
Perhaps the biggest downer, however, was losing Luis Guillorme for an indefinite period because of a calf injury suffered in the opener.
“A lot of good things happened in the two games,” Showalter said. “But not quite enough.”
It’s an all-too-familiar feeling for the Mets at this stage of the season.
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.
