The Mets ran into the sport’s hottest hitter this weekend and leave DC losing 3 of 4 to the Washington Nationals after a 5-2 loss in the series finale. Schwarber now has 5 homers in the last 24 hours leading the Nats to 2 straight wins over the Mets. The Amazins head home to open a homestand which will feature 2 doubleheaders in less than a week versus the Braves and Phils.
On this weekend the Met offense scored just 4 runs in the three losses they suffered as the bats continue to struggle with Francisco Lindor’s 5 RBI game on Saturday being the only good offensive effort in the last 4 games. But the Mets entered this stretch knowing the plethora of doubleheaders would be challenging and losing 3 of the first four in that stretch certainly has them limping home a little bit.
The good news is they will likely see the return of Jeff McNeil tomorrow as the Mets open an 8 game homestand and it looks like both Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo could soon follow as their rehab stints are underway. The Mets still own the top spot in the NL East and have been in that perch for over a month. Kevin Pillar put it best when he said, “We are still in first with a good lead and I like where we sit right now. We are heading home and need to just put this series behind us.”
In a long season, there are times you just run into a hot hitter like Schwarber who is really locked in and you just have the wash the losses off your back. This Met team will be facing a Brave squad that is playing a split doubleheader on Sunday versus the Cards before heading to New York for a twin bill versus the Mets facing Jacob deGrom in the opener. They will trail the Mets by 7 in the loss column at the very least which is also where the Nats sit even after taking 3 of 4 from the Mets. And The Phils will be no closer than 5 in the loss column–6 if they lose their game in San Francisco later today.
My point here is the Mets have a decent cushion in the NL East so there is no reason to panic. Tip your hat to Kyle Schwarber and move on. This team is starting to get injured players back and sit 7 games over 500 with all the obstacles that have been put in front of them. Give the Nats credit as they played great this weekend but the Met journey is clearly in front of them and they have proven that they could take punches to the gut and still fight back.
This weekend was a punch but do not expect to see this team double over. Their counterpunch ability in this season has been illustrated so often and in my opinion their “survive and advance” mentality will once again appear for all the world to see as it has appeared to all of us all season. I know there are people who continue to further the narrative of negativity about this team but they are just not seeing what I see. These players have a track record of responding to adversity moving forward-never looking back.
And I expect we will see that from the Mets this week at CitiField.
