Moneyball Continues to Pay-Off For Mets

Terry’s Kids did it again.  Put another comeback victory in the books.  The Mets are getting it done in robust fashion too.  Their runs come late, and they come in bunches.  This month, they’ve outlasted pitchers like Cliff Lee, Mark Buerhle, and Carlos Zambrano, in order to inflict quite a bit of damage against opposing bullpens.

Thursday against Cincinnati, the Mets were down 4-0 heading into the home fifth.  Lucas Duda plated two runs with a double.  In the sixth, the Mets picked up another run on Mike Baxter’s sac-fly.  In the seventh, they picked up yet another run on Justin Turner’s sac-fly, which plated David Wright with the tying run.

In the eighth inning, the Mets struck it big against the Reds’ bullpen for five runs, led by David Wright’s game winning RBI double to center field.  Justin Turner followed with a single to drive in Wright for his second RBI of the game.  Ronny Cedeno capped off the home eighth, and the Mets’ comeback win, with a three run home run to left.

David Wright is now batting .411 this season although he still only has four home runs.  The Mets rank fifteenth in the National League, as well as second to last in all of Baseball, with twenty-four home runs.  Only San Diego has less.  But a lack of power doesn’t seem to have impeded them much.  The Mets are getting things done with a good eye at the plate.  In Thursday’s game, David Wright worked out a walk in the fifth inning and scored.  In the sixth, Ike Davis drew a walk and scored.  In the seventh, David Wright drew his third walk of the afternoon, and scored again.  And in the eighth, Daniel Murphy was intentionally walked and scored.  In all, the Mets drew six walks on the day, on top of their twelve hits.  The Reds were issued just two base on balls, and were held to eight hits.

The Mets have drawn 131 walks in 1,244 at-bats this season.  Their walks rank fourth in the National League.  Only Atlanta, with 133 walks, plays within their division.  And the Mets have managed those walks with the seventh least at-bats in the National League.  At .264, the Mets also sport the League’s third best team batting average behind St. Louis and Atlanta.  In OPS, they rank fifth in the National League.  And in the all-powerful uber stat of Money Ball, The Mets rank second only to St. Louis with a .337 On-Base Percentage, versus a .353 mark for the Cardinals.

With the strong starting pitching the Mets have been getting this season, and the offensive comeback capabilities they’ve demonstrated, I suggested in my last post, Sandy Alderson should be taking very proactive measures to shore up our bullpen.  Well, the General Manager has taken a first step towards that end by designating pitcher D.J. Carrasco for assignment after another lacking effort on Wednesday.  Robert Carson has been called up from AA-Binghampton to fill Carrasco’s roster spot.

The 21-17 Mets are now headed north to Toronto where they’ll take on the Blue Jays in an early dose of Inter-League play.