Mets: First impressions from the opening road trip of 2019

The New York Mets opened the season with a road trip which went exceptionally well: they will head to Flushing with a 5-1 record to start the season. They are one of the best teams in the league thus far, and fans are eager to see what the team can do the rest of the way.

Before the Mets begin their homestand, let’s analyze what we’ve seen from the starting rotation, the offense and defense, and the bullpen.

Starting Rotation

So far, we haven’t seen much worth complaining about with regard to the Mets’ rotation. This comes as no surprise, as the baseball universe was well aware of the fact that the Mets’ rotation would be entering the 2019 season as one of, if not the, best in baseball.

The fact that Mets’ pitchers have reached double-digit strikeouts in their first three games for the first time in franchise history shows you how dominant this rotation has been so far and how dominant it can be.

Noah Syndergaard wasn’t great in his start on Saturday, allowing seven hits and four earned runs over six innings. He struggled early on, later blaming his slider, but we were relieved to see him settle in as the game went on. He ended up whiffing seven batters. This should be a rare outing for “Thor”, and it would be a surprise to see a recurrence.

The Mets’ only loss thus far came during Zack Wheeler’s start. His numbers that game were not pretty (5.0  IP, 6 H, 4 ER) but his performance is no cause for concern. He made some mistakes early on in the game and recovered very quickly, notching seven strikeouts in the process. The mistakes were all fastballs, as he threw too many of them. He pitched wonderfully as soon as he started using other pitches in his arsenal. It looks like Wheeler’s 2018 was not a fluke, and he can do what he did last year again in 2019.

Steven Matz was very solid in his outing to kick-off the Mets’ three-game series in Miami. He pitched 5.1 innings and the Marlins scored three runs, but only one of them was earned. Matz was just unlucky that his teammates played bad defense behind him that day.

Even Jason Vargas was able to get the job done during his start on Tuesday. He allowed just two earned runs over five innings. He did pitch himself into many jams as evidenced by the eight hits, many of which were extra base hits, that he gave up, but he was able to strand most runners.

This is Jacob deGrom’s world, we’re all just living in it.

The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner is showing us all from the get-go that he can easily repeat. He has not allowed a run in 13 innings to begin the season and has 24 strikeouts and only two walks. He is already 2-0, as he’s finally getting run support, and just keeps breaking records.

On Wednesday, he notched a career-high 14 strikeouts and hit a home run, joining Mets’ legend Tom Seaver to become the fifth pitcher since 1969 to do so in a single game. He has allowed three runs or fewer in an MLB-record 31 straight starts. He has also tied Bob Gibson’s MLB record of 26 consecutive quality starts and is the first Mets pitcher ever to strike out at least 10 in his first two starts of the season.

It is not irrational to genuinely believe that he will be baseball’s best pitcher again in 2019 and if anyone can lead the Mets to glory, who better than Jake?

“Thor” will be on the bump in the Mets home opener and will hope to lock up a sixth win for the Mets in this young season.