3 reasons the Mets are back up and will take this season down to the wire

Baseball fans live 162 regular season lives. A rebirth on Monday, an agonizing kick of the bucket on Tuesday, and finally an even bigger celebration on Wednesday have New York Mets fans putting on a pot of coffee for the upcoming road trip hoping what we witnessed at Citi Field joins the team in San Diego.

A pair of triumphant walk-off wins this week over one of the best teams in MLB should have Mets players, fans, and people who just like the colors orange and blue feeling really good about where this team is. Written off numerous times already this season, momentum is on their side. They are, as Stringer Bell put it after the 4-3 win, back up.

Let's create some chaos on the road. It starts by keeping true to these positive trends.

1) The slumping Mets hitters have responded

The Mets have gotten some big hits from players who weren’t having particularly good second-halves or Augusts. J.D. Martinez hit a home run in each of the first two games against the Baltimore Orioles. Francisco Alvarez had the winning dinger on Monday. Jesse Winker tagged a bomb to win it on Wednesday.

None of those three were doing much of anything. The three went into the series against Baltimore with one combined home run—the Martinez grand slam versus the Los Angeles Angels early in the month.

Martinez is still hitting only .197 this month and Alvarez isn’t much better at .208. Winker has knocked a bunch of singles, accumulating a .283 batting average but just a .298 OBP. Have the recent big swings from these three unlocked an incoming hot streak?

Prior to the Orioles series, we saw Brandon Nimmo finally start to hit. A little further back this month, Pete Alonso responded to the criticism of his failures with runners in scoring position. While not fully corrected, he leads the team with 5 home runs and is behind only Martinez and Francisco Lindor with 10 RBI. A robust .254/.383/.507 slash line this month shouldn’t get overlooked. He’s creating traffic on the bases with walks and getting comfortable in the number five spot.

3) Mets management isn’t being stubborn when things aren’t working

Specifically, it’s David Stearns and Carlos Mendoza who refuse to be stubborn. Let’s give them some kudos.

Stearns has been ruthless with the roster all year long. Although now limited because we’re past the trade deadline, we shouldn’t expect him to keep players past their welcome as long as there are better options out there. He has taken a pair of scissors to underperformers multiple times. This shouldn’t stop.

We’ve seen Mendoza take action more publicly. He can only work with the players Stearns gives him. He has done a good job at mixing things up with the occasional questionable call along the way. The failed Jeff McNeil bunt from Sunday left a bruise that still hasn’t healed.

Mendoza’s big challenge right now is mixing the outfielders into the starting lineup. It’s not as simple as sitting Starling Marte against righties and letting Winker start instead. Tyrone Taylor needs his time in the lineup. McNeil as an outfield option to give Jose Iglesias those earned opportunities at second base factor in as well. Thus far, things have gone well.

Wednesday’s lineup saw Brandon Nimmo doing something new, too. He hit fourth for the Mets on a day when Winker took a seat to start the game. Pinch hitting Winker for Harrison Bader seemed like a no-brainer given the match-up against Seranthony Dominguez. Waiting for that moment and getting the result he wanted is another successful in-game move by the Mets skipper that gave us the home run celebration that began like most hockey fights do.

The Mets have a lot more to prove. They passed their test at home against the Orioles. Next up, the San Diego Padres.