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2 Mets to thank for beating the Rays, 1 to blame for failing to sweep
Are the New York Mets back? After a thrilling win last night, the Mets kept the momentum and won a series against the best team in baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Mets hadn't won a series in nearly a month. Their last series win came on April 19th in Los Angeles. Since then, they faced an incredibly weak schedule and just couldn't buy wins.
Beating a Rays team that was 20 games over .500 would be no easy task. I would've been satisfied with this team gutting out a single win, but the Mets managed to take the series with two nail-biting victories. While winning this series is certainly huge, you can also ask yourself what if, as the Mets lost the start with their ace on the mound.
NY Mets to blame for failing to sweep: Justin Verlander
If there was one pitcher I could really trust right now, Justin Verlander was the guy. Kodai Senga has had his moments, Max Scherzer looked better his last time out, but Justin Verlander, outside of one inning in Detroit, looked really good in each of his first two starts as a New York Met. Most recently in Cincinnati, Verlander completed seven innings, allowing just a run on two hits in the lone Met victory in the Queen City.
Unfortunately for New York, Verlander could not keep up his momentum in the opening game of this series against the Rays. He looked shaky from the start, getting out of a jam in the first and stranding another runner in scoring position in the second. The Rays broke through against the reigning Cy Young Award winner in the third on the strength of an Isaac Paredes three-run homer to give Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead.
Verlander would allow another run in the fourth, and then a second Isaac Parades home run would extend the Tampa Bay lead to 6-0 in the fifth inning. Verlander was hearing audible boos during his home debut, as he struggled all night against this potent Rays offense.
Verlander would allow six runs in his five innings of work. With the way the Mets were swinging the bat, you knew that was a loss. The Mets did make it semi-interesting and ended up scoring five runs, but lost 8-5. It's one thing to not have your good stuff, it's another to be unable to keep your team in the game. As the ace of the staff, Verlander has to keep his team in every game he pitches in, even if he isn't throwing only zeroes.
NY Mets to thank for the series win: Pete Alonso
After a torrid start, Pete Alonso scuffled for a very prolonged stretch. The Mets started out this season 14-7 and it felt like Alonso was hitting home runs every day. While that wasn't exactly the case, Alonso did have ten home runs in his first 21 games of the season. When he's going, the Mets win.
In his last 20 games prior to this Rays series, Alonso had just 11 hits in 69 at-bats. He was slashing .159/.293/.319 with three home runs and eight RBI. This simply isn't going to cut it. He wasn't the only reason the Mets were losing, obviously, but his struggles almost always correlate directly to Mets losses.
Alonso picked the perfect time to snap out of his slump for this series against the Rays. He homered in all three games including the walk-off home run in the second game to give the Mets their biggest win of the season thus far.
Raise the apple! Pete Alonso walks it off at Citi Field!
— MLB (@MLB) May 18, 2023
(MLB x @CapitalOne) pic.twitter.com/2pdrODyGEm
Alonso said this win was a building block kind of win for the Mets, and he backed that up by hitting another huge home run in the series finale. While it wasn't the game winner, it did prove to be very necessary as the Mets won by a skinny run.
Alonso has the ability to carry this team, and he did it in this Rays series. Can that last? Boy, I hope so.
NY Mets to thank for the series win: Kodai Senga
Kodai Senga has had a very shaky start to his Mets career. While he came into his most recent start against Tampa Bay with a 4.14 ERA, Senga had really been struggling with his command and had only pitched well against bad offenses like Miami and Colorado.
To say Senga stepped up in a big way would be dramatically underselling what he managed to do. The Rays have one of the best offenses in the league, and Senga threw the ball as well as he has as a Met.
In his six innings of work, he allowed just one run on three hits. He did walk three but struck out 12. It felt like he was in command all night, and made that elite offense look awfully foolish on numerous occasions.
Senga's career-high was eight strikeouts, and that was back in his first start as a Met. He shattered that. The walks are still something to be worked on, but the 65 strikes he threw were the most he had thrown in a single start.
The Mets have desperately needed quality starts. They got a huge one from Senga in a game the Mets just desperately needed with the way things had been going. They even got one from Tylor Megill in the final game of the series. The rotation is now healthy, and the pitching, including Senga, should be much better now.
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