MET RUN IS AMAZIN’!
Conforto, Alonso, McNeil homer to back Matz in sweep
In the eyes of their general manager, the Mets are underdogs. The National League East had all but counted them out two weeks ago, when the Mets’ chances of reaching the playoffs tumbled to a season-low 3.9 percent on July 24. Suddenly, the little guys who were thought to have minuscule odds of winning the fight have won 13 out of 14. For the first time since they made the Wild Card Game in 2016, the Mets are playing meaningful games in August again.
The Mets’ drive to contend and prove the league wrong was loud and clear in their 7-2 victory that capped off a sweep of the Marlins on Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field. Their three top hitters in Pete Alonso, Michael Conforto and Jeff McNeil all homered to pull the Mets within a half-game of a wild-card spot in the NL.
The Mets (59-56) are 19-6 since the All-Star break and, if it wasn’t clear before, they’re baseball’s hottest team. The 13-1 stretch is their best 14game run since 1990.
As long as the Mets have Alonso smashing homers, the red-hot offense is in good hands. The rookie cranked his third home run in as many days in the series finale. The two-run shot marked the seventh consecutive game the Mets have scored a run in the first inning. It was Alonso’s
37th home run of the season, and the 24-year-old is five away from breaking the franchise’s home run record.
“We got a chance to do something really great,” Alonso said, with two series upcoming against the Nationals and Braves. “We got some really tough games ahead of us. But let’s say we keep this up and win all six, or win five out of six, that’s going to put us not just in wild card talks, but a chance to win the division.”
Steven Matz was not as efficient as he was two starts ago, when he pitched a complete-game shutout over 99 pitches. But the left-hander was still pretty good Wednesday. Matz gave up two earned runs on seven hits with two walks and seven strikeouts over 6.2 innings and 103 pitches against the Marlins.
Manager Mickey Callaway said Matz was effective on Wednesday because he was able to slow down his approach when he hit a rough patch. Matz said slowing down helped him out, but he credited that to the humidity on a hazy August afternoon. The lefty said he had no choice but to stop and pick up the rosin bag between pitches.
“It’s a testament to the whole team,” Matz said of the Mets’ 13-1 run. “Even when we went through a bad stretch for a little while, everybody kept their head down and kept working. It’s paying off right now. I think everybody’s excited, but we got a lot more work to do.”
Matz’s 21st start of the season helped maintain the rotation’s strong second-half ERA at 2.62. It’s the best rotation ERA in the majors since the All-Star break.
The Amazin’s are going to heavily rely on their standout starters with a tough schedule ahead. The Mets host the Nationals (61-53) for a threegame series starting Friday before embarking to Atlanta for a three-game series against the first-place Braves (68-48).
“The things that we’ve been through are going to allow us to be a better team than we otherwise would’ve been down the stretch,” Callaway said. “We’re trying to accomplish something as a team together that can be very special. The things that we’ve been through — some rough patches — only brought us closer together.”