EDDY & THE CRUISERS!
Escobar joins rare cycle club, Mets overcoming injuries as they’re on a roll out west
SANDIEGO – It’s been more than a decade since a Met accomplished what Escobar Escobar did on Monday night at Petco Park. Escobar singled in the first, doubled in the second, homered in the eighth and tripled in the ninth to hit for the cycle in the Mets’ 11-5 win over the Padres. The large assembly of Mets fans gathered behind the visitor’s dugout gave Escobar a standing ovation after he slid into third base. Escobar pumped his arm and smiled back at the crowd following his six-RBI night at the plate.
“It’s unbelievable,” Escobar said. “It’s hard hitting the cycle at this level. I give the glory to God. I’m working really hard every year, so tonight is a special night for me. But most important is the win.”
Escobar said he knew when he dug into the box for that ninth-inning at-bat that he was a triple away from the cycle, so he decided that if he connected for a hit, no matter where it landed he was going to run to third base. Escobar kept the ball from the triple that completed the cycle in his locker.
The last Met to hit for the cycle was Scott Hairston on April 27, 2012. Escobar on Monday became the 11th Met in franchise history to achieve the difficult feat. He also became the first player ever to hit for the cycle at Petco Park, a stadium that was built in 2004.
Escobar is hitting .333 with 17 RBI and three home runs in his last 14 games. Buck Showalter said, after a rough few weeks, Escobar is very quietly reverting to his track record in the majors.
“Well any guy, it’s fun to watch,” Showalter said of Escobar’s cycle. “But especially him. You know how much he means to his teammates. It’s almost like they hit it."
Meanwhile, Carlos Carrasco continues to prove that last season was just an injury-riddled mishap. With his health in check, and his arsenal sharp, the veteran right-hander is making vintage starts for the Mets.
Carrasco pummeled through the Padres lineup in Monday’s win. He limited the Friars to two runs on five hits across seven innings, while the biggest takeaway for the Amazin’s was his length.
Showalter mentioned earlier Monday afternoon that he needed Carrasco to eat innings in the series opener, following the team’s excessive bullpen use in Sunday’s extra-inning win over the Dodgers, when the Mets spent six relief arms. Carrasco didn’t just eat innings in his 105-pitch outing, but he dazzled while doing it.
“He’s just reminding everybody he was one of the best pitchers in the American League, and I know because we faced him,” Showalter, the former Orioles manager, said. “Just another example when guys are healthy, how different everything is. He’s been in a good place for a long time.”
Carrasco recorded a season-high 10 strikeouts, getting 19 swings-andmisses with his changeup (seven), slider (seven), and fastball (five). It was the first time he twirled double-digit strikeouts since Sept. 20, 2020, a season that featured the lowest ERA (2.91) of his 13-year career.
Due to his terrific season-long effort, Carrasco has won six consecutive decisions dating back to May 3 against Atlanta. The Flushing faithful that have written off Carrasco for his disappointing debut season last year may want to rethink that decision.
Yes, his 53.2 innings in 2021, which led to a 6.04 ERA, were painful to watch. But that was a product of his myriad injuries, including a late start to the year.
“I think anyone can have a down season like myself last year,” Carrasco said. “But you know what, this year I feel great. And that’s what I want to do every five days, go out there, give the team the opportunity to win, and the fans, so they can see all that and enjoy the game too.”
Now he has shown, through these 11 starts in a healthy season, that he can still be the consistent back-end starter for which the Mets acquired him back in the winter of 2020. And Carrasco couldn’t be stepping up at a better time. With Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer on the shelf since spring training and May 18, respectively, and Tylor Megill set to return this weekend, Carrasco was forced to pitch like a No. 3 starter rather than the No. 5 or 6 that the Amazin’s had penciled him in for.
If the club can accomplish its goal of being a contender at the end of the season, what Carrasco did at the beginning of the year will not be lost on these 2022 Mets.
OVERCOMING INJURIES
The Mets are not only surviving their injury hits, but they’re making fans forget that some of their best players have been sidelined.
Take a deep breath, because the list of injured Mets runs deep.
There’s Jacob deGrom (out since spring straining with stress reaction on right scapula), Max Scherzer (out since May 19 with a left oblique strain), Tylor Megill (out since May 12 with right biceps tendinitis), Trevor May (out since May 3 with right triceps strain), James McCann (out since May 13 with left hamate fracture) and Travis Jankowski (out since May 26 with left 4th metacarpal fracture).
DeGrom, Scherzer, and Megill all being on the shelf could have derailed the early part of the Mets season. So then it shouldn’t be surprising that, even on paper, the results haven’t been ideal in that time for the starting-pitching department. Mets starters have posted a 4.84 ERA, good for 22nd in the league, since Scherzer hit the injured list on May 19.
And yet, the Mets have gained ground in the NL East standings during that span.
On May 19, the day the Amazin’s fan base began preparing for another lost season full of injury hits and bad luck because Scherzer took himself out of his start with pain in his left side, the first-place Mets held a seven-game lead over the second-place Braves.
Jump forward to June 7, nearly three weeks since the Mets rotation has been managing without its trifecta of starting arms, and the first-place Mets have a nine-game lead over Atlanta. With Megill set to rejoin the starting five this weekend, it can be said that the Mets rotation has mostly survived what has been the toughest challenge of the season so far. Rather than derailing the season, the Mets injury hits haven’t even slowed them down.
The Amazin’s are playing like an unstoppable force at the moment, and that’s saying something in June.
The Mets haven’t had a winning record in the month of June since 2012, when they went 15-13. Of course, there’s still plenty of time left this month for the club to continue that streak, but the Mets are trending up. Last year, they went .500 (15-15) in June. They entered Tuesday 4-2 to begin the month.
So let’s turn to the Mets bullpen, the piece of the team that was, and in many ways still is, its Achilles heel. This part may even be a little hard to believe, but Mets relievers have maintained a 3.30 ERA since Trevor May went to the IL on May 3. That ERA is ranked sixth in MLB and second-best in the NL behind only the Braves (3.03 ERA). Mets relievers have also recorded the fourth-most strikeouts (127) in the NL since May went down, with 41 of those whiffs coming from Edwin Diaz.
That’s not to say the Mets bullpen doesn’t need reinforcing. It will certainly be the department that Mets GM Billy Eppler tries to upgrade at this year’s trade deadline, likely in the form of a lefty reliever. And even though outfielder Nick Plummer has enjoyed his major-league callup, with his two home runs and five RBI in seven games, the Mets are missing Jankowski’s speed on the basepaths.
Tomas Nido has stepped up in the absence of McCann. The backup catcher is batting .407 with five runs, a double, five RBI, three walks and a .911 OPS over his last nine games entering Tuesday. Over his last 18 games, he’s hitting .315 with a .373 on-base percentage. Nido is 10-for25 (.400) with runners in scoring position this season.
The main takeaway here is, the Mets are overcoming their injury hits by keeping their heads down, grinding through the challenges, and passing the baton to the next man up. It’s been a refreshing surprise, and a major element of their first-place success in the early part of their 2022 season.