Man, I'm Glad They Called That Guy

Happy Thursday! The Mets are at .500 and The Mets Newsletter is free today. What a world. Consider treating yourself and getting TMN every single day - including weekends.

First of all: Phew. That game won’t be preserved for future viewing in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but it sure was crazy. 

Second of all: Where would the New York Mets be without Pete Alonso? 

Big Meat Pete was as locked in as you can possibly be, doubling twice and smacking a three-run home run to tie the game in an eventual 6-5 victory in 11 innings. Alonso was feeling so dangerous that after he took ball four to start the 11th, he stayed at home plate, as if he would rather keep the at-bat going so he can swing the bat again. I mean, look at this:

According to Mike Mayer, it was the 10th time in the Statcast era that a player had three batted balls of at least 113 mph in the same game. 

Aren’t you glad Steve Cohen called him and Scott Boras back in January? 

As underwhelming as his 2024 season was, Alonso did save the Mets from going 0-6 last year with a big home run against the Tigers, memorably after Gary Cohen said it felt like “rock bottom.” Well, going into the 8th inning of yesterday’s game, it was looking pretty damn crappy before the Polar Bear saved the day. The Mets were down 4-1. Their defense was abysmal, their bats quiet except for Alonso’s. Mark Vientos’s spirit seemed irrevocably broken. Luis Torrens, who would have been the Mets star of the game if it wasn’t for Pete, started things off with a single the other way. Francisco Lindor then recorded just his second hit of the season by also going to right field, moving Torrens to third. Juan Soto, who the last few games according to Keith Hernandez has been “out in front” and not in sync, technically reached on a fielder’s choice - he hit it right to the first baseman who threw home to get Torrens easily. Fortunately, Soto asked for protection in the lineup, and he sure as hell got it. On the 9th pitch of the at-bat, Alonso did this:

The dinger tied the game. At this point, if the Mets ended up losing, it would be considered “rough.” And it was very close to being “rough.” Edwin Díaz came in and allowed a single to the speedy Xavier Edwards, who promptly stole second base and went to third off a wild pitch. After striking out Kyle Stowers, Griffin Conine hit a grounder to second baseman Brett Baty. Baty went home with it. It wasn’t the best throw, but Luis Torrens did his best with it. 

The home plate ump Bruce Dreckman ruled the runner safe. Carlos Mendoza immediately challenged, not necessarily because he knew he was out, but because it was late in the game and you can’t take your challenges home with ya. Then he was informed by Harrison the Replay Guy that, actually, he might really be out. And that was the ruling from the command center. It was kind of surprising: usually the league replay people look to keep the umpire’s initial call, and this play was very close. The Mets might have ended up beating the Marlins because of one human being in front of a monitor in Chelsea. The inning ended when Luis Torrens gunned down Griffin Conine, who assumed second base was his considering who was on the mound.

After 1-2-3 9th innings from both teams, the Mets had runners on 1st and 3rd and nobody out in the top of the 10th, but Torrens and Lindor hit shallow fly balls and Soto grounded out to third, leaving Alonso in the on-deck circle. Brutal. Typically, when you don’t score in the top half of the 10th in this era of the Manfred Man, you’re screwed. But the Mets defense finally showed some good fundies. With a runner on 3rd and one out, Eric Wagaman hit a grounder right at Francisco Lindor, who, unlike Baty, made a perfect throw to Torrens to get Dane Myers, who was running on contact, at home plate. No replay necessary. The Mets houdinied their way out of the 10th. 

In the top of the 11th, Marlins pitcher Xzavion Curry and shortstop Xavier Edwards gifted the Mets the game. Curry walked Alonso, then after giving up a single to Brandon Nimmo, walked Jesse Winker with the bases loaded to give the Mets the lead. Vientos pounded a ground ball to Edwards, who booted it, scoring Alonso for the much needed insurance run. 

For some reason, Mendoza didn’t stay with Jose Buttó, who only threw 15 pitches in his two innings of great work, but instead opted for Danny Young to close it out. It would have been Young’s first career save, but it was not meant to be. Edwards singled home the ghost runner to make it 6-5. Young then walked Stowers. After a Jeremy Hefner mound visit, Young crucially struck out Griffin Conine. Then Mendy went to 35-year-old Huascar Brazobán, to face his old team, for his first career save. He only needed seven pitches to coax a fly out to right and to strike out Otto Lopez, who was just looking.

Torrens celebrating before we could see the ump signal strike three was reminiscent of Travis d’Arnaud doing the same in Game 4 of the 2015 NLCS.

Seemingly forever and a day before all of that, Clay Holmes got the start. Like on Opening Day, he lasted just 4.2 innings, but did not allow a single extra base hit. Holmes used a lot more cutters and changeups this time around, but he only got six swings and misses out of 85 pitches. He walked two and struck out six, allowing six hits. He was only charged with one earned run. The 3rd inning was his roughest. He had poor defense behind him: Tyrone Taylor uncharacteristically misplayed a fly to center, and Vientos committed an egregious throwing error that scored a run. But Holmes didn’t do himself many favors by losing command. When he needed a double play badly, he didn’t throw his sinker too much, and when he did it was chest-high or above. 

Hayden Senger, who turns 28 today(!), got his first career base hit. And it was a double to boot. 

Brett Baty went 0 for 4.  In the pregame show, Todd Zeile mentioned that Baty had stopped being aggressive when the regular season began, even though during spring training he tended to find success jumping on the first pitch. Baty seemingly watched that segment, because he came out trying to swing. Until the 9th when he seemingly gave up on that strategy. In that at-bat, he took the first pitch right down the middle. He’s now hitting .071. 

So you can forget about replacing Vientos for him, no matter how lost Swaggy V looked yesterday. I don’t think I had felt as bad for a Met since Wilmer Flores, the way Vientos was wearing his emotions on his sleeve (he didn’t cry though.) He must be the most thankful out of anyone that the Mets won this game - otherwise the story would have been about his 0 for 5 day with an error and another misplay that cost a run. 

One bright spot for Mark: this time when he grounded out to the third baseman, he hustled all the way down the first base line. He said that both Lindor and base-running/first-base coach Antoan Richardson talked to him about his non-hustling faux pas from Tuesday night. “It’s unacceptable,” Vientos said. “ I won’t let that happen again for sure.” 

A.J. Minter has had better days.

Juan Soto isn’t blessed with speed, but he managed to score from first on an Alonso double in the 1st. He did a nice job getting around the tag at home plate.

Before Alonso’s homer in the 8th, the Mets were 4 for 38 with runners in scoring position for the season. That’s almost Atlanta bad!

We found out more about Carlos Mendoza’s thinking behind how he will handle Jose Siri and Tyrone Taylor’s center field time share. It’s all about swing paths. Because Siri is more of a low-ball hitter, he’ll start against pitchers who throw a lot of sinkers, whereas Taylor is a high-ball hitter, so he’ll face pitchers who rely on their four-seamers. 

The Mets signed first baseman Jon Singleton and infielder Niko Goodrum to minor league deals. They’re heading for Triple-A Syracuse. Both are 33 years young. The Mets could use some infield depth.

The Syracuse Mets defeated the Scranton-Wilkes Barre RailRiders 5-1. Dom Hamel went five innings, only allowing two hits while striking out three. Both Billy McKinney and Joey Meneses went 2 for 4 for the ‘Cuse.

Frankie Montas (strained right lat) has been throwing and playing catch from 60 feet. He’s currently at home waiting for his wife to give birth, insisting to his partner he’s going to get activated before Manaea (that last part might not be true.)

The Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies posed with ponies.

Assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel is…The Senga Whisperer. (He spends more time with Kodai Senga than main pitching coach Jeremy Hefner.)

Juan Soto, Lindor, and Starling Marte all told Mike Puma of the New York Post that they would love it if the Mets traded for Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara. This quote from Soto somehow didn’t bite him in the ass yesterday:

If he goes to a team that has a chance to compete at the end, I think you are going to see who he is. He is doing that on a team that has no serious chance to go to the playoffs, but he keeps trying and competing even without run support. Whenever he goes to a winning team you are going to see what Sandy Alcantara is capable of.

Keith Hernandez was caught in his first hot mic incident of 2025, saying either “piss poor hitting” or “piss poor inning”. 

On this day in 2006, Gary Cohen and Keith called their first regular season Met game on SNY (Ron Darling was a studio guy at first.) The Mets beat the Nationals 3-2.

On April 3, 1966, the Mets won a drawing and the rights to sign Tom Seaver, beating out Cleveland and the Phillies.

It’s a day off for the Mets before their home opener against the Toronto Blue Jays tomorrow. But the Syracuse Mets will be on SNY tonight at 6:30pm eastern, if you’re desperate.