Your Monday morning dose of New York Mets and MLB news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
The Mets were shut out by the Dodgers 9-0 in Game 1 of the NLCS, starting the series on a pretty disastrous note. Kodai Senga clearly didn’t have it from the jump; his velocity was down and he couldn’t find the strike zone. He gave up two runs in the first, was sent back out for the second, and gave up another run before Carlos Mendoza went to the bullpen with Senga having only recorded four outs. The Dodgers tacked on three additional runs against David Peterson and another three against José Buttó. Danny Young was the only Mets pitcher with a clean sheet, tossing 1 1⁄3 scoreless innings. Though the Mets got some solid contact against Jack Flaherty, the offense fell flat overall, Jesse Winker ran them out of a potential big inning with a base running blunder, and Flaherty pitched seven two-hit innings, saving the bulk of the Dodgers’ bullpen for today’s bullpen game for LA.
Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue, Faith and Fear in Flushing, Daily News, MLB.com, Newsday, North Jersey, NY Post, ESPN, The Athletic
Tim Britton of The Athletic wrote about Kodai Senga’s shaky start in Game 1 and what it will mean for the Mets’ pitching outlook for the rest of the series.
Senga said after the game that he felt his mechanics were off, resulting in the drop in velocity and lack of command.
We learned late last night that Brandon Nimmo is dealing with a case of plantar fasciitis that has plagued him since May, but got “quite a bit worse” in the NLDS.
MLB.com published its expert predictions for the NLCS and ALCS. The majority of staff polled picked the Mets over the Dodgers (58%) in the NLCS. The Yankees were a heavier favorite in the ALCS, receiving 73% of the votes to beat the Guardians.
The Mets added Jeff McNeil to the NLCS roster yesterday, as expected. To make room for him, the Mets opted to go with one fewer pitcher, keeping Luisangel Acuña on the roster as a bench piece and leaving Adam Ottavino off the roster.
Laura Albanese of Newsday recaps all the whacky moments and mascots that have made up this wild 2024 Mets season.
David Adler took a deep dive into Francisco Lindor’s swing data and wrote about how it may explain his turnaround this season from struggling in April to a top 3 NL MVP candidate.
“I think they’ve shown that’s bull [crap],” David Stearns said of the narrative that the current Mets core can’t win big games. “This core has been winning games since June 1, so we can put that to bed right now.”
Kate Feldman of CBS Sports reviewed the ten biggest moments from the ten-day stretch that powered the Mets into the postseason all the way to the NLCS.
Around the National League East
Federal Baseball checked in on the development of Nationals 2021 first round pick, Brady House.
Around Major League Baseball
Due to injuries, lefty reliever Alex Vesia and shortstop Miguel Rojas are not on the Dodgers’ NLCS roster. They were replaced by Brent Honeywell and Kevin Keirmaier, respectively.
The Dodgers also said yesterday that they will push back Walker Buehler to Game 3 of the NLCS and go with a bullpen game for Game 2 this afternoon.
The Yankees laid out their rotation for the first four games of the ALCS. Carlos Rodón will pitch Game 1 tonight, Gerrit Cole will pitch Game 2, Clarke Schmidt will pitch Game 3, and Luis Gil will take the mound for Game 4.
Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue
Brian Salvatore previewed the NLCS matchup between the Mets and the Dodgers.
Chris McShane listed the Mets’ three biggest strengths that could help carry them to a World Series berth.
Vasilis Drimalitis took a look at the Mets’ NLCS appearances throughout franchise history.
Linda Surovich ranked the top 10 postseason home runs in Mets history.
This Date in Mets History
Tommie Agee famously flashed the leather in Game 3 of the World Series on this date in 1969.