Your Sunday morning dose of New York Mets and MLB news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
The Mets were shut out by the playoff-bound Brewers 6-0 in another crucial loss with the entire season on the line. This time they got a solid starting pitching performance from José Quintana, who struck out nine through 4 1⁄3 innings, but gave up a soft bases loaded single to Joey Ortiz in the fourth that plated two runs. It was a good piece of hitting from Ortiz, who just went down and got it and deposited it “where they ain’t” as they say, but it was the difference in a game where the Mets’ lineup looked utterly listless against opener Jared Koenig, Tobias Myers, who pitched the bulk of the innings, and the slate of the Brewers’ good high leverage relievers, who were getting work in ahead of their trip to the postseason. The Brewers added four runs in the eighth against a combination of Reed Garrett and Danny Young which were all charged to Garrett, who issued a couple of crucial walks that allowed the inning to balloon on him. But those runs were merely the icing on the cake for Milwaukee and the Mets find themselves backed right up against the wall today, still tied with the Diamondbacks, but now one game behind the Braves. BUT, even given all of that, the Mets can still clinch a playoff spot today with a win and a Diamondbacks loss.
Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue, NY Post, Daily News, MLB.com, Newsday, Faith and Fear in Flushing, The Athletic, ESPN
The Mets announced yesterday that David Peterson will start today’s game.
Hayden Senger was in Milwaukee as an emergency catching option for the Mets yesterday, but Francisco Alvarez ultimately was available and pinch hit in yesterday’s game, after being removed from Friday’s game due to back spasms.
After all the games wrapped up yesterday, Theo DeRosa of MLB.com took a look at all of the potential NL Wild Card scenarios heading into play today.
The 2024 Mets have shown time and time again this season that momentum can turn quickly in baseball. Can they turn the momentum one more time and make the playoffs, asks John Harper of SNY.
Around the National League East
Because we were all watching, we all know what the Braves did last night: they won their fifth straight on a Travis d’Arnaud walk-off home run to take a one-game lead on the Mets.
Ken Sugiura of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called on MLB to cancel Monday’s Mets-Braves doubleheader if the Diamondbacks were eliminated today.
MacKenzie Gore looked good in his final start of the season, shutting out the Phillies for six innings and going toe to toe with Zack Wheeler as he got his work in for the playoffs, striking out 11 Nationals in 6 1⁄3 innings. A late Nationals rally in the eighth carried them to a 6-3 victory over Philadelphia.
The Marlins won their final series of the season, defeating the Blue Jays 8-1.
Around Major League Baseball
The Padres rallied for five runs in the ninth to snap a scoreless tie and beat the Diamondbacks 5-0 to give the Mets a helping hand late last night.
With the Phillies’ 6-3 loss yesterday, the Dodgers clinched home-field advantage through the entire postseason.
Joel Sherman handed out his 2024 regular season awards, in which Francisco Lindor (not surprisingly) finished second to Shohei Ohtani for NL MVP.
And it remains possible—though not likely—that Ohtani could win MLB’s first Triple Crown in 12 years.
Everyone is talking about Ohtani’s historic season—as they should. But far fewer people are talking about what José Ramírez is doing. He already has over 40 steals and is just one homer shy of 40 home runs, which would make him just the seventh player ever to have a 40-40 season. But that’s not all. He’s also just one double shy of 40 doubles. So if he manages a home run AND a double in the final game of the regular season today, he would record just the second 40-40-40 season in MLB history.
Anthony Rizzo was hit in the hand with a pitch in the Yankees’ 9-4 loss to the Pirates yesterday and suffered fractures to the fourth and fifth fingers on his right hand. He could still return depending on how deep the Yankees make it into October, but may miss some time at the beginning of the postseason.
Including the Mets and Diamondbacks who are both still vying for a playoff spot entering play today, there are eight teams who are either postseason-bound or potentially postseason-bound with long World Series droughts who could snap their streaks this year.
This Date in Mets History
On this date in 1961, New York’s brand new National League team made Casey Stengel its first manager.