Just Mets

This weekend, the Mets lost their first series to the Braves in 2015, finishing their season-opening road trip 3-3.

The Mets went 10-9 against Atlanta last year, and 5-4 at Turner Field, including a three-game sweep of the Braves at Turner Field last September.

Here’s a look at the series statistically:

• The Mets were outscored by the Braves 13-10 in the series – their run differential for the season is now +1.
• Two of the ten runs the Mets scored in this series were unearned – eight of the 20 runs they’ve scored so far this season have been unearned.
• The Mets went just 1-for-17 with runners in scoring position over the three games against the Braves, and left 18 runners on-base.
• The Mets bullpen allowed two runs in nine innings over the three games, and now has a 2.81 ERA for the season.
• The Mets starters (Jon Niese, Dillon Gee, and Bartolo Colon) averaged only 5 2/3 innings in the three games, going 1-2 with a 4.77 ERA in 17 innings. The starters now have a 3.09 ERA this season.
• In 17 innings in this series, Mets starting pitching issued two walks. They’ve issued a total of six walks in 35 innings this season.
• The Mets drew 12 walks in the three games, but only had 20 hits in 18 innings with 24 strikeouts this weekend.
• David Wright went 5-for-12 with a home run and two walks in the three games.
• Lucas Duda went 5-for-10 with two runs scored this weekend – three of his five hits came against left-handed pitching.
• Wilmer Flores struggled both offensively and defensively in this series. He went 1-for-8 with a double and a run scored with three strikeouts and committed his second and third errors of the season on Friday night.
• Michael Cuddyer’s season-opening cold streak ran through Saturday night, but the light came on with a home run and a walk on Sunday. He went 2-for-11 with a home run, 2 runs scored, 2 RBI, 2 walks and 6 strikeouts – he now has 10 strikeouts this season.
• Curtis Granderson went hitless on the weekend, but drew three walks and scored two runs. He is 1-for-16 with seven walks and three strikeouts at the plate this season.
• Juan Lagares went 0-for-5 out of the leadoff spot on Sunday, and went just 2-for-13 with no walks and two strikeouts in the three games. He has not drawn a walk in 25 plate appearances this season.
• Mets outfielders hit .152 with two extra-base hits in the three games against Atlanta.

The Mets middle infield defense is about as good as advertised, and that isn’t good.

Flores’ defensive problems at shortstop were well chronicled this weekend by me and pretty much every other media outlet. The interesting part about this is it has little to do with the foot speed and range problems he is known for and more to do with his throwing, something which was always considered a strong suit of his. He’s better than this – he’s probably trying too hard and overthinking his problems right now. I expect this to even out, but his poor defense is certainly in-line with most everyone’s expectations, albeit not to this degree.

This along with Daniel Murphy failing to cover the bag quickly yesterday on a routine double play (coupled with a lazy throw from Flores), the middle infield’s inability to turn a routine double play again today cost the Mets at least one of the games this weekend.

It seems like every single defensive blunder haunted the Mets in this series. So, at some point, the Mets are going to have to figure out how to turn routine double plays if they intend to be in a pennant race this summer.

The starting pitchers don’t walk batters.

One thing which has certainly carried over from Spring Training is the command and control from the starting pitchers. Despite struggles from Gee and Niese this weekend, they threw strikes and got beat with the bats, not the bases on balls. The same could be said for the bullpen, but minimizing walks keeps pitch counts down which in turn extends outings for the starters, which will allow Terry Collins to play match-ups better late in games (he’ll have more pitchers at his disposal in the later innings).

Lucas Duda needs to play against most left-handed pitchers.

I can understand Terry Collins resting Duda against guys like Clayton Kershaw or Cole Hamels. But when it comes to more pedestrian left-handed pitchers who don’t dominate left-handed hitters – such as Alex Wood and Eric Stults – Duda should probably be in there until he proves he doesn’t belong hitting lefties. He showed his new approach against lefties today and notched three hits against Wood and Andrew McKirahan. I think that earns him a shot at the next lefty they face.

The offense struggled, but its not concerning, yet.

The Mets haven’t hit much over the first week of the season, but they faced top shelf pitching in four of the six games, although just one in this series in Julio Teheran. Still, they’re chasing more than 30 percent of pitches outside the strike zone and making contact with a shade over 80 percent of pitches inside the strike zone while not seeing too many pitches over their first six games.

Again, a lot of that can be attributed to the quality of the opposition’s pitching, so lets see if this evens out a bit starting tomorrow against the Phillies.

Final thoughts.

Losing two out of three to the Braves is not exactly what was expected this weekend. It put a damper on an exciting opening series against Washington, and leaves them heading home 3-3. Again, the series loss likely came down to poor defense and one mental mistake on the infield, and while things like Wright’s mistake happen sometimes, the others simply cannot as often as they did during this series.