Just Mets

The Mets got back on track Saturday afternoon, beating the Yankees by a score of 8-2. Here are my takeaways from today’s win…

Happy Harvey Day, indeed.

8.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K. Yeah, Matt Harvey was dominant today. He was mixing up his pitches, throwing tons of strikes and while he piled up the strikeouts late, he was extremely economical with his pitches. After their aggressive approach vs. Jacob deGrom paid dividends last night, the Yankees appeared to try and duplicate that success vs. Harvey today, but to no avail. Harvey was pumping in quality strikes but left very few pitches over the plate in his outing, garnering a lot of first pitch outs. Today marked the first time Harvey pitched more than six innings, and to me, it was far and away his best start of the season. One of the two runs he allowed came on a double play after ywt another mental lapse (which I’ll get to in a second) by Daniel Murphy. The other came on a solo home run by Mark Teixeira–who’s homered three times already in this series–with a 7-1 lead in the 7th inning.

Harvey came out out away from a complete game–which would’ve been the first by a Mets pitcher vs. the Yankees since Dave Milicki in the first ever Subway Series game–but was unable to finish it off, as Mark Teixeira squeaked a single through the shift and Brian McCann worked out a walk. You could tell, even at 107 pitches and not much left, Harvey was pissed off that he couldn’t finish it off, and you’ve gotta love that competitive spirit he has.

After the Mets winning streak came to a halt last night, it was important that they responded today and avoided started a losing streak. With the pitchers in this staff, led by Matt Harvey, they have the guns to minimize and prevent said losing streaks from happening.

The Mets took advantage of Yankee Stadium.

After scoring just a single run on Friday on a sacrifice fly, the Mets offense took advantage of the friendly Yankee Stadium dimensions on Saturday, hitting three home runs and scoring seven runs. The Mets got longballs by Lucas Duda (2) and Eric Campbell (1), but perhaps the most exciting moment of the afternoon came when Kevin Plawecki lined his first career home run in the 4th inning of this game. It was good to see the offense bounce back after last night’s lackluster performance.

Speaking of Plawecki…

After going 2-for-4 in his major league debut, Kevin Plawecki had been 0-for-his-last-6, that is until he came up to bat in the 4th inning, scorching his first career home run just over the left field fence. Not only was this Plawecki’s first career homer, but he also drove in his first two career runs, as well. Plawecki came up again with runners on the corners and two outs in the 8th and lined a base hit into center for his 3rd RBI of the day. The 24-year-old Plawecki has shown an impressive approach at the plate in the few games he’s played since being called up. This guy is doing what he’s done his entire college and minor league career, and that’s not chasing pitches, hitting line drives, and driving the occasional ball out of the park.

What’s going on in Daniel Murphy’s head?

There was a lot of good to come out of today’s win, but one bad thing was the continued struggles of Daniel Murphy. Boy, oh boy… In the 3rd inning, Didi Gregorious dropped down a bunt fielded by Lucas Duda. It’s Murphy’s job at this point to cover first base and receive the throw, but Murphy didn’t hustle to the base, Gregorious was safe and it cost the Mets a run on the very next pitch. This marks three consecutive games that Murphy’s made a complete mental lapse in the field, and on simple, routine plays.

I don’t know what’s going on in the head of Daniel Murphy right now, but he’s struggled to an extent we’ve never seen. Not only has Murphy looked lost in the field, but he’s surprisingly had difficulties offensively as well, as he went 0-for-5 this afternoon, dropping his average to .145 on the year.

Second base prospect Dilson Herrera is lighting it up in the minor leagues, and while people have started to ask more and more about him, I don’t think we’ve gotten to that point yet. As of now Daniel Murphy is the second baseman of this team, but if the struggles continue as they look to contend throughout the season, perhaps things could change.

Other notes from Saturday:

Wilmer Flores extended his hitting streak to eight games, going 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Juan Lagares went 4-for-4 with three runs scores–his second career four-hit game.

Kevin Plawecki went 2-for-4 with 3 RBI, raising his average to .286.

The Mets have yet to lose a game this season in which they’ve held a lead.