The New York Mets took two of three games from the Los Angeles Angels over the weekend, which isn't saying much, but it was just the team's fourth series victory this season.
The New York Mets have had a rough start to the season, which has included a 12-game losing streak and people calling for manager Carlos Mendoza’s job, but things may be looking up as the team won the first series of May.
The Mets took care of business against the worst team in the American League, the Los Angeles Angels, by winning the series opener and finale. It’s hard to celebrate a series win over the worst competition, but the Mets need wins right now and they are obviously hard to come by in this league.
New York’s season has just been a mess, plain and simple. The offense is anemic, some of the starting rotation has struggled mightily and you don’t know what you’re getting from the bullpen on a nightly basis. And for how much effort general manager David Stearns put into improving this team’s “run prevention,” the defense isn’t as good as he’d hoped (minus-1 Outs Above Average, 19th), although the team is third in team Defensive Runs Saved (16).
The Mets made significant changes to its roster in the offseason and it hasn’t worked out 34 games into the season. ESPN’s David Schoenfield graded the Mets’ month of April as an F, citing the replacements for many fan favorites and longtime Mets haven’t done well at all.
“We have to acknowledge it's early in the season,” Schoenfield wrote Monday. “These guys are all capable of playing better. The Mets have had injuries to Juan Soto and now Francisco Lindor. The offense has been atrocious, with the worst OPS in baseball. That's maybe the most egregious indictment of all: This team plays in New York and has been unwatchable.”
There’s obviously plenty of baseball to be played between now and Sept. 27, but New York must start stacking wins. The series win over the Angels was huge and the team has a chance to get revenge against the Colorado Rockies after the Rockies swept and trolled them last week.
The Mets will use an opener, right-hander Huascar Brazoban, for lefty David Peterson against the Rockies’ Tomoyuki Sugano on Monday.
Peterson is 0-4 with a 6.53 ERA and 1.71 WHIP in seven appearances (five starts, 30.1 innings) and was removed from the starting rotation in mid-April after three consecutive poor outings following 5.1 scoreless innings in his season debut. The 30-year-old made his return to the rotation on April 29 against the Washington Nationals and allowed seven runs on five hits and three walks while striking out three.
Sugano is pitching exceptionally well for Colorado, posting a 3-1 record with a 2.84 ERA and 1.17 WHIP through six starts (31.2 innings). He shut out the Cincinnati Reds over 5.1 innings while allowing four hits and three walks with two punchouts his last time out and has looked sharp outside of a rough outing against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
First pitch is at 5:40 p.m. EDT on MLB.TV and regional sports networks.