Game 85 of 162
Final Score: Mets 8 Giants 5 (Chase Field, Phoenix, Arizona)
Mets record: 39-46
Mets streak: Win 3
WP - Max Scherzer (8-2)
LP - Miguel Castro (4-3)
SV - David Robertson (12)
Seat on the Korner: Starling Marte
We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.
Tonight's Seat on the Korner belongs to Starling Marte, who finally came out of his slight slump, going 2-3 today with a huge 3 run homerun in the top of the 4th. Marte seems to do well against the Diamondbacks, as he is now hitting .341 against them during his career.
Need to Know
The Mets have won 3 games in a row to start the month of July.
Francsico Alvarez broke the Mets' franchise record for most homeruns for a rookie catcher with his 14th today, going a whopping 467 feet.
DJ Stewart's first at bat with the Mets resulted in a sac fly RBI tha brought Francsico Lindor home from third.
The Mets are now 15-35 when their opponent scores first.
The Mets are now 33-37 on Independence Day.
The Mets are now 7 games below .500 and 18.5 games behind in the NL East.
Turning Point
The turning point of the game was in the top of the 4th when Starling Marte finally came out of his slight slump and hit a towering three run home that gave the Mets their first lead of the game.
From there, the bats lit up and both teams went back and forth with scoring runs and exchanging leads. After that homerun, 9 runs were scored, and the Mets were finally able to give some run support to Max Scherzer, who was struggling a little today.
Three Keys
Brandon HIMmo: Brandon Nimmo continues to be one of the hottest hitters on the Mets. With today's home run, his 7th in the last 15 games, he now has a .946 OPS during that span, including having 5 home runs in his last 7 games.
Lindor: Francisco Lindor has been proving that he can turn his season around after a slow start. What did it take? The birth of his daughter, Amapola.
Over the last 16 games, which started when she was born, Lindor has gone 15-52 (.288) with 13 runs, 3 doubles, 5 home runs, and 12 RBIs. Over this time, Lindor has posted a 1.026 OPS.
Today, even though Lindor went 1-3, he proved to be disciplined at the plate by drawing a walk, and hitting a huge insurance double in the top of the 9th that brought home a run to make the game 8-4.
Close Call: In the bottom of the 9th, Buck Showalter made a questionable decision to put in Drew Smith to close out the game, instead of veteran pitcher David Robertson, who was supposed to take place the of the injured Edwin Diaz. This continues to show the struggle of Buck Showalter's decisions regarding the bullpen. Buck appears to be too worried about the future, possibly saving Robertson for a better time, rather than focusing on the present. This was verified in a post game interview about the Mets' recent hot streak: