Jack Bennett's Mets Blog

Baseball’s best team stymied as they visit CitiField over the weekend

The Bad

Despite what their current record of 38-31 may suggest, the St. Louis Cardinals are a team that the Mets, even with almost the direct inverse in record, should be able to beat more often than not, especially at home. In a sport like baseball, even a team that was projected to lose close to 100 games can play above their skis for a while, but most experts fully expect them to finish the season with more losses than wins. This presumed freefall had no effect on the young team as they visited Queens this week and proceeded to score 16 runs in the first two games of the series, cruising to seven run wins in both games. Luckily for the Mets, they were able to squeak out one win from the series on Thursday afternoon, when Juan Soto hit a go-ahead home run in the 7th inning, leading the Mets to a 5-4 victory.

The Great

In what felt like potentially a turning point in one way or another, the Atlanta Braves came into town on Friday carrying the best record in the sport at 45-23. The Braves had a won an astounding 18 out of 21 series in which they had played in this year, and only ended up on the losing side of just two. Friday night was the Bo Bichette show, as the man who signed a 3-year, $126 million contract has underperformed to say the least. He was one of the worst qualified hitters in baseball, landing at 5th-worst in ops a mere three weeks prior.

In the three weeks since, Bichette has

• Driven in 19 runs, nearly doubling his season total
• Batted to a .333 average, over 100 points higher than his season average
• Had multiple games with home runs in each of the first two innings
• Tied his career high for runs driven in in a game, with six on Friday

Bichette kept his hot streak alive, homering twice on Friday night, including a grand slam that proved to be enough for the Mets to take the first game of their series against Atlanta. Saturday’s game was not a great showing for the Mets, as they were only able to muster one run in a loss, but they responded brilliantly Sunday with eight more runs in a 8-1 drubbing to cap off a major series win.

What’s Next?

The Mets will now head to Cincinnati to face off against a team that has been struggling mightily after a hot start, followed by a visit to Philadelphia to square off with the red-hot Phillies. Time will tell if they can carry the momentum off of defeating the best team in the sport and use this stretch as a launching point back into the playoff conversation.