After last night’s heartbreaking walkoff loss, the combination of a sluggish start to the season for the offense and an unusual cold snap in the New York area would probably have resulted in a slow start for most teams. Instead, the D-Backs looked extremely well-prepared and aggressive, scoring early and often to immediately put the Mets on the back foot. This felt like the first complete win of the season. The coaching staff prepared the players well, the players executed their game plan, and both
the offense and pitching supported one another. That’s not to say there weren’t ugly moments or that there isn’t room for improvement – look no further than those two fielding errors – but it was a refreshing sight to see after an entire season last year where this kind of game was few and far between.
Evidently the game plan on the Mets’ starter David Peterson was to attack his offspeed pitches and the batters executed it perfectly. In the first two innings, the team scored five times on six hits (including two doubles), a walk, and two sacrifice flies with three of those hits coming on Peterson’s curveball and two on his sinker. The second inning was particularly satisfying as the team built a rally by loading the bases on consecutive singles from Ildemaro Vargas and Jose Fernandez along with a one-out walk to Jorge Barrosa. Ketel Marte cashed in one run on a sharp single past Marcus Semien and Corbin Carroll cashed in two more runs with a double that split the gap. It was a great way to start on a blustery afternoon, but after that hot start, the offense was blown away with just two hits over the next five innings. Happily, the offense had one more rally in them when bottom of the order again loaded the bases on consecutive singles from Vargas and Fernandez along with a Tim Tawa walk that Barrosa cashed in with a generous “double” that could just as easily been an error on Robert Jr.
But all of that offense could have gone for nought if Ryne Nelson had continued to demonstrate the frustrating struggles he’s shown in the early going of this season. Thankfully, there were no such worries today. Through the first five innings, Nelson allowed just two hits: a leadoff single to Bo Bichette in the fourth and a two-out single from Francisco Alvarez. The sixth inning was his only trouble spot when Bichette again collected a leadoff single and came around to score on consecutive one-out singles from Luis Robert Jr and Brett Baty to break the shutout. Nelson ended his afternoon by striking out his fifth Met before yielding to Ryan Thompson to finish the frame. Fittingly, he struck out Mark Vientos on a four-seamer on an afternoon when he heavily leaned on his fastball for 76% of his offerings compared to his 53% usage of it on the year. His fastball was extremely effective last year with a .207 BAA and 19% whiff rate, but while the whiff rate on it has risen slightly to 22%, he’s also yielded a .286 BAA so far this season. The effectiveness of his fastball will be an absolute linchpin for Nelson moving forward and today’s performance was a great step forward in that regard. After Thompson, Andrew Hoffman and Taylor Clarke combined for three innings of one-run ball with just three baserunners between them.
I know it’s easy to overreact to a single game because of the limited number to choose from, but this really was a refreshing game to watch. This Mets team is missing arguably its best individual player in Juan Soto, but we’ve seen too many times over the last two years how thin the margins for error can be and this win feels more important than it actually might be. It’s exactly these kinds of team wins that eluded the D-Backs last year. Now they just have to keep doing it.
