Sunday’s 10-0 loss to the Dodgers wasn’t a great way to end the weekend…

But you can’t come out of this weekend thinking anything but positive thoughts overall.

The Mets took two out of three in Los Angeles, winning their fifth straight series.

They’ve won six out of seven…or twelve out of sixteen…you can carve that up whichever way suits you.

And the Mets released their City Connect jerseys to fairly widespread praise.

Let’s talk about all of it.

Sunday’s game is not worth completely writing off - Adrian Houser struggled, and that’s worth filing away. Eventually Kodai Senga will be back in the rotation and if Houser isn’t giving you effective starts or length - he couldn’t get past the fifth inning today and got tagged for 8 runs - his role will certainly change.

That said, this is an explosive Dodgers offense, and the fact that the Mets held them in check to win two out of three should certainly be the focus.

DJ Stewart is almost the opposite of Adrian Houser - whereas Houser could be pitching himself out of the rotation, DJ Stewart is showing he deserves a spot on a Major League roster when JD Martinez is brought up. (Maybe it’s not with the Mets - he certainly has some trade value for someone looking for a left-handed power bat if it’s not the Mets.)

Anyway, I bring up Stewart because he got the scoring going on Friday night with a home run off of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and it kind of set a tone for the weekend that the Mets could give the mighty Dodgers a run for their money.

The Mets went up 4-0, the Dodgers tied it, and then Francisco Lindor broke out of his slump with a 2-run tie-breaking home run in the 7th inning. The biggest takeaway from this west coast trip could be Lindor finding his stroke from the left side of the plate.

The Mets won 9-4 Friday night and padded the lead late so they didn’t need to use Edwin Diaz.

That was important because Saturday was nip and tuck the entire way and Carlos Mendoza needed to push every button he had…and he pushed all the right buttons.

Starling Marte (4 RBI) and Lindor (2) set the offensive tone for the Mets on Saturday, and after Jose Butto only went 4.1 innings, Mendoza called on Michael Tonkin, Drew Smith, and Jorge Lopez to get into the 8th inning.

With a 6-4 lead and a man on in the 8th, he brought in Diaz.

Diaz walked Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman before striking out Teoscar Hernandez and Max Muncy to get out of the inning.

Instead of using Diaz for a 5-out save, Mendoza went to Reed Garrett to close it out, and he was perfect, striking out the side.

This was a pivotal win for the Mets. Even though they walked 10 batters, each of the pitchers that was called upon responded exactly how you’d want.

It was also a nice opportunity for Mendoza to showcase how much he knows what he’s doing. He’d already won me over - I like him a lot - but I think it probably won him some more fans.

Some other takeaways from the weekend:

It wasn’t all good news: Francisco Alvarez needs surgery to repair a torn ligament in his thumb. He’s been taking a beating between foul tips and bats and sliding into bases and even falling down while running bases. He’ll be out for a bit but thankfully everyone else has started hitting and I think the Mets will survive without him.
I admit, my first thought when I saw the City Connects was, “OK, those are fine. Glad they didn’t screw them up.” But the more time I spent looking at them the more I liked them. There are all kinds of explainers you can find elsewhere about why the uniforms look the way they look, so I don’t need to repeat them here. (The reasons are great, though, and I recommend you check them out.) But my favorite feature is the Queensboro Bridge across the front of the hat. I hope there’s a t-shirt with that look - I’m not dying to go out and buy the City Connect merch (we all know I’ll buy something), but I’d buy that t-shirt. And, well, let’s face it - I’m probably going to buy the hat. It’s been a few years since I got a new Mets hat. I actually think it’s been six.
Rangers note: Of course the first Rangers playoff game is pretty much head-to-head with the Mets in LA. At least they made it a decent afternoon, winning Game 1 while the Mets were getting beat up pretty good. My two cents: I think they’ll beat Washington…I worry about the series getting physical and losing guys for future rounds. They’ve had some cheap shots against them playing Washington before.
Friday night was the first time I stayed up for a late Mets start in, probably, years. It ended at 1:15am, but it was worth it. Hopefully that’s the latest a game will go this year. The next two are 9:45pm starts, then a Wednesday afternoon getaway game!

The Series Against Los Angeles: 2-1

Overall Record: 12-9

Standings: 3rd place in NL East, 3 games behind Atlanta (Atlanta plays tonight)

Up Next: 3 more games in San Francisco. The Giants are 10-13, coming off splitting a 4-game series at home against Arizona. One win in San Francisco and the Mets guarantee a 3-3 west coast swing, which is a win. Two wins in San Francisco is another series victory which is even better. Anything in San Francisco is a positive outcome, as long as the Mets don’t get swept.

Let’s Go Mets.