It has been a baseball-filled week for me.

Monday - Francisco Alvarez walk-off homer

Tuesday - Brooklyn Cyclones see-saw game that came down to the potential game-tying run being thrown out at second base trying to stretch a single into a double for the final out of the game

Wednesday - Jesse Winker walk-off homer

Thursday - Watched the first 5 innings of the Mets from home before falling asleep

Friday - Diamondbacks beat up on the Red Sox in one of the rare times I wanted to actually see Boston win

As we wait for yet another later in the evening start, here are some of the baseball thoughts that run through my head during these games.

That above picture if from the Monday night game I decided to go to on a whim, and the Coca-Cola Corner was one of the many spots I stopped to watch the game. I tried to spend each half-inning or inning in a different spot. I actually intended to do more watching of people watching the game since I never do that but I ended up just watching the game. Bottom line, some really great spots at Citi Field to watch a game from.

OK. On to my thoughts. I felt like the post from the other night after the long drive home was a rambler and I need to make up for it. And we’re going bullet-point style for this one!

Francisco Lindor is hitting .268, which would be a very good batting average to end the season. But there’s obviously still a month left and he might end up at something like .280, the way he’s been going. WHICH IS INSANE. I don’t know exactly what his low point was but he was in a bad spot in April and May. I mean, on June 1 he was hitting .231. It’s amazing he salvaged the batting average - that can get very hard to turn around even after just two months. For example - Corbin Carroll has been hitting better recently - on June 1 he was hitting .197. And he’s only at .221 right now. I’ll go back a couple of more days - on May 29 Lindor was hitting .211. (It only goes down before then too.) He had a 4-for-4 day right after that and has kind of not looked back since. Just wild to see where he’s at right now…and of course he’s on pace to get another 30/30 season.
Pete Alonso is not dissimilar - he’s gotten his average to up near .250 (.245), which didn’t seem possible early in the season. The later we get in the season the more important the imminent hot streak I’ve been expecting out of him for months becomes. He can salvage this whole contract year season with a hot September leading the Mets into the post-season.
The Padres and Diamondbacks looked like they were starting to run away with the wild card (and very nearly catching the Dodgers in the process) with their recent hot streaks. They both still look very good. But - despite 2022 Atlanta making me eat my words - those kinds of hot streaks can’t last forever. So I expect that wild card race to be nip and tuck the rest of the way, especially if the Mets can do some damage this week. I’d be content with a split with San Diego - the win on Thursday night already clinched the season tiebreaker between the Mets and the Padres - and the Mets can take the Arizona tiebreaker as well by winning two out of three there. (I can confirm, though, after seeing them with my own two eyes Friday night, that Arizona is a very tough matchup right now.)
Do you need evidence that teams come back to earth after hot streaks? Look no further than the Philadelphia Phillies. Everyone thought they were world beaters in the early part of the season when they feasted on an easier schedule…but things are kind of balancing out and their division lead is down to 5 games after a tougher stretch. It’ll be an exciting baseball September on a few fronts.
Here’s one that’s way too early to keep an eye on but worth noting: It is entirely possible that the Mets end the season with three games in Milwaukee and stay there to play the three-game Wild Card Series against the Brewers. I don’t love that matchup but at this point I just hope the Mets find a way in.
One thing that will make the Mets’ road tougher is if they have to continue without Paul Blackburn. He took a ball off the hand Friday night in San Diego (I was listening on the radio driving back from Fenway and it did not sound good), and if he has to miss time we’re right back to Tylor Megill? Not sure how to handle that but the nice thing about Blackburn is that it felt like you could just pencil him in for 6 innings and 3 runs or something like that - a totally normal line, with normal innings expectations unlike most of the Mets rotation for most of the year. Maybe, since the report right now is just a contusion, the Mets dodged a bullet and he’ll be OK.
I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but my Spotify algorithm has begun to work OMG into regular rotation. Always makes me happy to hear it.
OMG and Grimace are the only two ridiculous Mets rally cries I care to enjoy down the stretch. It was nice to see Grimace make his appearances back on the scoreboard last week.
A little update on the record-keeping I’ve been doing since June 3rd. Overall since that time the Mets are 43-27. They’re 26-17 against teams under .500 and 17-10 against teams with winning records. August right now is at 10-11. The record against winning records is the most encouraging number to me (besides the fact that overall the Mets have saved their season with this run) - the only clunker there was the Seattle series. Boy have things changed for Seattle since that weekend.
A quick note on Joey Votto, who announced his retirement last week: A couple of weeks ago I went to a Worcester Red Sox game and we left a little early and on our way out we saw the below-stadium batting cage which has a long window that looks out onto the street and allows passersby to see in. Everyone was walking by a guy on the Buffalo Bisons taking some swings against the machine and I did a double-take: It was Joey Votto. So I had this private showing of a future Hall of Famer doing what he does best. He took a few pitches and fouled a couple off - didn’t really see him tear the cover off the ball. But I took a couple of pictures, and we made eye contact and I made a fist pump. What I hope that fist pump conveyed was “Good work - would love to see you out there one more time, you had a great career and you’re great for the game. Thanks for everything.” But he probably thought I was just some dope fist pumping “yay baseball player.”
Big doings on the ticket front - I’ve told you that I will not be going to anymore regular season Mets games - but I do have my playoff tickets. It’s what I hoped would happen last year when I first got this ticket package. Certainly unfolded differently than I expected, but I can’t wait until October. I did my part - hopefully the Mets uphold their end of the deal.
A reminder that I am through five weeks of training for the New York City Marathon, which I’m running for Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation. We’re halfway to our fundraising goal! If you would like to make a donation, you can do so at this link.

It’s busy time for work and the girls are going back to school, so I don’t know if I’ll be writing immediately after these series this week. I will for sure get back on here with an August recap/September preview, and try to stay on top of things the rest of the way.

Thanks for reading and sharing in the excitement of this season.

Let’s Go Mets!