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The Nationals have won 7 straight. The Mets have ... not.
Monday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at a series as rough for the Mets as it was good for the Nats, and the Rockies being powered by their kids.
Photo by Elsa/Getty Images
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The Nationals have won seven games in a row. The Mets did not do that: The Mets have lost four games in a row. “But Marc,” I hear you say, “the Mets were playing the Nationals. Of course they can’t both have winning streaks going.” You’re totally right! Winning and losing streaks don’t have to exist at all, though, since teams can trade wins and losses back and forth over a series, so here I am, pointing out the Nats’ success at the expense of the Mets.
Washington is now 13-5, sporting the top winning percentage of this early season, and they sit 5.5 games up on the Mets. Things weren’t so bad for New York before this weekend series: They were 8-8 and 2.5 games out of first place. Then the weekend was spent not only losing to the Nationals, but also losing healthy players: In addition to Steven Matz and Seth Lugo, New York has recently added Lucas Duda and Wilmer Flores to the DL, saw Yoenis Cespedes miss the entire series against the Nats for his hamstring, and had Asdrubal Cabrera playing in spite of the pain in his own legs.
That’s not all, by the way. Travis d’Arnaud was having trouble throwing, and now the DL is a possibility for him, too: Cespedes might join him, depending on how his hamstring feels Monday. Jacob deGrom did not pitch Friday as scheduled due to neck stiffness, but did start Saturday, and walked six batters in 5-2/3 innings. He also struck out 10, but, six walks and neck stiffness is more alarming for deGrom than 10 punch outs is calming.
It’s just April, and the Mets aren’t out of any race. All of these injuries piling up at the same time could have long-term ramifications for their season, though, especially with another series against the Nats coming later this week. If an unhealthy, unproductive New York squad is swept again before the month is out, they’ll have themselves a hole to climb out of, and no one with enough working body parts to do the climbing.
- The Phillies went back-to-back-to-back against the Braves on Sunday, with Cesar Hernandez, Aaron Altherr, and Odubel Herrera all going deep in a row. That was bad news for the Braves, who were swept by the Phillies in a battle of rebuilding NL East clubs.
- A refreshing moment in baseball: Dustin Pedroia didn’t back teammate Matt Barnes’ decision to throw at Manny Machado in response to a slide Machado made that hurt Pedroia earlier in the series.
- Zach Britton had an outright stupid take in response to the whole ordeal.
- It’s not just a thought that this baseball writer had, either: Ken Rosenthal had a player texting him to call out Britton’s call-out.
- We can all agree, though, that the situation Barnes created was dangerous, and should be avoided.
- The Rockies’ young players are looking more like veterans, and that’s going to have to continue, especially with a series against the Nationals up next.
- Shelby Miller is headed to the disabled list with a forearm injury, because that trade with the Braves wasn’t haunting the D-Backs enough.
- The Orioles are in first place in the AL East, but they’re once again struggling against lefty starters.
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