The New York Mets were 0-5, six outs away from going 0-6. And yet their misery went even deeper. In the second game of a doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers, the Mets also were getting no-hit.
First-year manager Carlos Mendoza turned to his bench coach, John Gibbons, a former major-league manager himself.
“I wanted to manage in the big leagues?” Mendoza said.
In that moment, Mendoza could not have imagined what was to follow. A bloop single by Harrison Bader leading off the eighth to break up the no-hitter. A game-tying homer by Pete Alonso leading off the ninth. A walkoff single by Tyrone Taylor to propel the Mets toward becoming the team they believe they can be.
The 2-1 victory was the first of a 12-3 turnaround that included six straight wins before the Mets fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday, 10-0. Jose Buttó and Reed Garrett, the pitchers who ended the team’s season-opening losing streak, have emerged as the kind of surprises every contender needs. And the prediction by new president of baseball operations David Stearns in spring training — “we are a playoff-caliber team” — no longer appears far-fetched, if it ever was at all. The Mets won 101 games in 2022 before collapsing to 75-87 last season. And their $323 million payroll remains the game’s highest.
The only teams in the National League that look dominant are the Dodgers, the Atlanta Braves and perhaps the Philadelphia Phillies. The NL Central champion will claim another postseason berth, leaving at least two wild-card spots. The Mets figure to at least contend for one, but every hot team in the early part of the season faces the same question: How real is what they’re doing?
Reasons to believe
Starling Marte
The single biggest difference in the Mets’ offense thus far: Marte finally is moving well again after undergoing double groin surgery in November 2022, then suffering renewed groin trouble that ended his 2023 season on Aug. 5.
This is the dynamic Marte who ignited the Mets in the first part of 2022, not the player who couldn’t rotate properly last season, swinging through pitches in the middle of the plate. Elevated to the second spot on April 9, he has hit three homers with an .824 OPS since. He seems relieved, happy. At 35, he looks like the Marte of old.
The bullpen
Edwin Díaz’s season-ending knee injury in last year’s World Baseball Classic seemed to set the tone for the Mets’ disappointing 2023 season. Now Díaz is back, Garrett is an out-of-nowhere success and the bullpen as a whole entered Sunday with the league’s second-lowest opponents’ OPS.
Regressions are inevitable, as are injuries — left-hander Brooks Raley, who had allowed only five baserunners in seven innings, went on the injured list Sunday with elbow inflammation. But the return of Díaz provides an anchor, and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner raves about the group’s hard-working, process-oriented approach.
Reinforcements
Nearly every team is waiting for injured players to return, knowing others will go down in the interim. Still, one of the most encouraging aspects of the Mets’ early success is that they demonstrated their mettle without two of their more important players, right-hander Kodai Senga and designated hitter J.D. Martinez.
DJ Stewart, after an 0-for-12 start, has made significant contributions as a DH, including a two-run, go-ahead eighth-inning homer against the Braves on April 8. But Martinez, who signed a one-year, free-agent contract, is expected to join the team when it returns home Friday, potentially making an improved offense that much better.
Senga isn’t eligible to return from a shoulder injury until May 27. Once he is back, the Mets again might need to go to a six-man rotation to accommodate him, but at least they would have their ace. And while the loss of catcher Francisco Alvarez to a left-thumb injury Friday…
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