Metrospective 7/7/2025: Not Great Expectations
This was a punt game, through and through.
In today’s newsletter: Offense comes up short, the makeshift pitching staff held its own, and projecting a possible roster shuffle.
Short-Term Pain, Long-Term Gain
Mets fans know all too well that any one game can be the difference between a playoff berth and a long, painful offseason. So, the idea of “giving up” on a game in July, particularly one against the Yankees at home, may be abhorrent. On the other hand, sometimes you need to lose the battle in order to win the war. On occasion, it’s beneficial to ease off the gas pedal to put yourself in a more advantageous position going forward.
After the Mets stole Friday’s opener and then beat up the Yankees on Saturday to clinch a series win — and a winning homestand — Sunday’s matinee finale was the ideal embodiment of a gravy game, one you’d like to have but certainly weren’t going all out to win. The Yankees, losers of six straight, had their ace, Max Fried, on the mound while the Mets, with a patchwork rotation, were ready to trot out a bullpen game. Considering that they rebounded from a 3-14 stretch to win four of five, the Amazin’s would be fine with a regular ol’ series win instead of a sweep.
Early on, Sunday afternoon progressed how you might expect. After Chris Devenski worked two scoreless innings as the opener, new addition Zach Pop was hit hard in the 3rd and 4th as the Yankees took a 3-0 lead. Brandon Waddell gave up two more tallies in the 5th when — for some reason — he pitched to Aaron Judge with a runner on third and one out. Unsurprisingly, Judge took Waddell deep on an outside changeup and the rout appeared to be on.
However, these scrappy Mets weren’t going down without a fight. Consecutive singles from Jeff McNeil, Hayden Senger and Starling Marte loaded the bases with one out in the 6th for Francisco Lindor, who got his team on the board with a two-run knock to center. That’s all they got, though, as Fried fanned Juan Soto on a sweeper in the dirt and got Pete Alonso to fly out.
The Mets kept chipping away in the 6th after Waddell threw a scoreless top half. Fried stayed in and hit Brandon Nimmo to lead off, quickly summoning Aaron Boone for an overdue pitching change. Jonathan Loáisiga wasn’t much better as Ronny Mauricio reached on a pinch-hit single and Brett Baty singled to load the bases with no one out.
McNeil kept the line moving with an infield hit of his own, a dribbler that eluded Loáisiga and reached first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, whose toss to the bag was whiffed on by Loáisiga, allowing McNeil to reach safely. The momentum was blunted a bit when Senger grounded into a double play but the twin-killing did score Mauricio to make it a 5-4 game. Marte made a bid for the game-tying hit but Judge made a nice play on his sinking liner to end the inning.
Judge added some insurance in the 7th off Huascar Brazobán, plating Goldschmidt with a sacrifice fly following a fortunate Trent Grisham infield single that Alonso booted. It could have been a 3-3-6 double play but the ball glanced off Alonso’s glove right in front of first base, allowing Goldschmidt to get to third.
In the bottom of the inning, Cody Bellinger saved the day for the Yankees. Lindor was hit by a pitch by Mark Leiter Jr. only to be doubled off when Bellinger somehow caught a liner from Soto in left. Off the bat, it looked like Soto had an easy single but Bellinger nabbed it milliseconds before it hit the outfield grass. Lindor — unsure of whether the ball was caught or not — was late to get back to the bag and a perfect throw from Bellinger got him by a stride. Replay confirmed the phenomenal play which kneecapped another possible rally.
Rico Garcia — making his Mets debut — kept the Yankees off the board for the final two innings only for his teammates to not make a ton of noise. There were some fireworks in the 9th when Luis Torrens was rung up on consecutive horrendous strike calls by home-plate umpire John Bacon, which led to a furious Carlos Mendoza getting ejected. Unfortunately, that didn’t change the outcome and the Mets couldn’t get either Soto or Alonso to the plate as tying runs against Devin Williams in the final frame. A hard-fought 6-4 loss.
What To Note
Not their day. The Mets did do a good job of making Fried work and getting him out of the game after five-plus innings but the plays by Judge, Bellinger and even Goldschmidt on an 8th inning double-up were too much to overcome in conjunction with the rough outing by Pop.
While Pop almost certainly will be designated for assignment or optioned today or tomorrow, I would like to see Devenski stick around. The veteran has looked very good in multiple stints with the Mets this season and he has earned a more-extended look, just like Waddell has. Garcia also was impressive in his two innings. Both he and Devenski threw strikes and didn’t walk anymore, an important trait for the beleaguered relief group.
Two more hits for Mauricio, this as a mid-game replacement for the mightily slumping Mark Vientos. Mauricio has been solid at the plate over the past week — his throws from third base could use some work — while Vientos continues to disappoint. He’s 2-for-his-last-27 with nine strikeouts and no walks. He has hit into some hard outs to his credit, yet the lack of consistency and the amount of chasing is all very troubling.
The Mets — with the team debuts of Pop and Garcia in this one — have now used 35 different pitchers this season, the most in the Majors. That’s great for future Immaculate Grid answers and very bad, you would think, for team success. So, it’s even more impressive how they find themselves at 52-39 through 91 games despite all the pitching injuries and turnover. It’s not ideal yet they have somehow made the most of it.
Lindor was already announced as an All-Star starter last week. Now, it’s official that Alonso and Edwin Díaz will also be joining him in Atlanta. Shockingly, Soto did not make the initial cut but it’s very possible he’s named as an injury replacement. Frankly, it would be ridiculous for Soto — who has been one of the best bats in all of baseball once more — to not participate in the Midsummer Classic. Also, Alonso will not be in this year’s Home Run Derby, citing a desire to lighten his All-Star Weekend load which is understandable.
Marte appeared to tweak something in his right knee during a 9th inning at-bat. He stayed in to ground out but he was lightly jogging to first and clearly was in some discomfort. It was deemed a flare-up and while Marte did not express much concern, he has had trouble with that knee before. He’ll undergo imaging to determine severity yet, with Marte’s age and Jesse Winker possibly coming off the IL as soon as Tuesday, the Mets won’t want to risk anything with Marte. It would really hurt to lose his right now considering how good he has been at the dish — he had three hits on Sunday.
Speaking of Winker, things would be simple for the Mets if Marte went on the IL to clear space for Winker. However, if Marte’s injury isn’t serious, the decision is a bit tougher. They could designate Travis Jankowski for assignment but that would limit the versatility and speed on the bench. They also could option Vientos to Syracuse because he continues to struggle at the big-league level and may — like Baty and Mauricio — benefit from a minor-league reset of his own. Mauricio should be safe.
Up Next
Monday is a desperately needed off day for the Mets who get the chance to take a breath and reset their pitching staff following a successful homestand. They cannot wait for next week’s All-Star break.
Before the break, though, the Mets have a six-game AL road trip to get through. First, they’ll head to Baltimore for a three-game set beginning on Tuesday night before going west to Kansas City next weekend. Both the Orioles and Royals have been disappointments this season and are on the outside-looking-in of the Wild Card race.
Tuesday’s opener against the Orioles is an early 6:35 p.m. start on SNY and 880 AM followed by a 7:05 p.m. first pitch on Wednesday (on ESPN) and 1:05 p.m. game time on Thursday afternoon. The Mets tentatively have Clay Holmes, David Peterson and Justin Hagenman scheduled to face rookies Brandon Young and Tomoyuki Sugano as well as veteran Charlie Morton — who the Amazin’s are familiar with from his time in Atlanta.