NEW YORK — Carlos Mendoza walked into his postgame news conference wearing a clean long-sleeved shirt and shorts. At last, after a dreadful opening week that included five losses and three postponements, Mendoza won for the first time as manager of the New York Mets. After the Mets celebrated Tyrone Taylor’s walk-off single on the field, they drenched Mendoza with myriad materials inside the clubhouse and with such thoroughness that he required a shower before meeting with reporters.
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“Special feeling,” Mendoza said.
After salvaging a split of a doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers with a 2-1 win in the second game on Thursday, the Mets must now prove that they just had a bad stretch — that they’re not a bad team.
It starts with their best players.
That’s why in the ninth inning of the second game, Pete Alonso wielding the kind of power — both literally and figuratively — that separates him from so many others felt like it mattered so much.
Through his first 25 plate appearances, Alonso displayed what Mets co-hitting coach Eric Chavez referred to as a “directional approach,” in which he set his sights on right-center field. While three of Alonso’s first six hits went to the opposite field, Chavez maintained that Alonso still looked to pull certain balls for home runs. To Chavez, Alonso’s approach had never looked better. But there would soon be times, Chavez said earlier in the week, when Alonso will have to see a pitch he likes and do damage; coach-speak for pulling a ball into the seats for a home run.
When the Mets needed him, Alonso did just that.
With the Mets held to just one hit and facing the prospects of a winless homestand, Alonso muscled a home run to left-center to tie the score at 1-1 on a pitch that was just 1.07 feet above the ground.
this Pete Alonso HR came on a pitch 1.07 ft above the ground, tied for the lowest pitch a Mets player has homered off of in the pitch-tracking era (2008)
tied w/Mark Vientos 9/21/23 https://t.co/60DMDceC7a
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 4, 2024
Before reaching an energized Mets dugout, Alonso met Harrison Bader near the top steps and said, per Bader’s recollection, something along the lines of, “F— yeah, let’s go.”
“We know what’s going on here,” Bader said. “We’re not stupid. We’re not numb to this. This is what we do. This is what we pour our passion into.”
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After Alonso’s home run, Brett Baty followed with a walk and advanced to second base on Starling Marte’s sacrifice bunt. With one out, Taylor, the next batter, delivered the game-winning hit.
“We definitely needed that one,” Alonso said.
That’s no cliche. The doubleheader — the Mets dropped the first game, 6-3 — marked the first day of a grueling slate. Counting Thursday, the Mets play 15 games in 14 days. They travel to Cincinnati for three games against the Reds. Then they will play four against the Atlanta Braves, the class of the National League East. All this, with injuries testing their rotation.
All offseason, the Mets talked up their depth, and some of that came in handy on Thursday when José Buttó supplied a much-needed quality start in a call-up as the 27th player and Reed Garrett covered three scoreless innings. The strong play from Francisco Alvarez and Baty continued as well with the young duo driving in all three of the Mets’ runs in the first game.
But what the Mets really need is for their best players to follow Alonso’s cue and start coming through. Combined, Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil have started the season 3-for-60 (.050 batting average; though, to his credit, Nimmo drew five walks on Thursday). Eventually, that figure will climb, but the Mets could use the boost now. J.D. Martinez is eligible to join New York on Sunday, but Mendoza made Atlanta sound like a stronger possibility, considering Martinez will soon go to an affiliate for more at-bats.
At one point on Thursday, the Mets went 14 straight innings without recording a hit. Bader finally broke the streak with a single in the eighth inning — they were six outs away from getting no-hit by Matt Manning, who was recently called up, and the Tigers’ bullpen. For most of the second game, the at-bats were light on pitches and heavy on chase with Lindor the main culprit.
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The Mets’ bullpen unraveled in the first game, but the loss mainly stemmed from a lack of offense. Despite the runner at second base to start the frames, the Mets failed to score in extra innings. Baty failing to get a bunt down — Mendoza asked him to attempt one despite just one sacrifice in his career — to advance the runner in the 10th inning and Alonso striking out in the 11th bookended the Mets’ extra-inning frustrations.
The Mets wouldn’t be the first team to rally after a poor start, but the numbers don’t support the cause. Just three of the 90 teams in MLB history who have started 0-5 made it to the postseason (1974 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1995 Cincinnati Reds, 2011 Tampa Bay Rays). An additional 12 managed to win 84 or more games, which is what it took to make the postseason last year in the NL. What’s more, the Mets entered the season with muted expectations.
It’s way too early for that talk, anyway. It’s too early to know much about the Mets. How they respond to a poor first homestand will help inform their story. After the first week of the season, the Mets would just sign up for their first winning streak. And to get on a necessary roll, they need more from the top.
(Photo of Pete Alonso and Zack Short congratulating Tyrone Taylor: Gregory Fisher / USA Today)
