The Mets let a four-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs slip away on Sunday, blowing a 2-1 lead in the eighth inning to lose 3-2 at Wrigley Field.
Still, the Mets go to the All-Star break on a high note, coming off a 5-2 road trip that included the important series in in Atlanta. They are 56-38 with a 2 ½ game lead against the Braves.
Here are the takeaways from the loss on Sunday:
1) Did David Robertson convince the Mets to make a trade for him? The Cubs’ 37-year old closer pitched a scoreless ninth inning to finish off the 3-2 win, one day after pitching two scoreless innings on Saturday.
The Mets have made it clear they’re looking for a quality reliever or two at the trade deadline, and Robertson is an obvious candidate, playing on a bad team and eligible for free agency after the season.
For the season Robertson has a 1.93 ERA over 37 1/3 innings to go with 13 saves. He’s allowed only 19 hits while racking up 48 strikeouts, using the same mix of cutter and curve ball that made him so effective in his prime as a set-up man with the Yankees.
2) Drew Smith’s struggles continued on Sunday, as the righthanded reliever took the loss, giving up two runs in the eighth inning to let a 2-1 lead get away. Smith has now allowed five runs in his last six appearances, and he remains a concern as depth in the Mets’ bullpen is an issue.
Smith started the season looking like he was ready to emerge as the primary set-up man for Edwin Diaz, but in recent weeks he has been used in lower-leverage situations.
All in all, however, the Mets’ bullpen had a strong weekend, playing a key role in the doubleheader sweep on Saturday as six relievers allowed only one run in 8 1/3 innings, and that was because of a free runner in the 10th inning of Game 2.
On Sunday, Tommy Hunter pitched two scoreless innings in relief of David Peterson before turning the game over to Smith, as Buck Showalter has made a point of using all of his relievers, careful not to overuse his top guys.
3) So what happens to David Peterson now? If Jacob deGrom is ready to re-join the Mets’ rotation coming out of the All-Star break, it would appear there’s no room for Peterson, even though he has pitched well enough to deserve a spot.
The lefthander pitched well on Sunday, allowing only one unearned run over five innings while striking out eight hitters, lowering his ERA to 3.24.
Peterson responded well to adversity in Sunday’s game: after Eduardo Escobar made an error on a double-play ball that could have ended the fourth, loading the bases for the Cubs instead, Peterson walked Patrick Wisdom to force in a run but then struck out David Bote and Nelson Velazquez to escape the inning.
If deGrom is ready to come back, Peterson seems likely to be sent to the minors. In Trevor Williams the Mets have a swing man who has been effective in long stints out of the bullpen, in addition to making spot starts. And the Mets probably would want Peterson to continue starting in Triple-A so that he’s stretched out in case of another starter gets injured.
4) Francisco Lindor takes an 11-game hitting streak into the break, going 2-for-4 on Sunday with two singles to extend the streak.
Lindor hasn’t been raging hot over the 11 games, getting one hit in nine of the 11 games, hitting .298 during the streak. However, the Mets’ shortstop has delivered some key hits those games, driving in nine runs to run his RBI total to 66, good for fifth in the National League and second to Trea Turner among all major league shortstops.
On Sunday Lindor also managed to turn a baserunning mistake into something positive for the Mets. He was caught too far off first when Cubs’ starter threw over and Lindor got into a rundown. Starling Marte, on third base at the time, took off for home, distracting Cubs’ second baseman David Bote long enough for Lindor to avoid a tag and slip past him, making it to second safely as Marte scored the first run of the game.
5) By now the Mets have proven they’ll hit enough to win games when it counts, yet concerns remain about the offense after a struggle to score runs in Chicago over the weekend.
The Mets went 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position in Saturday’s double header, even while managing to win both games. On Sunday they were 2-for-8 w/RISP.
Also, after flexing their home run muscles against the Braves in Atlanta to win that series, the Mets hit two Thursday night against the Cubs but then went homerless over the final three games. The wind was blowing in at Wrigley Field the last two days, making it more difficult to go deep, but power remains a need for the Mets at the trade deadline.
With 92 home runs this season they rank ninth in the National League.