Mets 5 Nationals 1 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)
Mets record: 49-54
Mets streak: Won 2
WP - Max Scherzer (9-4)
LP - MacKenzie Gore (6-8)
Seat on the Korner:
We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.
Pete Alonso's hot streak continues, as he hit two home runs and drove in five runs for the second time in four days to help the Mets beat the Washington Nationals 5-1.
Need to Know
Alonso's two home runs give him 30 on the season. Alonso has reached 30 home runs in four of his five MLB seasons (and the fifth one was the 60 game pandemic shortened season, when he hit 16.)
Only Alonso and Piazza have put up four 30 HR seasons as Mets.
Alonso now has 176 home runs in his first five seasons, 5th in MLB history behind Ralph Kiner, Albert Pujols, Eddie Matthews, and Ryan Howard (and he's one behind Howard for fourth)
Jeff McNeil went 3-for-4 to raise his average to .255 on the season.
Max Scherzer had another good outing, going seven innings and giving up six runs and two walks, and just one run on a Luis Garcia home run in the 7th.
For Scherzer, it's win number 210 in his career.
In this first post-Robertson game for the Mets, Adam Ottavino got the 8th inning and Brooks Raley got the 9th.
Turning Point
In a 0-0 game in the 5th, MacKenzie Gore walked the first two hitters he faced. He almost got out of it, getting fly balls from Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor, and Alonso.
Only problem for Gore is that Alonso's fly ball went 453 feet.
Three Keys
Pete's very good week: In Alonso's last six games going into tonight, he hit .409 with an OPS of 1.344 in 25 plate appearances. Alonso's two-for-five tonight probably sends those numbers slightly down. But that's how good Alonso has been.
Sliders are for suckers: But they're not for Max Scherzer anymore. In what seems like an ongoing struggle, Max Scherzer and his slider have been at odds this season. Every time he thinks he's found his slider, it abandons him. It's a complicated relationship. It got more complicated tonight as he left the slider on the shelf for the most part.
He threw 10 sliders out of 103 pitches tonight. Here's the weird part: Six of those sliders were thrown to Lane Thomas. The other four were to Alex Call. What that means, I have no idea. But it worked.
So this is how it works now? When Robertson was traded on Thursday night, it was Brooks Raley who took the 9th. With the roster more set than it was last night post-Robertson, Raley got the 9th again. It seems as if he's going to be the guy getting the toughest innings going forward.
I'm sure there will be speculation that Raley might be one of the players that could join Robertson out of town. But with Raley under contract for 2024, it probably wouldn't make much sense to trade him unless they're blown away with an offer. With Edwin Diaz returning next season, Raley will continue to be an important piece for the team going into next season.
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