It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. On today's show, I will break down five Mets that need to step it up soon, so this team doesn't fall out of the race. You are locked on Mets, your daily New York Mets Podcast. Head of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello to all you amazing Mets fans, you are listening to the Lockdown Mets, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you for making Lockdown Mets your first listen every day, Lockdown Mets is free and available on all platforms including YouTube. On the show today, another Mets loss to discuss, I will break down that game in the first segment, then in the second segment, I want to talk about five Mets who are struggling right now that have to turn it on for this team to stay in the race, so I will break down some of those names, including Severino, what a rough start today. Then in the final segment, I will give you some updates on some injured players, Starling Marte is nearing a return about to begin a rehab assignment, so I will talk about his impact when he comes back, how the Mets will fit all those pieces together in their lineup. Before we get to any of it though, I am your host Ryan Fickle-Stein, if you want to find any of my work, follow me on X at Fickle-Stein Ryan, you can also find some of my writing at JustBaseball.com where I work as the managing editor. This episode is brought to you by PrizePix, the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. They are at PrizePix.com/LockdownMLB and use the code all in the lowercase, "LockdownMLB" for a first deposit match, up to $100. Now the Mets lost another game on Tuesday that is now their third loss in their last four games all coming to the Angels and the Rockies, their lone victory was against a team that isn't the playoff race in the St. Louis Cardinals. So the Mets are playing down to their competition, or their competition is playing up to them. I thought the Rockies had a really good game today, particularly defensively. Ryan McMahon at third base was just an absolute killer. A lot of rallies ended in his glove, just the way that he was able to make plays, whether it was going across the bag on a backhand and throwing it from foul territory or catching a hot shot hit right at him or then going to his left, Benorama. I mean, this guy is so good, all-star and a gold glugger from not mistaken, who is just a really solid player. And throughout this game, things just didn't break them. That's why I really frustrating. And Luis Severino wasn't good either. And we'll talk about him a little bit more in the next segment as I break down the struggling players that need to step up. Severino working on a nine-start stretch that has just been brutal and that has taken the ZRA from a low threes to over four after this outing, where he gave up five runs and five innings pitch. I'll be with one of them being unearned, so four earned runs and five innings, just a rough outing. And the Mets actually took a lead in this game, funny enough, they scored the first two runs in the second inning. Peter Lanzo lead off, walk, Mark Viento's flew out, Jose Glaze has got a base hit. Luis Torrance hits one over the third base bag, and that was the play I was talking about. Nick Mann with the backhand, in foul territory, throwing it at her first base, somehow getting Torrance out. That did advance the runners though, and Harrison Bader cashed the man with the base hit. So it was two-nothing Mets. That lead would not hold too, too long. Bottom of the second inning with one out, Luis Severino hit Brendan Rodgers with the pitch. Then he gives up a base hit to Chris Bryant. This was the unearned run, brutal play for the Mets, where Harrison Bader makes a throwing air that gets passed, the cut-off man starts rolling towards the dugout on the play to third. Mark Viento's trying to make a play to stop the ball, slides by the dugout to field it, comes up to maybe fire, I guess. No one was running at the time. As he comes up, he loses the ball and the transfer, and the netting of the Mets dugout, the visitors dugout and cores, was not secure for whatever reason, so the ball hits the netting and then just drops in the dugout. Nothing you could do about it, balls out of play, runner automatically advances and scores, Chris Bryant advances the third, and that was the first run of the game. But there could have been another run scored in that inning, as there was a hot shot hit to Jose Iglesias right after that. He made an unbelievable play, backing up on a backhand, kind of coming away from home played then, still deciding to fire and try to get Chris Bryant out instead of taking the safe out. He's able to pull it off, which was really a special defensive play to cut that a run, and for a brief moment, it kept the momentum on the met side, but that would all escape in the fourth inning. As Luis Severino had a blow up, Gives up a base hit, got a pop out, got a strike out, so two outs about to get out of the inning, Gives up an RBI double to a LASDS, then Jay Cave comes up, he's ahead in the count, tries to throw a fastball up in the zone, I think Terrens wanted it up and away, Severino only got it up, and it was still over the heart of the plate, even though it was at the absolute top of the zone at 98 miles per hour, and Jay Cave, who had been crippling home running against the Mets in the last time that these two teams faced, does it again, opposite field, and really that's the ball game. I mean, that home run really did the Mets in, Severino didn't really miss a spot by too much. Like I said, it was supposed to be a fastball up, that's where he threw it, but I guess you got to get outside as well, really, you could just tip your cap though, it was a good piece of hitting from Cave, but just a frustrating game all together, the Mets got one back in the fifth, Tyrone Taylor doubled, Brendan Nimmo, drives him home with the single, but then Severino gives that run back as Brendan Rodgers hits an RBI double, the bottom half of that inning, Mark Vientos tried to make a play on a hit off his glove, run comes around the score, so that was pretty much it when it comes to Severino's day, like I said, five innings, five runs scored for the Mern, top of the sixth inning, the Mets had a chance, Peter Lonzo ripped the lead off single to get things going, Mark Vientos flew out, Jose Glesias got to base it as well to put runners at the corners, the Mets had Luis Torens coming up, so Carlos Mendoza went for a pinch hitter, got Jesse Winker in the game for a chance to get his first big signature Mets moment, a promptly hit into a double play ball to end that rally. Now following inning, the Mets again had a chance, they got two runners in scoring position as Francisco Lindor had a two out single, Brendan Nimmo hit a double, but fortunately they held up Lindor on the play, probably would have been a close one, I don't know if I were to push the envelope with Lindor running, but regardless, you had two runners in scoring position for JD Martinez to potentially tie the game any grounds out. So missed opportunity, Mets pretty much went down quietly after that, frustrating game for the offense, the bullpen was okay, Waskar Brazzabon with two scoreless innings, Alex Young had a rough inning where he gave up a run, and the Mets end up dropping the contest by a score of six to three. So the wildcard race, the Mets are still sitting one and a half games back, so that's not too bad, but the Diamondbacks and the Padres are starting to pull away a little bit. Those teams have been on a tear, the pathway right now, as it looks, and there's still plenty of time, but the current pathway to making the playoffs seems to be just leaping over the Braves, because the Braves are now sitting in the third wildcard spot, and they're looking like the most vulnerable team of that group, but the Mets got to pick it up. Okay, you've lost now three games that you could have won, you know, Severino pitches a little bit better today at the Mets get a couple of those runs to cash in. You win this one. There was the Angels game where Brazzabon gave up the home run where the game was in hand before that homer, and that was a brutal one, and then of course you could have won that final game against the Angels as well, but just couldn't get the bats going. Now starting to become a pattern for the Mets lineup is not hitting, and that lineup is what carried them into this position. So can they get things going? I want to talk about some struggling Mets, including Severino, but also a lot of bats. So we're going to talk about those five players in just a minute. First throw a word from our sponsors. Today's episodes brought to you by prize picks. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps on prize picks, it's just you against the numbers. All you do is pick more or less on two to six player stat projections, and you watch the winnings roll in. And on the daily actual difference, it becomes part of the prize pick community today. You can now went up to a hundred times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks, so you could turn $10 into $1,000. If you're looking for promotions, prize picks has got you covered every week. From lowering select player stat projections on Tuesdays to help your lineup pit, to getting your entry fees back if you have a losing lineup on Fridays. 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We'll start with the starting pitcher from tonight's game, Luis Severino. It's gotta be better. As I mentioned that ERA has ticked over four. If you look back at Luis Severino season, on June 13th, he held the models to one run over six innings pitch and lowered his season ERA to 3.12. Since then, he has given up four or more earned runs in five of his last nine starts. His ERA over those nine starts is 5.51. He has given up nine home runs during that span. It was first 13 starts of the season. He gave up just six home runs. So the home run ball is clearly killing him. And when he has a bad start, it's not just that he's going out there and he's getting knocked out of the game in five innings, but he's typically given up four or more runs and that just puts you behind the eight ball to do anything. So Severino has to be better. It's pretty ironic because the Mets probably could have flipped him at the deadline and gotten a good piece for their future. Obviously, you don't know what he's going to do after the deadline. I hope he turns it around, but it's just crazy that this guy could be wearing down. I don't think that's outside of the question. You're looking at someone who has not pitched this many innings in a very long time. I mean, you're looking back to 2019. If I'm not mistaken, let me look back at the career log real quick here. Yeah, 2019, that was when he got hurt. In 2018, it's when he was the ace of the Yankees, there were 190 plus innings and back-to-back years. As Tommy John, out of 2019, out of 2020, 2021 comes back, but doesn't pitch much. 2022 pitches to a 3.18 ERI, but only makes 19 starts, pitches 102 innings and then ends up having to get shut down. Last year was a disaster for him. That's how he lands on the Mets on a one-year deal. He's at 22 starts right now, 128 and 2/3 innings pitched. Sean and I, on the other hand, is getting stronger as the season goes on. Severino's last nine starts have really been a struggle. So I don't know what the Mets are going to get from Severino from this point forward. I hope he can turn things around, catch a second wind and close out of season strong, but I was talking about on yesterday's show, the idea of who you'd bring back, obviously the way it's pitching, then that's the guy you want to bring back. But even further, I mentioned on yesterday's show how Sean and I and Luis Severino would be the guys to take the ball and a playoff game. And for one, you got to get there, which is looking a little more doubtful by the day, depending on how this team continues to fare on this road trip. But I don't know if Severino is one of the top three starters on this team right now. He certainly has a pitch like it over those last nine starts. So we'll see if he can turn things around, but that is a huge one for the Mets because you need him to be significantly better than he has been across the stretch. Another guy that has been struggling lately, JD Martinez, in May, JD Martinez, his first full month of the season hit 278 with the 333 on base at 4.95 slug at five home runs 13 RBI's. In June, he hit 272, 385 on base, 489 slug, four home runs, 20 RBI's. July, he hit 235, 326 on base, 358 slug, only two home runs, 13 RBI's. And he started off August with a 318 stretch. He's over his last 10. He did hit that grand slam. So he's got five RBI's of the month because he had another RBI this month as well. But pretty brutal line all together. And you look at his last 30 games played. JD Martinez is hitting 208, 317 on base, 330 slug, three home runs, 18 RBI's. He's got a lot of flack and he's about to catch some more in a minute. But JD Martinez has to be better. He's your DH. You need him to contribute. If not, he got started on the Marte come out the aisle soon. We'll talk about him in the next segment. Marte could be the DH right now and he might give you more production than JD Martinez is giving you. He's got to step up. He's too good of a hitter to sit on the bench. But at a certain point, he's got to produce as well. So we'll see exactly how things continue for Martinez. But you also actually look at when this started. A lot of it really goes back to that whole issue with his cleats and he had an ankle problem and he had to sit out because he didn't have cleats to play in. Since then, for whatever it's worth, the guys fall into a real funk. Sometimes players can be like that where one thing kind of throws them off their routine, especially guys meticulous as JD Martinez is, and it takes a while to get back on track. You would hope that that's going to turn around soon, but the Mets are playing with dropping Alonso in the lineup. JD Martinez has come up in a lot of spots lately tonight, in particular, those multiple opportunities where he had a chance to cash in a run with two outs and a runner in scoring position, and he just didn't get that hit where earlier this season he was coming through and all those spots had felt like. So that's a big one for me. JD Martinez has to be better. I said Alonso was about to catch a little more flack. He's on this list. He's got to be. He had a decent run post-all-star break where played pretty well in that first week out of it, but overall, his last 30 games. Pete Alonso said in 227, 315 on base, 418 slug. Five home runs, 11 RBIs, 11 RBIs in a 30 game has been, even Martinez, who's been struggling granted he has the benefit of a grand slam, but he has 18 RBIs. So Pete's got to be better than this. He's got to drive and runs with consistency. What I will say, some of the at bats haven't looked terrible today. He drew a walk, had a nice sharp base hit. His last at bat was awful. That one was bad, eighth inning, struck out on three pitches, so we'll see if Pete can get things on track. I've spent enough time ragging on him this week, that's what we'll move on to Brandon Nemo. Brandon Nemo of his last 30 games played in 217, 306 on base, 328 slug, 312 RBIs. Nemo had a good game tonight, so you give him a little bit of a pass. But consistently over the past month, he has not hit. There's really two guys who have Francisco Lindor, and then out of the break, Jeff McNeil that I guess Jose Glace has been pretty good Harrison Bader actually, maybe there's four Tyrone Taylor's had his moments lately. But your most consistent producers from the past, as far as Alonzo and Nemo struggling, a guy that has been one of the best hitters in baseball for a longtime JD Martinez struggling and also Francisco Alvarez struggling. Last 30 games, he's in 253, 324 on base, 394 slug, two home runs, 11 RBIs. But here's the big thing for me. Last year, Francisco Alvarez hit 25 home runs. This year's got five 57 games played if I'm not mistaken. Let me check on that stat to make sure I am right about it. But last year, I think it was like 119 games, so he's getting close to about half of the sample size from last year, and he's nowhere close to half the productions when it comes to home runs. I'm looking at it now, okay, 100 is 57 games this year, 123 last year. He was getting close to that. And last season, he drove in 63 with 25 home runs. Now he only had 209 last year, this year's in 267. Last year he had a 284 on base, this year's 330. So those two stats are better, but his slug has gone down and you expect this guy to hit home runs, that hasn't happened lately. So the Mets really need to see Alvarez start to come through offensively. And of course, Nemo Alonzo Martinez, right in the middle of that lineup, those guys got to step up because if they are going to, I don't know how you can shift things, but maybe you need to put Jeff McNeil somewhere in the top of this lineup so that Francisco Lindor has a running mate that can maybe drive them in because Lindor is getting on base and it's getting stranded a ton. Really frustrating. I have an honorable mention here to close out my list of five struggling Mets. So the list was Sevi Alonzo, Nemo, Martinez, Alvarez, but honorable mention is Jesse Winker. Really small sample size, he's played six games, he's three for 15. No reason to jump off the cliff just yet about his production and think, oh man, this guy is just going to be bad, but the approach hasn't looked good. He's grounding into double play balls or at least today. He did. I feel like it's happened multiple times. I could be wrong about that, but today was a killer one because Cosmodos would grab some off the bench and a spot, which I think made some sense to grab him, not Jeff McNeil because he has less versatility to your bench. Whereas Jeff McNeil, something happens that was what the seventh inning or maybe it was the sixth inning. So you start a lot of game left and I get wanting to keep Jeff McNeil there in case you need him that third base, that second base, you would have had to make a sort of double switch in some ways. You would have had to not only put Alvarez in the game for defense clearly, but you would have had to make a subsequent move if you were going to bring Jeff McNeil in to keep him in the game, you would think. With that said, I'd like to see the Mets get a hit in that spot and I didn't feel as confident as I do in Jeff McNeil right now, but the one thing you were hoping for, if you went out man on third base, just hit a fly ball. Hit a fly ball, get a run in, chip away at it and it hits into a double play ball. We'll see. Winker's got to be the impact bat that they brought him in for. He's got a chance to play a full game. I would imagine that course field on Wednesday with a writing on the mound. So hopefully it's his breakout performance and he could start rolling from there and that stands true for all these guys. You're playing it out to two, put up some crooked numbers and some of these innings and hopefully still find a way to win a series. You win the next two games. You can forgive the Mets for dropping this one, but if they lose this series and this road trip includes series losses to the Angels as well as the Rockies, and then the final leg of it is you got to face the Mariners pitching staff, which is elite. This could be a road trip that really do the Mets and you'd hate to see that. But hopefully they can get things back on track, but they will be getting some reinforcements on the way soon. We're going to talk about the guys that are rehabbing from injured that could join the team in the coming weeks, starting Marta being one of them. We'll get to that in just a minute. First, though, another word from our sponsors today's episode is brought to you by liquid IV get hydrated with electrolytes, essential vitamins and clinically tested nutrients from the number one powder hydration brand in America, liquid IV, what I love about liquid IV is three things. For one, the convenience, right? You tear your pour. You live more, as they say, with one stick plus 16 ounce of water, which will hydrate you better than water alone, but it's also along with the convenience, the taste. I love the strawberry lemonade flavor. 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Now in Syracuse today, Tyler McGill took the mound, pitched five innings allowed for runs. It's not a great start for McGill, but the guy who relieved them is somebody of great interest. He Garrett has seen his rehab advance to AAA. He came in, gave up a hit and a walk, but he struck out three to get through a scoreless inning. Carlos Mendoza said he's feeling really strong, bounced back good after the outing, so it seems like Reid Garrett could be coming back in the not-too-distant future. Shintaro Fujinami got the save in that game, just thought I mentioned that. Second straight, strong appearance from Fujinami, who pitched two scoreless in his prior appearance, but the one before that he walked four. We'll see. Fuji has got to put together a couple of weeks of good numbers before the meds would trust bringing him up. First, adding him back to the 40-man roster, and then subsequently bringing him up, making him part of this team. Got electric stuff, but I just don't know if he's seen him this year. Sean Reid Foley had a rough outing his last time out. I think we did talk about this on the show. Walk three of the five batters that he faced. Carlos Mendoza did not sound as optimistic on Sean Reid Foley as he did on Garrett, talked about him needing to be able to pitch back-to-back and pitch multiple innings, potentially. They had to see how he bounces back. He's going to pitch on Wednesday, so we'll see how he looks in that outing. Matt's will go from there. You could get him back soon, but I feel like Garrett's going to come back first now, all of a sudden. He's the guy that I would expect to be more effective when he does return. Daniel Nunez is up to playing catch at 90 feet, so that's usually the first big test. See how he responds to that, and then eventually you get him on a mound for a bullpen, then maybe facing some live batters, and all of a sudden, he's on a rehab assignment. There is a chance that Matt's going to get Nunez back by the end of this month. He'd obviously provided a very big lift if he pitches anything close to the way he did prior to the injury. The big news of the day is Charlie Marte. He's going to begin a rehab assignment in Port St. Lucie on Wednesday. Now he expects to be up in AA by the end of this week. He looks good, he feels good, and in a report, or not a report, but there's an article that Anthony DiKoma has where he updates all the different injured players, and in the article he said that he could be in line to return when the mats get home after this road trip. So next week, you could see Charlie Marte back in the Mets lineup, which would be a big lift. I'm very curious how they would deploy him. Is he in a straight platoon with Jesse Winker where he's only playing against left-handed pitching? You would think Marte would get a little bit more run than that, so who's playing time does he eat into? Tyrone Taylor potentially, where Taylor really becomes a fifth outfielder for this team. Harrison Bader a little bit if you wanted to. You could go an all offense outfield of Nemo in center, Winker in left, Marte in right, but that would be a no defense outfield. I don't think the mats would go that far. We'll see. The world where Charlie Marte just grabs his starting spot back and Jesse Winker is a left-handed bat at the bench. That could happen. I think they'll be careful to run Marte into the ground, especially having Winker. So I don't expect Charlie Marte to play more than, I'd say, four games a week, five at the most. I think he's going to get multiple off-days in between probably DH him a little bit, especially if J.D. Marte has his swing in it. That's another way to get Marte's bat in the lineup and see what happens. I imagine also this means less of Jeff McNeil in the outfield, more of him in the infield, which could cut into Jose Glaze's playing time, if not even Mark Viento's playing time with the Glaze's moving over and playing third. I'd imagine that we're just not going to see Jeff play against lefties when you get Marte back because the Glaze should be out there, Viento should be out there, Marte should be out there. I guess the only way would be if you put Nemo in center and McNeil in left. So that is still an option. If I had a guess though, they'll keep playing a Bader or a Taylor against left-handed pitching in center field. If I had to do it based on what we've seen throughout the season, Jeff McNeil would really have to keep this hot streak going and force them at hands to keep them in the lineup. It's very funny that we're even wondering about Jeff McNeil's playing time when whatever was three weeks ago, everyone was ready to just send this guy back and he really turned it on. But the Mets are going to be a deeper team when they get Marte back. There's no doubt about it. You're replacing Ben Gamel, who's barely played for Starling Marte, who still gives you a really good base-dealing threat even with the knee issues. A guy that can rake against left-handed pitching, which was going to be very much needed. I mean, it'd be great to have Marte in this series. They have to have him in the lineup tonight, have him in the final game of this series against the two lefties. The Mets are going to face. That would have made a big difference. So I think that's going to definitely help this team. I also believe that could just be a nice element to add to the team to maybe lighten the load for everybody else. All those guys we talked about who are struggling, the Nimos, Martinez, Alonzo, Alvarez, maybe just getting Marte back in the lineup. That might just take the pressure off everybody else, not that he's going to change everything, not that he is alone, the straw that stirs the drink. But sometimes it is uplifting to get a guy off the aisle and I think Marte will definitely provide some impact on the stretch, assuming he can stay on the field. And I think Garrett as well, honestly, to the bullpen. I mean, to be able to have Garrett, Budo, Métan with Evan Diaz, that back end of the bullpen looks a lot better. First, though, you got to get your bullpen a lead. So hopefully the Mets will do that on Wednesday. Turn this into a series against the Rockies and get back on track. They still got a chance to have a winning road trip, but they're going to have to take these next two games because it's going to be a lot tougher going into Seattle over the weekend. Anyway, that's going to be all for today's edition of Lock on Metz. Appreciate all of you who tuned into the show. 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