With a tie game in the 6th inning on Monday, Carlos Mendoza pulled Christian Scott from the game (as he hit his pitch count) and went to get fellow rookie Eric Orze out of the bullpen to make his MLB debut.
Orze could not get the job done, and the Mets ultimately lost after another bullpen meltdown.
Does manager Carlos Mendoza deserve any of the blame for the Mets' loss on Monday, or their 4-4 road trip?
Host Ryan Finkelstein explains why Mendoza's decision on Monday was the right one. He also goes through the road trip to analyze the rest of his bullpen management during this latest rough stretch.
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It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. As Carlos Mendoza's management of the Mets bullpen costs this team games, I'll talk about it on today's show. You are locked on Mets, your daily New York Mets Podcast. Hello to all you amazing Mets fans, you're watching Lockdown. That's part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you for making Lockdown Matt your first listen every day, Lockdown Matt's friend available on all platforms including YouTube. Tough loss to close off the Mets series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, I'll break that down in the first segment. That in the second segment, I want to talk about Carlos Mendoza and his bullpen management. Has he been costing the Mets games this year with the way he's managed to pen? We'll discuss that. That in the final segment today, I'll preview lies ahead as the Mets are set to take on the Washington Nationals again, but this series taking place at home. Before we get to any of that though, I'm your host Ryan Fickelstein, if you want to find any of my work, follow me on X at Fickelstein-Ryan, you can also find some of my writing at justbasebo.com where I work as the managing editor. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Take every moment more, this summer FanDuel took up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily. That's right, there's something for everyone every day all summer long, visit FanDuel.com to get started. We saw another good pitchers duel on Monday, Christian Scott, vs Mitch Keller, very reminiscent of a lot of games that we've seen throughout this road trip. Really good start by a Mets starter as well as one on the other side, Mets lineup doesn't break through, bullpen costs the team the game. Now, you look at how it all played out, and there was a lot of questions about how Carlos Mendoza manages bullpen, and we will get to that, but first things first, let's acknowledge that Christian Scott was brilliant in this start, retires the first nine batters that he faces, and in the third inning, he strikes out Jared Treolo, and I want to hold myself accountable the same way I'm going to try to hold Carlos Mendoza accountable. I made a mistake, I jinxed Christian Scott, I'm going to own it, I'm going to own it. Because in that a bad against Jared Treolo to end that third inning, he throws him eight straight fastballs, he swings and misses at two of the first three, continues to go to the well in the fastball, isn't putting him away, ends up throwing a front door sweeper to strike him out, and that pitch was absolutely disgusting. He stapled Treolo's feet to the ground by throwing a sweeper that started as back and broke in and was a strike on the inside corner, an absolutely perfect pitch, and I was foolish enough to send a text to Arm Lane after that strike gap. Now, for those of you who don't know who Arm Lane is, he is the co-founder of just baseball where I work, and he's a prospect analyst. He spends all of his time watching prospect videos, paying attention to everything going in the prospect world, his top 100 is as thorough as you're going to find, and he had Christian Scott on that top 100 before any other publication has him somewhere in the top 20s right now. He has been higher on Christian Scott than any analyst out there. So I was foolish enough to say, "Hey, man, Christian Scott, you might want to check it out." And in that text, I said, "I don't know how righties can possibly handle them. Lefties can still get to them, but righties with that sweeper, that gyro slider, he's just got so many weapons that he can go to that. They just don't have a chance." And the numbers backed that up, righties this year hitting 160 against Christian Scott, lefties 279. But I put it in the text that lefties can get to him. Fourth inning, what happens? Well, first things first, Andrew McCutchen has a great a bat against Christian Scott. And I was thinking to do that, like, can you imagine what that's like for Christian Scott to be pitching against Andrew McCutchen? It's kind of a crazy moment, I'm sure. He ends up losing him though, he gets a head on him, loses him, great at bat by McCutchen, he draws a walk. Brian Reynolds, first pitch swing flies out. So here comes O'Neill Cruz, a big hulking lefty. And Christian Scott battles him, ends up trying to get him out with a splitter, and that's the issue. There's just not an out pitch against lefties yet. The splitter is his best one, as well as just an elevated fastball, but that's something he's got to work on. He's got to work on continuing to refine that splitter so that he can have it as an effective out pitch against lefties or develop something else. But this was a really pivotal at bat, throws the splitter, gets up a little bit too much in the zone, and it wasn't even a horrible pitch. It was located on the outside part of the plate, but just a little bit too elevated, and O'Neill Cruz puts it in the seats for a two run home. Now, with that said, that was the only hit that Christian Scott allowed, and the walk to McCutchen was the only walk that he allowed. He was great beyond that after Cruz's home run, he retires the next seven batters that he faces. But this leads us back to Carlos Mendoza and how he managed the bullpen. Because Christian Scott, in the sixth inning, gets the first two outs. The second one was Andrew McCutchen, another deep at bat, it went in seven pitches. That pushed Christian Scott's pitch count to 77 on the day. He goes and he pulls them. Now everybody that is complaining that Christian Scott should have stayed in that game, I'm sure Carlos Mendoza shares a similar sentiment. I'm sure he would have loved nothing more than to keep his young pitcher on the hill to get through six. The problem, there is your top prospect on the mound. Top pitching prospect, but you can even make an argument at this point, he might be the top prospect in the system. Regardless, the organization is going to protect Christian Scott. He's thrown on four days rest for the first time in his career at the Big League level, only the second time all season. Only did it once in the mind of leagues right before he made his MLB debut. So this was a huge test for him, and he threw 99 pitches in his last start, and he's got to throw on regular rest the next time. So Christian Scott only had 75 pitches to give, and he got to 77. So you can't, as the manager unilaterally decide to keep him in the game, because what if Brian Reynolds is a 10 pitch at bat, and all of a sudden, the kid's pitch count goes to 87? The organization does not want that. So that's out of Mendoza's hands. Now the question then becomes, should he have gone to Eric Orsey, and we're going to talk about his other options in the next segment, but basically, you end up going to another rookie to make his NBA debut in a tie game, because Brandon Nimill had a two run homer in a prior inning there, where he had a 3-0 pitch, will swing it all the way, awesome to see him ambush there. And that tied the game he drove in Harrison Beta had a base hit. So it was all tied up at two to two. Here comes Eric Orsey to face Brian Reynolds and make his MLB debut, and he throws nothing but change ups in the set bat, and I actually want to put up the pitch chart to show that as much as you can complain about the results. Eric Orsey did not fail to execute against Brian Reynolds. He was throwing nothing but change ups, yes, and maybe he could have mixed in a fastball fine. But there's only one pitch in that entire bet, it's the fifth pitch that he threw that was not competitive. Everything else is located right where you would want a change up split, which is what Orsey throws, that's his specialty. And the pitch that he walks Brian Reynolds on, the 3-2 pitch, that actually is touching the zone. That was a missed call by the umpire granted, it's just barely touching the zone. It's borderline, it could have gone either way. But if Orsey gets that call, it's a strikeout, he's in the dugout, and no one is complaining about what Carlos Mendoza decided to do, and instead we're all talking about, wow, Eric Orsey, huh? Probably goes back out the next thing, maybe he gets amounts, and all of a sudden the entire narrative is different, but it's a walk. Then O'Neill Cruz comes up, Cruz has been locked in throughout the series. He has a great a bat, works a full count, hits a well-struck single on a fastball that was dotted up and away, wasn't even a bad pitch. Telez comes up, he hits a Q-shot on a shifted infield, where Marc Vientos makes a diving stop where a shortstop should be in a traditional infield, and has to get up, try to make a quick throw, ends up just being a step too late, Telez able to reach and run scores. But, if Reynolds is run up on that one pitch, three-two pitch, or if Ryan's less stumbles out of the box than we saw Jeff McNeil and others in this game struggling to get out of the box, then that's getting out of the inning. But instead, they don't, Adrian Houser comes on and pitches with runners on out of the bullpen for the first time all year. He gives up a double, he throws a wild pitch, gives up a home run, and 72 pirates. The Carl Mendoza make a mistake, that's what we're going to be talking about in the next segment. I'm going to go through this entire road trip, game by game, and check out Mendoza's bullpen management. So, we can decide if this is a problem that the Mets have moving forward, that they have a manager, that's a rookie, that just doesn't know what he has in that bullpen and is making all the wrong calls. I'm going to go through a game by game. But ultimately, I think we have to, at some point, take a minute to step back and acknowledge that there's another team on the other side who played a great series. The fact that the Mets even got two games in this series feels like a good break to me because it easily could have gone the other way. The Pirates were locked in from teeing off on Severino to, you know, having great arms come out of the bullpen at times to getting really good starting pitching, playing good defense. I mean, grinding out at bats, they had a very good series. It might be a team that's below 500, but they didn't play like it in this series. And in this game, they're best hitters, O'Neill Cruz, Brian Reynolds, Andrew McCutchen. They all had really good at bats to put the Mets in some bad spots. And then ultimately, yes, Adrian Houser has a blow up and the bullpen looks awful and always he didn't get the outs. But I look at what the Mets had here and how it all checked out and I don't really blame Mendoza for it. I want to talk about that a little bit more in the next segment. What else could he have done in this spot and also throughout the rest of this road trip? Did he make any other mistakes? So we're going to go through all of it. First though, a word from our sponsors. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandool. I love sports. I love them so much. 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You could put it toward some memorabilia you've had your eye on or treat yourself to a premium sports network you earn and discover doubles. See terms at discover.com slash credit card. If you're an everyday listener to this show, make sure you become a locked on Met Insider. This is our text and service where you get updates from me. Anytime some news breaks on the Mets cast the questions anytime and you get these starting lineup graphics sent to your phone every day. If you want to be locked on Met Insider, the final link in the epsilon description with a subtext.com that's locked on Metz. Alright, so when Carlos Mendoza goes to the bullpen, what are his options when he pulls Christian Scott? Because again, that decision was not his. So you can complain all you want that Christian Scott should be allowed to stay in that game and get the final out. Blaine David starts in the front office. That's not Mendoza's fault. So who should you have gone to? Would you have preferred he went to Jake Deakman because Jake Deakman sucks. I'm just going to call it as I say it at this point. Not good. He could have gone to Jose Budo potentially, but he pitched more recently to the Adrian Houser did. I think the plan was always to have Houser carry those innings after Christian Scott leading up to Adam Adavino by imagine he was holding for a save potentially. Those were his options for the day. Budo, Houser, Adavino, and Orzi in Deakman, those are the guys you can go to. Now Orzi has pitched much better in the minor leagues against lefties than righties because he has that change up, that split, whatever you want to call it. It's a good weapon against left handed hitting. So Orzi is right now in this bullpen, a guy that the Mets are viewing as a lefty specialist of source and you had lefties coming up. You say, Oh, you can't pitch him in a two to two game, but that's playing the results because there's nobody on the bases. There's two outs. Let's go in there and get it out. I don't think that's the worst situation to put Orzi in. Would it be better to put him in the next inning? If Christian Scott got the final out and he got Brian Reynolds out the next inning, he's got to face O'Neill Cruz and Rowdy Teles. Are you just not pitching them in the game at all? Can you have no Garrett, no Nunez, no Diaz? It changes things in that bullpen. You have to make tougher decisions. You just don't have as many cards you can go to. So I don't think that he did anything wrong in this game to cost the Mets. No, did Orzi make some mistakes? I guess, but it really was just good at bats from the pirates. Did Houser make mistakes? Yeah, plenty of them. But he's not used to coming in with runners on as a starting pitcher. So, and you say, oh, well, Houser's been great in the bullpen throughout his career. That's overstated a little bit. I talked about this when he actually made the change. Yes, he has been very good in the bullpen throughout his career, but he has been primarily a starting pitcher for the last like four years prior to this. So to say that he has an experience to rely on, I wouldn't even go that far. So to say, oh, you should have just gone straight to Houser. You're playing the results because Adrian Houser's the one that gave up all the hard hit balls. Brian Reynolds might have taken him deep. Only a cruise might have taken him deep. I don't think the Mendoza made a mistake on Monday. So let's go throughout the road trip. On Sunday, did he make a mistake? Sean Manai was dealing at 89 pitches through six innings. He goes to read Garrett in the seventh. Now, Garrett got through it, but it was dicey. Could you have instead pitch Manai in that seventh? Sure. This year, though, facing a line up the first time through, batters hitting 212 against Sean Manai. Third time through, 200, third time through, 281. You're playing the numbers and the fact that Manai typically is going to get worse as the game goes on, particularly when the line up is seeing him a third time. And Garrett actually got through that inning still. And then ultimately, they make the decision with two out, the poll noon, yes, to bring it in. And when Diaz walks about or gives up a soft hit single that blows the game, blows the save. But luckily, then that's battle back. And Diaz holds on to get the win, not to say, but to hold on to a one run lead than I did. Did Mendoza make a mistake there? Yeah. I would have liked to see Nunez stay on and get the final out, but he got Edwin Diaz hot. And as he said after the game, I'm going to my closer there. It's a four out save opportunity. And that's what he should be doing in some respects because it's Edwin Diaz's responsibility to get that out. He's a hundred million dollar closer. That's his job to go in there, to put out that fire and to get the final three outs of the game. And he actually got the final three outs of the game holding a one run lead. So that part of it worked out. I'm not blaming Mendoza or anything that happened on Sunday. The mess won the game Saturday, David Peterson, four and a third to Jose Buddha for five outs to Garrett to Nunez to Diaz. Almost looked at the Mets have a good bullpen for a day. It really did. Like, Oh, wow. It worked. But we got you through the middle innings and then you had a seven eight nine to go two for the first time all year. No complaints there, right? The Mets got to win Friday, Luis Severino blew a two nothing lead. Then he gives up two more runs in the fifth. So it's four to two. He tried to get him through seven. He gets to the sixth. No problem. Seventh inning. The fly ball, the Harrison beta should have caught turns into a double, gives up another hit, loads the bases and then they go to Jake Deacon and a four to two game at the bases loaded nobody out. Now that did not work out for the Mets. But I think in that spot, what is Carlos Mendoza deciding? He's looking at Severino, who's spiraling at 91 pitches and let's get him out of there. Okay. Were you going to burn one of those pitchers that you end up using on Saturday, Garrett Nunez Diaz. Well, actually they didn't have Diaz available or would have been Garrett or Nunez. I don't even think Nunez was on the table based on how you'd pitch before that. You don't have a lot of options in a short handed bullpen and Jake Deacon is the lefty that you can go to and hopefully he pitches out of it. He gives up a grand slam and ended up being awful. But you blame Deacon there. I don't necessarily blame Mendoza because it was a losing battle anyway. Four to two bases loaded nobody out. You're probably going to lose that game throughout Deacon. Who cares? You blow the game. It ends up looking awful, but I don't blame him for that. All right. So that that covers the series against the Pirates. First game. If Severino pitches better, you might win final game of the series. Yes, it didn't work, but the Mets had a short handed bullpen and they didn't score really any runs outside of Nimmo's home run. They did not score. And Mitch Keller got through eight innings. He looked unbelievable. Great starting pitching against the Mets throughout this entire road trip. So yeah, no complaints. All right. So now you go to Thursday. This was the game where Jesse Wicker hit the late home run against Adrian Houser. Houser, Quintana, deal is through seven, they go to Hauser in the eighth. He gives up a home run. Well, you had a short handed bullpen. Hauser has been great throughout the season. Jesse Wicker came in as a pinch hitter and you could say, oh, you should have held up four fingers. I talked about this on that edition of the show on Friday morning where I talked about how you just don't put the game when you run on base with one out. You just don't do it. That's just a baseball no-no and throughout his career, Wicker had owned Adrian Houser. In 77% of the played appearance between those two guys, a home run was not hit. Now, on the side of that 23% of the time, it was, but you're playing the odds that at least he can hopefully keep the ball in the yard. He's been throwing the ball really well lately and it didn't work out and maybe that's something we got to monitor. Adrian Houser, a couple of rough outings in a row, but I'm not blaming Dozer for that. I'm just not. Wednesday, Christian Scott on the mound, Matt's bottom five runs. He gives up a run on the fifth, sixth inning, they're trying to push Christian Scott because they had him for a full amount of pitches. Gets the first out, gives up two hits, gets a pop out, then he has to face the least Garcia. He ends up giving up a crushing three run home. I want to circle back to that game because I want to look at the first game of the series and the second game to then really analyze what the Mets could have done differently in that game where Christian Scott ultimately starts what ends up becoming later at bullpen meltdown of the Mets lose. First game of the series, the Mets won an extras. Danielle Nunez, they need to get five outs in that game or three 23 pitches. Reed Garrett pitching that game as well. Tyler Jay could not hold on for the Mets because they scored six runs in extra innings. He's starting to yoke a ton, so that forced Garrett into the game. Second game of the series. Let's get a good start from Manaya, Josebudo pitches two innings that takes the Mets to extras. They grab a big lead and Nunez had already gotten up because they didn't know they were going to have as big of a lead as they did. Once you get Nunez hot, a day after he had thrown 23 pitches, you sort of have to throw him otherwise he's going to be burned anyway. Either you take the opportunity to pitch him or you throw somebody else out there to start the extra inning. Maybe it would have been Budo, right? You could have said, all right. You should have just kept Budo in the game. Well, if Budo ends up giving up three hits and it gets dicey, you want to go to Nunez anyway. Guess what? Now you got to get him hot again. That's just not a great way to manage. You got to be careful with Nunez who's already pushing up against, I think, a career high innings pitch. I mean, I have to look at that, but he's throwing a lot of innings. I think that his career high previously is like 60 innings, so you got to be careful with him. So in that spot, you get him hot, you got to use him and it gets them a victory. Great. So now you circle back to the decision on Christian Scott. You don't have Nunez to pitch. You don't have Budo to pitch. So when you look at the options they had in that game, they had him out of Eno, okay? And he gets the final out of the sixth inning. The seventh, he gets the first two outs and then they pull him for Jake Deakman. This was the one time where I had a gripe with Carlos Mendoza. And I talked about it on the show because CJ Abrams has slightly better splits against left-handed pitch and hitting 330 on the air at the time, compared to act like 280 against right. The big difference though is a little more power left on right than left on left. So I think what Mendoza's thinking in that spot is you bring in Deakman, he has a better chance of keeping the ball in the yard in a close game than out of Eno does, right? One run game. You don't want Abrams at home run. The guy you're scared of in that line, he's their best player, he's their all-star. Well, the reason why I had a problem with it is because Lane Thomas is standing on deck and there's a 300-point discrepancy between his OPS first right-handed pitching and left-handed pitching. He crushes lefties, not even really a good hitter against righties. I were to get Adam on Eno in there, pitch carefully to Abrams and I get the nervous, or the apprehension to do that because Adavino can absolutely serve up a home run ball to Abrams. But even in that moment, it's a tie game. Instead, he goes to Deakman, he walks Abrams, gives up a double to Thomas, that blows the lead. Then James Wood gets a base hit and that scores a run. I would have saved Deakman to face Wood and it would have mattered because Deakman still is not effective. So the Mets haven't jaked Deakman problem for sure, but do they have a Carlos Mendoza problem? Not necessarily. And then they go to tie-adcock in the following and he gives up a home run as well, but you were already losing at that point. So why burn, read, get it potentially. And remember, they were still pitching short without Edwin Diaz. Ultimately, when you look at this road trip, there was great pitching against the Mets throughout the road trip. Mackenzie Gore, DJ Herrs, Jake Ervin was lights out. Mitch Keller in this final game, Paul Skins, really tough pitching going up against the Mets. Now, that's not an excuse, but this lineup has been clicking for a while. JD Martinez, dealing with an ankle injury, Harrison Bader crashing into a wall. You don't have Sterling Marte. You're rolling out a lap that's not quite as good as the one that has been killing all pitchers throughout the month of June, leading into July here. A 4-4 road trip is not the worst thing in the world. And when it comes to Carlos Mendoza, why there has been some games like that one where he goes to Deekman instead of keeping out of you in there where I can nitpick and say, "Yeah, I don't like what he did in this particular instance." Do I think that he is bad at managing the bullpen? I think that a bad bullpen will make you look bad at managing the bullpen more than I think he has an issue. I think the Mets bullpen problem is more about the arms that are in the bullpen than how he's managing them while there has been some questionable decisions as I just went through an eight-game road trip. There was only one that I think was inexcusable. But even then, I was still able to find some reasons for why he made the decision that he did. So I don't think the Mets have a Carlos Mendoza problem. I think he has kept his team locked in all season long despite a ton of peaks and valleys. And I think he's a pretty damn good rookie manager. So for all of you who hate the way he's managing the bullpen and want to blame him, it's easy to blame the manager when the bullpen doesn't perform, but I don't think it is his fault. Now I want to look ahead to the rest of this week. Two series at home to close out the first half, came the Mets, and on a really positive note, I'll pre-view lies ahead in just a minute, first though, a word from our sponsors. Today's episode is 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. You watch the winnings roll in, get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the prize picks community today. You can now win up to a hundred times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks. You can turn $10 into $1,000. If you're looking for promotions, prize picks has got you covered every week. It's Tuesday from lowering select player stat projections on Tuesday to help your line of pit. That's something you can take advantage of. Or getting your entry fees back if you have a losing lineup on Fridays. 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So for 14 years of experience and an A+ rating by the Better Business Bureau, Tax Network USA has saved their clients over $1 billion in tax debt. Whether you owe taxes, have complicated matters that require tax planning, or finally hit that parlay this season in need help correctly filing, go call 1-800-549-1000 or visit tnusa.com/lockedon. You can also just see the link in the episode description below. If you want to stay up to date with all the latest in the world of sports, make sure you check out Lockedon Sports today streaming 24/7 on YouTube. So the Mets now have a six-game home stand to close out the first half, three games against the Nationals, three against the Colorado Rockies. The Nationals since we last saw them last week, they played the Cardinals in a four-game set. They lost three of four games. They are now on the season 42 and 49, clinging to playoff hopes. The Mets are 44 and 45. This is their opportunity to really put the Nationals away. Also, if you think about the season series, what do you play these things? Is it 13 games against your division rival? Pretty sure? Don't quote me on that. It's either 13 or 14. I think it's 13 though. And so far, the Mets have won five. So you win a series, you win the season series. There's still one more series later in the season against the Nets. Big, big match up here and you have a lot of rematches. First one, rematch of Independence Day, 4th of July, Jake Ervin versus Jose Quintana. Ervin absolutely carded with the Mets, but that was an early morning game. Quintana carded with the Nationals that day. I bet you both of these pitches turn in starts that are not nearly as good this time around. And hopefully the Mets lineup can click and really start to score runs the way they had earlier in June and even earlier this month against the Yankees and the Astros briefly. For that, this game, when it comes to the Mets bullpen, you should have Nunez Garrett and Diaz ready. They each got a day of rest, although I don't know if they're going to go to all of those guys, maybe save one of them if possible. Jose Budo should also be rested. So if I had to guess the strategy going in, it's probably get five or six out of Quintana. If you're lucky, you get seven again, great. Go to Jose Budo for those middle innings. And then depending on the score, you got Adam Montevino rested or you got your high leverage relievers and Nunez Garrett and Diaz to hopefully lock down a late lead if you have one. I think they'll stay away from Adrian Houser, but imagine unless the score is not in their favor, they probably stay away from Deacon and Orzy as well. I think the only way he gets into the game is if it's lopsided in either direction. Assuming that he stays on the roster, but I don't think they're going to drop him down just yet. I think they want to see him again and see what he can do again. If you look at the pitches that he made, he was not failing on execution to a massive degree. It's tough to go out there. He's got an infinity ERA right now, has now recorded in and out yet. I think he's better than that, obviously, but I thought he actually threw the ball fairly well considering all the circumstances as I already alluded to earlier in the show. In the next game, Patrick Corbin versus Luis Severino, this is another matchup. We saw this at the beginning of this great run of baseball for the Mets when they completed their sweep against the Nationals in D.C. and Corbin got destroyed by Louis Torens and the rest of the Mets, hopefully that can happen again. He is not a very good starting pitcher and Severino needs to bounce back after a rough start against Pittsburgh and he had a great start against the Nationals when those two guys squared off last time. Final game in this series. Mackenzie Gore versus David Peterson, another rematch. We just saw this pitching match up the last time these two teams squared off. Peterson got the edge because Mackenzie Gore was not allowed to face Mark Vientos and I think it was Derek Law, regardless, that was where the Mets put up a three spot that ended in the sixth to give Peterson a lead. Peterson pitched into the seventh inning before they went to Jose Budo and they ultimately won that game in extras. Now Gore's a really good pitcher, tough matchup for a rubber match, so hopefully the Mets handled their business early, take the first two games of this series, make it a little bit easier on themselves when they're going up against maybe one of the Nationals' aces because it's hard for me to look at Jake Irvin as anything but there is the way he pitched against the Mets last time, tough series with those two guys going, really is. Hopefully the Mets can do the best they can to get a serious victory and then you got the Rockies coming into town and that's a series that you got to really do some damage in. Hopefully the Mets can take all of those games potentially, but even just winning both of these series. If you take four of six for the rest of this week here, you're going to go into the All-Star break one game over 500, seeing in a pretty good position to at least not sell at the deadline, but potentially conservatively buy, really just hopefully help this bullpen out. I think that's all the Mets have to do. Yeah, it'd be nice to get another bat in the lineup, but realistically with where they're at on this team, I don't think they have to do anything but sure up the pin. So we'll see how the rest of this week works out and what's going to happen before the trade deadline. I'll be with you. They're out the way. So one last note that I wanted to mention before the show closes here. I loved Brandon Nemo's home run and more than just hitting the home run, the way that he came into the dugout, the sly smile on his face when he held the OMG sign, the way he comes in, high fives his teammates, hugs Francisco Lindor. I don't know. There's part of me that believes there is a chip on the shoulder of those two guys, Lindor and Nemo, the fact that neither of them was selected to the All-Star game. And with Peter Lanzo, it's sort of weird. Obviously, I talked about this a lot on yesterday's show, but the fact that he was selected over those guys, not that I think that's going to cause any riff in the clubhouse. I think they're too locked in to do that, but Lindor and Nemo have become the real leaders of this team. I think it's great that they have a chip on their shoulder through this All-Star thing. I think he can kind of work in the Mets favor. And with Peter Lanzo, maybe there's something to prove here. Prove you are an All-Star. Have a great finish to this season. So while I was very frustrated about those results, I think there is a world where the fact that the All-Star broke the way it did, it might end up playing to the Mets favor with their three most important players. That's going to be all for the show today, though. Appreciate all of you who tuned in. If you are watching on YouTube, do me a favor. Hit that subscribe button. Want to get to 9,000 subs by the All-Star break. There's a week left here or within 100 subscribers. So I appreciate all of you who continue to subscribe. If you're listening on the audio side, follow rate review, wherever you get your podcast. You want to follow me on social you can do so I have Finkelstein, Ryan, follow the show at Lockdown Mets. Thank you for making Lockdown Mets your first listen to your first watch every day. Now for your second watch, head over to YouTube and check out the first ever 24/7 streaming channel that covers everything. 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