The New York Mets drafted Carson Benge in the first round last month. Will he immediately become a top five prospect in the Mets system?
Host Ryan Finkelstein breaks down his midseason update of the Mets top 10 prospects.
Also, a recap of the Mets loss on Friday night and all the latest from the Wild Card race.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. [MUSIC PLAYING] Here there, that's what cooked when you order juicy beef sounds like. The steaming hug of two slices of melted cheese, the crunch of tangy pickles and sliced onions, all topped with a toasted sesame seed bun. That's the sound of a McDonald's quarter bounder with cheese. First beef had participating US McDonald's. It excludes Alaska Hawaiian US territories. Walmart Plus members save on meeting up with friends. Save on having them over for dinner with free delivery with no hidden fees or markups. That's groceries plus napkins plus that vegetable chopper to make things a bit easier. Plus, members save on gas to go meet them in their neck of the woods. Plus, when you're ready for the ultimate sign of friendship, start a show together with your included Paramount Plus subscription. Walmart Plus members save on this plus so much more. Start a 30-day free trial at walmartplus.com. Paramount Plus is central plan only. Separate registration required. See Walmart Plus terms and conditions. With both the MLB draft and the trade deadline in the rearview mirror on today's show, I will break down my updated list of the top 10 prospects in the Mets farm system. You are locked on Mets, your daily New York Mets podcast. Part of the locked on podcast network, your team, every day. Hello to all you amazing Mets fans. You're listening to locked on Mets. Part of the locked on podcast network, your team, every day. Thank you for making locked on Mets your first listen every day. Locked on Mets is free and available on all platforms, including YouTube. On the show today, we will talk about the Mets loss of the Mariners, but I'm saving that for the final segment. In the first two segments, I'm gonna go through the top 10 prospects in the Mets system. My new updated list following the draft and everything we've seen up to this point in the season. I'll discuss the first six prospects in the first segment. Then I get into a seven through 10, as well as some honorable mentions in the second segment and like I mentioned. Final segment, I'll do the game recap. Also, some news and notes, discussing the rest of the teams in the analog car race, as well as some injury updates on the Mets. Before we get into any of it, 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 justbaseball.com, where I work as the managing editor. Now, I've been sitting on my updated top 10 prospect list for a couple of weeks now. As I reworked the list after the Mets drafted Carson Benj in the first round, little spoiler, he's gonna be featured somewhere on this list. And so I went through, looked at my top 10 from prior to this season, adjusted it from what we've seen so far this year and added Benj on there. I thought today was a good day to finally unveil it, as I want to wait two segments to talk about the Mets losing to the Mariners. So we'll get to the game recap and the news items of the day in the final segment. Let's start talking prospects. And first things first, this was my top 10 list heading into the season. I had Jet Williams as the number one prospect in the Mets system, Drew Gilbert number two, Luis and Hill Acuna number three, Christian Scott number four, Ryan Clifford number five, Ronnie Mauricio number six, belaid Tidwell number seven, Mike Vassel number eight, Colin Halk number nine, Kevin Parrata was my 10th prospect. And I really hate myself for putting them on that list because I felt peer pressure to do it. 'Cause a lot of Mets fans still love Kevin Parrata as a prospect. And I don't know why, I've been talking down on the guy for a couple of years and yet I just couldn't hold him off the list. And I remember at the time there was a couple names that I thought I might want to put on there. Alex Ramirez was one glad didn't do that. I was also looking at Brandon Sprote down at a really good addition in retrospect. And I will note going into the season at just baseball, the site that I write for, we had Brandon Sprote at number five. Arm Leighton was ahead of the curve on Brandon Sprote. He was dead on because now he's got him all the way at number 18 on his top 100 prospect list of all the prospects in baseball, the number four pitching prospect in the game right now. And that leads me to my new number one, Brandon Sprote, welcome to the top 10. And you are a top the list. I believe he is the top prospect in the Mets system right now. Now granted, I know a lot of you could say, well, Jet Williams, Drew Gilbert, you're really just knocking those guys 'cause of injury. And that's not why I'm knocking them. To me, it's more of putting Sprote where he belongs because I think he might have the most upside of any prospect in this system. This guy could be a perennial all star. If you had to ask me of any prospect on this list, who is the most likely to win a rookie of the year? It's Brandon Sprote. Do I think Jet Williams could be a great player? Absolutely. I think he can be a starting second baseman or center fielder for the Mets for a long time. And that's the same thing about Gilbert as a guy who could start in the outfield. Are either of those guys going to be all stars? I'm not entirely sure. Are either of those guys going to finish top three in rookie of the year? I don't know. Brandon Sprote is a guy who I can see winning the rookie of the year next year or at least finishing close to the top of those votes. He's got unbelievable stuff. This year, even after his clunker in AAA, combining what he's done at all three levels, high AA AA AAA. He's got a 2-5-3 ERA, 92 and a third innings pitch with 114 strikeouts. Guy who can throw over 100 miles per hour. He's got a disgusting change up and he has a slider he can mix in as well, does have a really rounded out pitch mix where he can go with the fastball, the change up, the breakers. He's got it all, but particularly fast ball change up as two plus plus pitches. This guy has frontline potential. He could be your number two starter next year if everything broke right. That's putting a lot on him. But this is one of those guys who could come up and hit the ground running whenever he does get that chance to make his debut. I've talked a lot about Brandon Sprote this year. I've mentioned the possibility of him pitching out of the bullpen. We'll see exactly when he makes that debut, but Brandon Sprote in my eyes is the top prospect in the med system. And I wouldn't say it's not close because Jet Williams is a really good prospect, but to me Sprote has just had this rapid ascension to the top of this system and deserves that recognition. Now I do still have Jet Williams at number two. And Drew Gilbert's number three for me. I thought long and hard about moving Ryan Clifford into the top three and maybe pushing Drew Gilbert out of it, but that didn't feel fair to me because Ryan Clifford, while he's had a very good season. Okay, especially in double A, you know, in 64 games in double A, batting average, you're not going to be blown away to 17, but he's got a 350 on base, 470 slugs. That's an 820 OPS, 13 home runs in those 64 games with 16 doubles. He's splitting time between first base, right and left field. Hopefully he can be an outfielder when he gets to the big leagues. That certainly helps a prospect's value instead of being stuck at first base, but he has a chance to be a pretty good defender at first. And then in the outfield, we'll see if he can translate but the arm is an asset that he has. This guy has the most power in the med system. So I got him at number four. And again, in the middle, I got Jet Williams and Drew Gilbert. Guys that we haven't seen play this year. Drew Gilbert, we finally are. He is healthy now off this hamstring strain. He's playing in AAA, doing pretty well. I mean, it's such a small sample size. We can't really read too much into it, but at least Gilbert's back on the field. And by the end of the year, we'll have a much better idea of where to put him. So when I do an end of the season update, maybe I will slide Clifford above him if Drew Gilbert hasn't put up very good numbers in his will be about two months of playing time in AAA. Jet Williams, I don't know if we're going to see him this year or not, he is swinging a bat again after the wrist surgery. So that's good. I think he's going to be the star that the Mets are going to send to the Arizona Fall League. And he could have a great Arizona Fall League and maybe put himself in position to try to win a job out of camp next year. I think that's pretty unlikely since he has missed an entire season of development and getting a chance to play on the upper levels in the Maya leagues. But this was a guy that skyrocketed through the system last year and was the top prospect going into the season. So I'm not going to move Williams any lower than number two. Drew Gilbert, I had it three for now. Clifford could flip frog with him. Leap frog with him, jeez. I could flip those two, whatever. At the end of the year, depending on what we see from Gilbert's on the stretch. And also, Orion Clifford closes out his season because he still has some time here to put up even better numbers than he has already in AA. All right, number five and number six. I am putting Carson Benj at number five. So yes, that means Luis and Hella Cunha has dropped out of the top five for me. I'll get to that in a minute. The reason why I put Benj at number five before playing a game, is because this guy has five-tool potential. Talking about someone that could have been a pitcher in the big leagues, but he's going to focus just on outfield, which honestly is a little bit of a boost to me, that he's just starting, not worrying about the pitching, just focusing on what is his path in big leagues, which is playing in the outfield. And he has a chance to be a center fielder in the big leagues. And again, they put that five-tool label on him. We got to see what happens in games, and I talked about this the other day. He's got that new car smell. He just got drafted. So it's a lot easier to be high on a guy before he plays. It's like Colin Hout this year, was a top 10 prospect for, I think, most publications. And now we're watching him play in professional baseball, and it hasn't been good. We'll talk about him in the just missed segment, and I know coming up here, he's not in my top 10 anymore, because he hasn't played well. If Carson Benj ends up playing bad down the stretch this year, I wouldn't read too much into it. But if next year Benj still isn't hitting it, he's going to fall off of this list or drop on this list. But I think there's a chance that Carson Benj, by the end of next season, could be a top this list. So he's got ridiculous potential. And the reason why I had him at number five over Luis and Elle Cunha, it's because Cunha has not had a good season in AAA. Now I know at times you might look at bagging average, but God, he's doing fine. And he's got the chance to really be a valued player when it comes to his speed and defense. But we've got a pretty large sample size of this season, and in a league that is pretty hit or friendly, Luis and Elle Cunha has a 683 OPS. And that is 84th out of 97 qualified hitters in the international league. So he has been statistically on just OPS alone, one of the worst hitters in that league. Now, I will say this for Ocunha. The difference between double and triple, I've talked about this before, AAA is really becoming this taxi squad, right? So a lot of guys who are in the big leagues or had big leagues fair, it's going up and down. So for a hitter, what you're going to see that's different compared to double-edged pitching is double-edged guys are going to pitch to their strengths. In AAA, guys are going to pitch to your weaknesses. There's more game plan. And so for Ocunha, he's really starting to deal with the league adjusting to him. As he makes adjustments, he's in the leagues going to adjust back. And he hasn't been able to be honest, sustained good run of baseball throughout the year. So I look at Ocunha and I said, "Well, he's still a good prospect. "He's a high-probability big-leaguer." So that means that alone, we'll tell you that he's still a top-ten prospect in this system because of nothing else. This guy's going to be a utility player for you, guy that can play literally any position on the field who can bring you great speed to your bench. I believe Ocunha will play a role in the Mets at some point in the next five years. And probably as soon as next season, you'll see him get some big league time and he'll play all over and he could add some value. And I wouldn't just say, "Oh, he's never going to hit." Because he has a track record last year and other years in the minor leagues where he has it. And he can work on some things this offseason, come back a new hitter, and he might look completely different next year. But from what we've seen this year, I can't put him over the other five prospects that I have ahead of him on this list. Brandon Sproge at Williams Drew Gilbert, Ryan Clifford, and even a Carson bench. Because Carson bench I look at right now and think there's a lot more ceiling that he can tap into. Where Ocunha, I just don't know what that ceiling's going to be. I honestly think that he might just be a really good bench piece that can still be a quality big leaguer, but maybe not an everyday starting second baseman who's got the type of potential that his name unfortunately suggests. Because when you're older brothers than MVP, people are going to think a little bit higher of you. And they're going to expect more from you. Not to say he can never live up to any of those expectations. He could be a good starter in the big leagues. But I think any of the other five names, I can envision a world where they're an all-star. And I think I'm past that point with Ocunha where I would expect that. Now there's four more prospects I have on this list, as well as some just miss. So we're going to get to all those names in just a minute. First though, a word from our sponsors. 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Now before I get into my final four prospects from this top 10, I do wanna acknowledge that Christian Scott was not included on this list as he's gonna get enough service time this year to no longer be considered a prospect. And the same thing goes for Ronnie Mauricio who's on the MLB injured list and is racking up service time as well as an MLB salary this season. So those two guys, I've graduated off the top 10. That's why they weren't included. Otherwise they would absolutely be on this list. All right, number seven, I got Blade Tidwell. Now Tidwell pitched to a 2-4-1 ERA in double A this year, 37 and a third innings pitch. He got an aggressive promotion up to triple A and he struggled there. He's a 5-6-3 ERA in 11 games and 48 innings pitched with 41 strikeouts, a 1-5-2 whip. For me, I really debated on seven and eight. Another eight is Jonah Tong. And at first I had Tong ahead of him, but ultimately I decided to put Blade above Jonah Tong because he is being tasked with a really tough league to pitch in, in triple A. And we've seen other top pitching prospects like Mike Vassil struggle. We have seen Dom Ham will struggle this year. Brandon Sproat is for a start, struggled. The only guy who hasn't struggled at all in triple A is Christian Scott, only one. So you got to give Tidwell a little bit of a pass and also recognize how good he was in double A. And for where he's at in his development, if he had spent this entire year in double A and pitched to a 2-4-1 ERA, he'd probably even higher on this list. So just because he got that aggressive promotion, I didn't want to ding him too much. Where Jonah Tong has been very good and he was unbelievable in low A where he had 36 strikeouts and a little over 18 and his pitch gets an aggressive promotion as well up to high A. And there he has pitched well, but he hasn't pitched to that same extreme that he didn't low A. So while Tong has been very good, he hasn't been so far enough elite that I put him over Tidwell at this stage. Although I look at those arms very similar at this point. I think there are two really solid pitching prospects that have some high hopes on being able to be quality big league starters for multiple years. And honestly, with pitching prospects, if you can say that, that means they're a really good prospect. Because as much as you want to envision, "Oh, Mike Vassol definitely be at a big league rotation." Or Dom Hamel, well, some of these guys are never gonna get to that point. They're gonna end up being relievers or swing men. And they're never gonna get that full chance to be a big league starter. When someone analyzes prospects and they tell you a guy has number three potential, which is what Arm Lane put on Christian Scott prior to this season. I know a lot of Mets fans who read our top 100 and read our top 15 prospect list, they saw that note about him being a number three prospect or number three starting pitcher at the big league level and thought, "Man, how is he the best pitching prospect in the Mets system?" And he's only got the ceiling of a number three. The number three starter is really good. A number three starter is a guy that is able to take the ball your fifth day and pitch to a sub four ERA, which is very hard to do in the big leagues. Frontline potential is reserved for the elitist of pitching prospects like a Brandon Spro. So I just wanted to break all that down. Again, no getting to the rankings. Tidwell at seven, Tongue at eight. And then my last two to round out this list, I could have gone in a bunch of directions. I ultimately went with Jeremy Rodriguez at number nine. Rodriguez is playing in the complex league this year. He's got a 282 average, 355 on base, 400 slug. Only three home runs. He has 17 stolen bases, but he has been caught eight times. He's been playing primarily shortstop, but also has gone time at second base, third base. He's 18 years old. Jeremy Rodriguez has had a solid season. He hasn't completely wowed in the complex league, but he's definitely held his own. And for your first year state side, that's a pretty strong start to your real career trying to advance through the farm system. So Jeremy Rodriguez and a lot of potential. It's the guy they got in the time of fam trade. I got him at number nine. Number 10 is Jesus Baez, who I thought about putting at nine, 'cause he said the better season. He showcased a lot of power in St. Lucie, where he hit 10 home runs at 14 doubles and 64 games played with a 782 OPS. Got called up to high A at 19 years old and was holding his own in eight games, had a 780 OPS there as well. This guy was a shortstop, still has played there this year, but also played a lot of third base and second base. So it can play all over the midfield. Unfortunately, he had a knee injury that required surgery and he's done for the year. But Jesus Baez bounced back after a really rough first year on the complex last year and showcased the power that made him such an exciting prospect in the Met System. When he had to get with seven home runs in the Dominican Summer League, and it's a rare to see teenagers hit that many home runs. So now to see him still a teenager at 19 popping 11 home runs between low A and high A. Really, really exciting stuff for him. I think he is probably not consensus top 10 prospect in the system. I think a lot of people have some other names at the back end of their list, but he's now definitely a consensus top 20 guy and someone that I think a lot of eyes will be on going into next season. Now notable omissions. I got Mike Vassel and Dom Hamill. We've talked about them enough this year. Right now they're starting depth in Triple A. Vassel has had a much better run lately. Dom Hamill has certainly figured it out yet. Vassel, you could have absolutely managed argument to put him in the top 10. I just don't think he has a very high ceiling. Noel McLean, another notable pitcher, former two-way guy. Now he's focusing just on pitching. Hasn't gotten great results at double A, but he's super raw. So I'm excited to see what a full off season of development can do for him. And I wouldn't be surprised if he repeats double A next year, but has a lot better results. This guy has really good stuff. If nothing else, he could be a really nice reliever from the Mets in a couple of years. All right, now I'm the hitters, Colin Hauck. Told you I took him off the top 10. He's got a 614 OPS in St. Lucie. Now it's his first professional season. But I give him some time. He can absolutely get right back on this list next year. But it's been a rough debut year for Colin Hauck, who of course was the Mets first-round pick last year. Jacob Rimer, I almost considered putting on this list because I loved him going into the season. You can go back and listen to some of my breakdowns prior to the year. I was really high on Jacob Rimer. Unfortunately, he had a really bad hamstring injury and was out for pretty much all the year. He's played 16 games so far. And he just got to his level that he should have been at to start the year, which is Brooklyn. So he played some games in the complex league, played some in St. Lucie. Now he's up in Brooklyn. He has hit very well at each of those stops so far. Again, it's only 16 games played. He has a 786 OPS overall. I think he has a 333 average in Brooklyn when I checked. That's a five game. So what can we take from it? Jacob Rimer might knock off Baez or Rodriguez if he has a great close to the season for me. When I do my end of the year update, like I said, I was really high on him. Unfortunately, he's just another one of the Mets top prospects that just has missed this year due to injury. The last two notable ones that I wanted to mention, we could go even longer and longer on this list if we wanted to. But I wanted to talk about the high price signings that the Mets have made in the international market. The Catchers they've signed the last couple of years. The first one, Giovanni Rodriguez, who got a huge bonus from the Mets this past off season. He was at the top signing overall. I mean, it was, I think it was over $3 million. He got a ton. It was a huge amount of the Mets pool went to this one catching prospect, Giovanni Rodriguez. He has to be mentioned, but for me, I'm not gonna put him on a top 10 list just yet when he is still in the Dominican Summer League and he hasn't put up great numbers. I'm not gonna react to it because if I did, like I had previously to Diverson Gutierrez last year, then I might be looking foolish a year from now because I didn't think that highly of Gutierrez coming into this year because he put up really bad numbers in the Dominican Summer League. Well, this year he's on the complex and he's hitting 309 with a 467 on base and a 506 slug. He's got a 973 OPS in 29 games. So all of a sudden Gutierrez is showing one of the Mets signed him to what was like 1.9. He got another big sign in bonus. I don't have it in front of me how much he got from the Mets, but it was the highest sign they made at the couple off seasons ago, the highest price signing in the international market. So Gutierrez is gonna shoot us a list this year, I think based on what he's doing in the complex league. He might be a top 20 prospect in this system. And when it comes to the catching prospects, you got Rodriguez, you got Gutierrez, you do still technically have Kevin Prada, you can't just omit him entirely. And then you have Ronald Hernandez. Those are the four best catching prospects in this system. Giving the Mets a pretty good amount of guys that could pan out and potentially be a backup for Francisco Alvarez in a few years or could be trade bait for other teams. So the Mets have done pretty well in that department lately. Now, again, these lists are obviously subject to change and in the year I will do another update of this top 10 and then we'll do one leading into next season. But I wanted to give you my take on where the Mets farm system is at right now with Christian Scott graduating. Obviously, this list has gotten a little bit weaker Ronnie Mauricio as well. But I think the top five prospects in this system are ones to be really excited about with Sprout, Williams, Gilbert, Clifford, and of course, Carson Bench just added. And then I think there's a lot of upside guys further down the ranks in this system. Anyway, we're gonna talk about the Mets loss to the Mariners and everything else you need to know about the Wildcat race in just a minute. First though, another word from our sponsors. Today's episode is brought to you by eBay Motors. Passion drive and patience or brings on the winning trophy. It's also a keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance from superchargers to roof rack and saw skits, LED headlights and more. Whether you're into speed power or style, eBay Motors has got you covered with over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die. You always find exactly what you're looking for. 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(upbeat music) (upbeat music) If you're an everyday listener to the show, make sure you become a Lockdown Mets insider. This is our texting service where you get updates from me. Anytime news breaks on the Mets can ask me questions anytime. I also have the Lockdown Mets signed photo giveaways. I just bought another series of photos. We're going to start running some more of those giveaways for the insiders. If you want to be part of that, make sure you find a link in the episode description but at subtext.com/lockdownmets. All right, so before we get into the game recap 'cause I'm going to stall as long as I can, I don't want to talk about that game that I spent a couple hours watching tonight, let's go through the injury updates. Starling Marte will start his rehab assignment in AA on Sunday. The Mets expect him back at some point during the homestand. I'd imagine probably not that first series. There's always an off-air Monday in AA. He's going to play on Sunday and you want to see him at some point, play a full game. So I imagine he plays on Sunday. Maybe he plays on Tuesday and Wednesday. Fall things go well. Maybe we see him back on Friday after an off day on Thursday. That's what I would sort of expect the timeline to be for Marte's return. Now, good news on Christian Scott. He is feeling no pain in that pitching arm and will begin a throwing program this upcoming week. Now, we have no idea how much the Mets are going to push in this year. I honestly think it's probably just about getting him healthy, get him on the mound to make a start and triple-edged potentially on a rehab assignment at the end of this season, go into the off-season feeling healthy. But if he goes through this throwing program, everything's checking out. Starts throwing bullpen. Everything's fine. Facing hitters. There is a world where Christian Scott can pitch from the Mets down the stretch this year. If he's starting throwing and they're still seven weeks left of the season, he could come back. So, I wouldn't rule it out. The only reason why I really put it on the back burner and not think about it too much or expect anything is just because this guy is so important to the organization, particularly for next season, as someone who they would hope could be in that rotation from opening day. And I just don't think they would do anything to jeopardize that for this year. So, we'll see how that throwing program goes and I'll give you updates whenever we get them. I read Garrett is going to be active on Saturday night. The Mets made a roster move. Alex Young will be the corresponding move, Tim Britton. I was the one that I saw who tweeted that after the game tonight. Alex Young pitched a scoreless A-thinning in the game on Friday. I had a one ERA across 10 appearances. And to me, this indicates how much the Mets probably valued Danny Young and the experience he's gotten this year over Alex Young. 'Cause again, Alex Young has gotten good results, but Danny Young has way more experience on this team this year and is going through a good stretch and had a really good stretch prior to the last time he was sent down. He's also been set down three times this year. You can only send a guy down five times. So, you're running out of those options for Danny Young where Alex Young, you probably have more roster flexibility. But I also think this is a testament to the stuff that Danny Young has. Anyone who's been listening to this show throughout this season knows how much. I loved Danny Young and particularly did prior to that last emotion where it was down to Young and Danny L. Nunez. And I wanted both of them to stay and Jake Deakman to go. And Danny Young went down and I was a little bit upset about that decision at the time. I think Danny Young's a good pitcher. So, I'm happy to see he's still on the team. Little, you know, frustrating for Alex Young, I'm sure, as he did nothing to deserve a demotion. But that's just the number crunch that the Mets are going through right now. And we'll see how Reed Garrett pitches upon his return here. He could be a really nice addition back into this bullpen. I'm very curious to see what it looks like because there was obviously that great start to the season for Reed Garrett. But Danny had a prolonged period of pitching pretty bad. Granted, he was clearly overused. Maybe now in a more filled out bullpen, he can slide into a role where he doesn't have to be pitching, you know, two out of every three days. And maybe he finds that same early season success. All right, I think I delayed as long as I can. We got to talk about the game. Mets lose six, nothing. That's it, right? All right, that'll be all. No. Look, Jose Quintana through the ball pretty well tonight. Now, he ultimately ends up with four runs on his ledger, but I think he threw the bell, he threw the bell. He threw the ball a lot better than those numbers which adjust. He threw a hanging curve ball to Ryan Bliss in the second inning that he hit out for a two run homer. Other than that, to the first six innings, Jose Quintana was great. And he catches his pitch count down to the point where they threw him back out there for the seventh inning. And he nearly got out of that one too because he gives up a lead off walk, then it was a ridiculously slowly hit grounder to Jeff McNeil that ends up being an infield hit. I mean, just tough luck there for Quintana. Gets a strike out, then a comeback or hit to him that was too slow for him to turn two on. So that's the second out of the inning, but there's 200 in a scoring position. And then he gives up a more well-struck single. So really you look at that inning in the seventh, sort of some unfortunate luck for him. And then Adam Antavino comes on to try to clean things up. Actually, I guess that might be five runs to his ledger. That shows you the amount of game prep I did recapping this one because it's tough to really want to sink your teeth into a six-nothing game. Adam Antavino came in, he walked to then gave a base hit that scored two. So yeah, I'd imagine that one of those runs went to Quintana, so maybe five earned over six and two-thirds. But again, I don't think Quintana was the problem tonight. Ultimately, it's the Mets bats. And I'm almost given the pass because Bryce Miller was ridiculously good. I mean, that guy's got great stuff. And it shows you how good that rotation is in Seattle because he's probably their fourth starter. That's how good their rotation is with George Kirby, who we're not gonna see in this series. Luckily, Logan Gilbert, who will be pitching on Saturday and Luis Castillo's pitching on Sunday. It's a tough team to face in a three-game series. And when you see the starting pitch and they run out, you wonder how they're not better. Typically, it's because of the offense tonight, they're able to score. You hope that the Mets can quiet those bats with Sean Manai on the mound on Saturday. And Luis Severino really needs to step up on Sunday. So it's gonna be a very tough series for the Mets to win. Again, bats tonight just weren't there. They did have some opportunities that I should mention. Mark Fientos hit a two-out double in the second, then Francisco Alvarez struck out. Third inning, Brennan Imo hit a two-out double. Jesse Wicker grounds it out. Their best chance came in the top of the seventh inning. At the time, it was still two-nothing Mariners. JD Martinez drew a walk. And this is when the Mets got into the Mariners bullpen. And then Jeff McNeil got a hit his second of the day. So you had two runners on, nobody out. That was the opportunity to potentially get back in the game and honestly had the Mets tied it. I think Jose Cantana probably gets pulled. And the Mets have a reliever slide into the game at that point. But Mark Fientos hits into a double play ball, ends the rally essentially. They aren't able to do anything there. Eighth inning, they got a couple hits from Francisco Endor and Jesse Wicker, but they couldn't do anything with it as penalizer came up with two outs. And he struck out, although the Mets were trailing six and nothing by that point anyway. So the Mets lose. The good news is the Braves lost as well and they lost to the Rockies by a score of six to five. The Cardinals beat the Royals. Some of the Cardinals are a game and a half back. The Giants beat the Tigers and they've now won 11 of their last 14 games. There are only two games back in the Mets now. So the Giants are becoming a real threat. Also the Cubs have won six of their last eight. Their four games back. The Pirates meanwhile are three and seven in their last 10. They've dropped a four and a half games back. But a lot of teams still bunch within five games of each other. The Mets are leading that pack for now, but they got to make sure that they don't get swept this weekend and it's going to be a tough series. As I mentioned, with the starting pitching of the marriage, they're going to run out there. Hopefully, Sean Manai can play stopper again, get the Mets to even up this series. And maybe Luis Severino could have a bounce back and the Mets can still find their way to a very good road trip. At least take one, hopefully find a way to take two more and then the Mets get to come on home and they got a rest day on Monday. Get back at it, trying to continue to further their standing in the analog car race. Anyway, that's going to be all for today's show. I appreciate all of you who tuned in. You're listening on the audio side. Make sure you follow, rate, and review where you get your podcasts. You're watching on YouTube. Do me a favor. Hit that subscribe button. Try to get to 10,000 subs by the end of the season. So I appreciate all of you who continue to subscribe. You follow me on X at Finkelstein Ryan. Follow the show at locked on Mets. Thank you for making locked on Mets. You're first listening 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 in the world of sports with our local experts from each team and our legal experts from each league talking about locked on sports today, which is streaming 24/7 on YouTube and on Amazon Fire TV. This episode is brought to you by GameTime. GameTime is an authorized ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball, which makes getting tickets faster and easier. Prices on the GameTime app actually go down the closer it gets to the first pitch. With killer last minute deals, all in prices, views from your seat and their lowest price guarantee, GameTime takes the guesswork out of buying MLB tickets. 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