A horrible call in the 8th inning, nearly cost the Mets a gem from Sean Manaea, but Jesse Winker saved the day in the bottom of the 9th, hitting a walk-off homer.
Can the Mets ride this wave of momentum into the most important stretch run of the season?
Host Ryan Finkelstein breaks down the win, and how the Mets are primed for their road trip that begins in San Diego against the Padres.
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It's the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. When Francisco Alvarez hit a walk-off home run on Monday, I thought that was a moment that could not be taught this season. Turns out, in less than 48 hours, Jesse Winker did just that. You are Lopped On Met, your daily New York Mets Podcast, part of the Lopped On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello to all you amazing Mets fans, you're listening to Lacked On. That's part of the Lacked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you for making Lacked On Met, your first listen every day. Lacked On Met is free and available on all platforms, including YouTube. On the show today, another amazing walk-off interview to discuss. Talk about Jesse Winker's home run and everything that came before it in the first segment of the show today. Second segment, I want to talk about momentum. Did the Mets just find it again, and will it carry them through the rest of this season? We'll go through that. Then in the final segment, a Mets vs. Padre Series preview. Before we get to any of it 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 JustBaseable.com, where I work as the managing editor. Today's episode is brought to you by Game Time, down in the Game Time App, credit account, used to go locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase, Terms apply. This has been a crazy week already for the New York Mets. Are you having fun yet? This is why you want your team in the mix. That's why you shouldn't be in Maine, June, rooting for a sell-off. No, we're rooting for your team to be in the mix, because what we're getting right now is the fruits of the labor from June and July for the Mets to get themselves into the race, because now you are playing in playoff games at the end of August into September, where you're going up against teams that are playing for something on the other side, with pack ballparks, and it is so much fun to watch these games, and it all culminates in another walk-off homerun, Jesse Winker delivering his signature Mets moment, a pinch hit walk-off homer, where he crushes the baseball, gets halfway down the line, does the celebration, swipes as hard as it can with his hand, and then takes his helmet, slams it down, spikes his elbow guard, runs around the bases, I mean, just so much fun. I don't know about you guys. I have watched that homerun and all the subsequent celebrations for the past however many hours since the game, just reveling in what was an incredible moment for this team. This is why you're a fan. It's for games like this, moments like this, the way that a baseball team can make you feel like a kid again, so much fun. And this series against the Orioles was a really good measuring stick for this team to have moving forward. It doesn't matter that the Orioles haven't been playing their best brand of baseball lately. It's still a team that is right atop the standings in the American League, one of the best teams in baseball, a lineup that is deep, and you had to really fight for it in each of these games and you come out with two of them, and now you can go into this road trip and say, "You know what? We can be at anybody." That's what this Mets team gained in this series, and they are on a plane flight. They've already gone through a plane flight as I'm recording this, where they were on a West Coast swing here where they were just riding high on the incredible series that was. You cannot overstate enough how much this series means to this Mets team, and we'll see how it holds up in San Diego, but it feels like this Mets team just got on one of those waves that they've talked about where they can hopefully ride this thing all the way to the finish line. Unbelievable series. Let's break down the whole game here because there was so many different moments that we could talk about. The beginning of this game, I thought for a second, we might be talking about Sean and I have thrown a perfect game because he was perfect through the first five and two third innings, and then the end of his start turned into one of the worst calls you will ever see, but starting with the Nia. As I mentioned, he's perfect almost through six, reties the first 17 batters that he faces. He's sitting two and two against Jackson Holiday. He hits him with the pitch that ends the perfect game. And his next pitch that he throws going from that clear letdown, right? You think you might throw a perfect game. You're almost two thirds of the way through and you'll lose it by hitting a batter. That's the last way you want to lose that type of a bid. Tries to get ahead and Austin Slater throws a fastball that gets way too much play. Boom, two run homer, and the game's tied. And the Mets had scored early in this game as Francisco Lindor hit his 25th homerun of the season. In the fifth inning, Harrison Bader got hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Mark Fientos gets a base hit where Harrison Bader goes first to third. Now if you remember on yesterday's show, we talked about the fact that Zach Geflin hit the IEL so the Mets are facing Cole Irvin. I think they went into this start or into this game, knowing that they were probably only going to see Irvin for a couple of innings and they were probably too aggressive. You saw a lot of Mets hitters expanding the zone a little bit, letting Irvin off the hook because this guy doesn't have great stuff and you allowed him to live outside of the zone a little bit and staying that game a lot longer than he should have. And the Mets just didn't have this great offensive performance, but again, it's a good team over there. They played good defense and the Mets don't end up in a situation where it's a tie game through seven and after Irvin came out, Colin Selby came in and really solidified their settled things, you'd say, for the Orioles. He did give up one of the runs that was inherited from Irvin on a ground out of the bat of J.D. Martinez that scored Bader, but then he ends up getting through that even though he walks a couple guys and then he gets through the bottom of the sixth inning. So it's all tied up going into the seventh. Sean Maniah goes back out there in the seventh inning after giving up the two runs. He gives up a lead off single but still gets through the inning without giving up a run. Craig Kimbrough comes on the bottom of the seventh inning and Mark Vientos goes opposite field hits his 20th homerun of the season to give the Mets a three to two lead and it felt like that was it. That was the moment. There was the momentum. The Mets were going to win this game by a score of three to two. This is where the game got crazy. So Sean Maniah comes back out for the eighth inning, gives up a lead off single, calls Mendoza goes to Jose Budo. Budo typically pitches with at least two days rest. I wondered on yesterday's show, would he be made available for this game? He was, he did look a little bit rusty, but first batter that he faces, a battle of an at bat, he throws a pitch that got so much play and at the same time, you saw a third on a second base and the Mets had a strike amount throw amount double play. So they were going to be in a situation with two outs, nobody on, eighth inning, three to two lead, Edwin Diaz ready to go for the ninth. They won that baseball game problem. The umpire made one of the worst calls you will ever see with the biggest implications calling that a ball. So all of a sudden you go from bases clear to outs to runners at first and second, nobody out a dramatic swing. I tweeted this as that this should be the Armando Galaraga of the ABS system. Remember Galaraga had a perfect game. And then there was a plant first base that was a Jim Joyce called the runner safe instead of out and blew Galaraga's perfect game. It has made him way more memorable than had he actually gotten the perfect game and ultimately not long after that majorly baseball finally put in a challenge system. And so now egregious calls can get overturned. Well, there's been a lot of talk about an ABS system that is automatic balls and strikes where if anything, they might put in a challenge system where teams can challenge some of these calls. And this would be a moment the Mets would have absolutely challenged because it was a two out swing and two runners on. It was so bad. And in that moment, you certainly thought the Mets were going to lose this game because of it. Now Jose Budo did a great job. He ends up walking that has got to load the bases, but he gets a big strike out on Ryan on her who had the nerve after seeing what had happened a couple of batters before how his team just got the break of the century. He had the nerve when he strikes out swinging to argue about a pitch early in the at bat that he didn't like. Yes, the umpire was terrible in this game, but that is just not having any sense of what's going on around you. So that was just a horrible look all of a sudden I liked it's oral teams as much watching them throughout this series. They complain a lot. Anyway, after that though, Ali Rushman hits a sack fly, Brendan Nimble makes a nice catch of going towards the foul line. That brings her on Jose Budo. That has to face Gunnar Henderson with two guys on Gunnar Henderson guys going to finish top five in the MVP this year. He gets in the pop out so incredible job by Jose Budo to navigate those waters and still keep the game, you know, in reach for the Mets, keep it tied. Edwin Diaz comes on and looks dominant in the ninth inning. That's a huge thing for this team moving forward. It looks like they have Edwin Diaz back in his prime form because he had two big strike guys just look like himself and both of the game is the Mets won this series. Edwin Diaz pitching a scoreless ninth inning to give his team a chance to walk it off in the ninth. And then the home room we talk about here to open up the show, Jesse Winker pinch hits for Harrison Bader starts off in an old two hole and just has a great at bat spinning on some pitches that are outside the strike zone works the count full gets a pitch he can hit. And as he said at the game, he was just trying to get on base in front of Francisco Lindor. By the way, Jesse, I know you know Francisco Lindor know for two decades now, but call him Francisco now. Not Frankie. It's just a little thing. But Jesse Winker in that full count hits one left center and the Mets come away winners. That celebration, I can't get enough of it. And I think it really has given this team momentum. If you think back to 2015, you have the Wilmer Flores home run right that gave the Mets a momentum and then you get cesspit is there is that series against the nationals where the Mets are going up against a team that they were neck and neck with in the division. And my memory serves, they swept the national cesspit has had some big home runs in that series. Think Daniel Murphy did as well. And then that sort of rolled from there. Police felt like the type of series of the Mets could have grabbed momentum that they can ride for the final 35 games of the season. And that's what I want to talk about next momentum. Did the Mets just get it and where will it take them? We'll go through in just a minute first, though, quick word from our sponsors today's episode is brought to you by tonal when life gets busy fitting in a workout can be stressful with tonal. You can get efficient workouts personalized just for you and are available at the amount of time you have. Tonal is the world's smartest and most effective strength training system that helps you get stronger. Powered by AI, tonal learns with every rep so it can deliver workouts personalized just for you. It's like having a personal trainer at home with you as tonal will optimize every workout just for you. Unlike traditional gym equipment, tonal uses adaptive digital weight to advance your training techniques from professional athletes to the mom of three, tonal is trusted by thousands who have become their strongest. Right now, Tonal is offering our listeners $200 off your tonal purchase with the promo code locked on MLB. That's tonal.com and use that promo code locked on MLB for $200 off your purchase. That's tonal.com promo code locked on MLB for $200 off. You know we love talking stats here at locked on Rockies. Here's one that's super simple to remember discover automatically doubles the cashback you've earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with cashback match. That means with discover you could turn $150 cashback to $300. That's right. 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/creditcard. If you're an everyday listener of the show, make sure you become a locked on Mets insider. This is our texting service where you get updates from me anytime news breaks from the Mets. You can ask me questions anytime. You also can take part in our locked on Mets signed photo giveaways and get a line of graphic sensor phone each day so you notice I'm starting to line up with that ever having to go on social media. If you want to be locked on Mets insider, find the link in the episode description. Go to subtext.com/lockedonmetz. I want to talk a little bit about momentum. On July 26th, the New York Mets had momentum. They had two months going where they were the best team in baseball. Incredible June, incredible July and they were going up against the Atlanta Braves. I was actually on a plane cross country from L.A. to Fort Lauderdale coming back from my vacation to Disneyland. I had great time out there. The Mets are winning games out of the break. It was a good time. To be a Mets fan, they made the first trade of the deadline picking up Brian Stanek. I remember just sneaking man. These wheels need to hit the ground because I have so much I want to talk about. I want to talk about the Stanek trade. Kodai Senga looks brilliant in his return and this Mets team was about to advance past the Braves in the standings for the first time since the end of 2022. It was a lot of fun. Right off the plane, I'm waiting in luggage claim. I believe I was actually recording a short to put on YouTube, but I locked on now talking about the trade and what was going on. Kodai Senga ends up pulling his calf and then it seemed like the momentum was just taken away from the Mets in that moment. They lose the next two games against the Braves. They did end up winning the following series against the twins, which was happening during the trade deadline. But the momentum clearly wasn't on their side quite as much after the Senga injury. You hit the road for a 10-game trip where the Mets go to four different cities and they have a disappointing series against the Angels, they handle business and a make-up game against the Cardinals, and after dropping the first game to the Rockies, they battle back they win that series. But then they're embarrassed against the Seattle Mariners. When they come back home, they lose a series to the ace. You have the Marlins on the ropes, you have two very convincing wins against them and you can't complete the series sweep. Momentum had just left the Mets. They just weren't feeling like the same team that had all the magic on their side for that two-month stretch. The Mets started August seven and eight through 15 games and played a lot of bad teams at the start of the month and didn't capitalize on that schedule. Baltimore Orioles come into town. The Mets in this series, they had two very parallel games. David Peterson, Sean Maniah, their best two pitchers this year based on the team's record when they're on the mound and it's the way these guys have pitched. They deliver for you going deep into these games. David Peterson, he falters in his final inning, ends up coughing up the lead but he doesn't give it back to the Orioles, the game stays tied. Jose Budo pitched the scoreless eighth, Edwin Diaz scoreless ninth Francisco Alvarez with the incredible walk-off home run and then this game today, Sean Maniah perfect almost through six, ends up faltering, giving up a couple runs, Mets get hosed in the eighth inning on that call tie ball game but Jose Budo gets them through it. Edwin Diaz shut down ninth, walk-off victory. Now you got momentum. Now, if they go into San Diego and they lose this series or they split it, you know, maybe the momentum isn't quite on their side but let's just say the momentum is and they find their way to beating the Padres in this series, taking three of four. You have a day off, you then go to Arizona for another pivotal series. The Mets win these next two series. They're going to be right there with 28 games left to play. I would venture to say if they win these next two series, they will be back in a playoff spot. They're in a game and a half out right now. A little note on Peterson, Maniah tweeted this out tonight so I was prepping the show. The Mets are now 28 and 11 when those two guys are on the hill. On this upcoming road trip, you're going to get four of their starts. Maybe the Mets can win all those games and we'll see how they're fair with Severino, Blackburn and Canton in the mound as well but this is a team that I feel has just grabbed back the momentum in this series. If they carry with them and they have a good road trip, they come on home, have a good home stand, they're going to be right there down the stretch and that's all I care about. I said on this show before, just go into that final week of the season in a playoff spot or very close within a playoff spot, between two games, within two games of a spot, going into that series against the Braves and I'm happy because then that's would then control their destiny or if they're able to beat the Braves, they might just be in position and then you hold on against the Brewers, you're going to be there. But this is a fun team to watch right now and there's a lot going their way. I think the biggest thing that they have to hold their hat on is their depth and we saw it in this game. I talked about on yesterday's show how this is the deepest Mets team we've seen since 2015 or maybe I talked about it after the win, I can't remember on Monday. But when you have Jesse Winker to come up in that spot and pinch it for Harrison Bader, he doesn't have bat that was going to DJ Stewart for a majority of this season. And maybe DJ Stewart would have worked to walk and maybe Francisco endures the hitter with an RBI double. Maybe Stewart draws a walk, Tyrone Taylor comes in a pinch run and the Mets still find their way to a victory. But instead, because of what the Mets did at the trade deadline to pick up Jesse Winker, how deep this team has gotten now that Sterling Marte is back in the fold, pushing Jesse Winker, I don't know if I'd quite say to a bench role, but certainly not an everyday role and not even the strong side of the platoon, probably playing about half the time and needing to take the most or get the most out of his opportunities when he comes into a game like this. You have that car that you can play. And Jesse Winker puts together a great at bat, hits that home run and now you carry that with you. That is a huge victory for this team. The Mets are now nine and nine this month. They still have a chance to put together a great August if they win these next two series. And then they have the White Sox for two games to close out this month. It's a three game series, but it'll bleed into September. There's a world where this team actually finishes well above 500 in August and I talked about it weeks ago with the Padres when they were on this run and they pretty much have stayed on it. But I said, can they stay hot all the way through? They're twenty two and five in their last twenty seven games. Is that going to hold up? This is a huge series for the New York Mets to find their way to get a victory. If they can do that, they're going to be in line here and it's just crazy how much things change because in that eighth inning today, when things are getting away from the Mets, you're envisioning all the bad things that can happen. But the team showed resilience, Budo got you through that inning and the Mets walk it off. And now you go into this upcoming series and the Mets have that momentum. They also have a lineup that I think is on the precipice of another hot streak where they're going to really pile on runs. Mark Fientos in the two hole has been a great move by Carles Mendoza. He's on a nine game hitting streak. He's driven in seven runs in his last eight games played. He's scored in six of his last eight games played. He is statistically based on OPS and WRC plus the best hitter on the Mets this year. He's got 20 home runs when he missed what the first two months of the season. That's pretty impressive. Francisco Lindor is the first shortstop in MLB history to have three seasons of 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases. He is very close to getting to the 30 30 club again playing an MVP level. I'm going to be writing an article for just baseball after a wrap up the show tonight leading into tomorrow morning where I'm going to break down his MVP case because he's there. He's right on the precipice with 35 games left to play beyond Lindor and Fientos. You have J.D. Martina is getting hot Brandon Nemo seems to be turning a quarter. penalons are still heads as moments and you have all of that depth. That's how the Mets are going to win. It's going to come down to this position player core. Can they continue to pile on runs? Can they play great defense? But they have all the pieces to do that. If they get enough pitching, this team can absolutely make the playoffs. But either way, I think they're going to give us a really thrilling final 35 games this season. And I cannot wait for it to kick off with this series against the Padres. That's we're going to talk about next. Can the Mets carry this momentum into San Diego? We'll preview the series in just a minute first though. 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On July 20th the San Diego Padres threw a hundred games were 1550 that night they won and they went on to win seven games in a row they then lost one one two lost one and then one seven more in a row dating back to July 20th this team is 22 and six I misspoke little in the last segment saying there were 22 and five in the last 27 games that was prior to today's game but still a 20 game stretch we are 22 and six that is really hard to do they have been reeling on victories and you look at how they've done it pitching has been the main thing that today the pitching wasn't there Matt Waldron gave up 10 runs and an 11 to 4 loss of the twins but they won the first two games of that series across this span of all this winning prior to today's game the Padres had a three ERA as a team that trailed only the Tampa Bay Rays their bullpen has been even better a 2.41 era during that span they've also gotten good performance from some of their main players as a team they've hit two 85 345 on Bay is 465 slug 130 team WRC plus WRC plus measures hitters on a league average of 100 so the team they've had a lot that's been 30% better than the average a lot of that has come from Jackson Merrill the rookie center fielder who's been red hot surging towards potentially being the rookie of the year this year. Merrill's hit 340 during this stretch with five home runs some of them being clutch home runs late in games he has a 180 WRC plus so 80% better than your league average hitter. Zander Bogart's has been hitting 361 for them during this span 155 WRC plus Jurgson pro far continues to put together his career year six home runs 17 RBIs during this span many Machado seven home runs team best 21 RBI's Jake Cronworth hasn't even playing his best baseball he's got 18 RBI's the one big loss to their lineup recently is Haslund Kim who hit the IL with shoulder inflammation. Tyler Wade is filling in in his place at shortstop we'll see if they go with that they can also put Donovan Solano at second or third they wanted to I'm not gonna move Machado out third so the one option they could have is put Solano at second base or first and then they can slide a rise over to second potentially move Cronin worth around move Bogart's they got a lot of options because they have a million short steps their team definitely did take a hit by losing Kim as far as his defense but he hasn't even been having the best offensive season so I think that's probably why they just put Tyler Wade into that spot as a placeholder doesn't seem like Kim's gonna be out too long. Fernando Tiz has actually been on the shelf for all of this David Peralta's been filling in pretty admirably for him and right but if you look at this team it really comes down to Mero Bogart's pro far Croninworth and Tatiz it's it's that group that you look at that is really good and then a rise obviously has the potentially just hasn't been hitting lately. I look at the Mets five with Landor, Bientos, Nimmo, JD Martinez and Peter Lanzo can that group beat this team in a series absolutely especially because the Mets have such a better bench and just depth overall in this roster. I honestly do believe the Mets have a far better team on the position player front. Pitching side the Padres have the Mets beat when it comes to bullpen so you have to win the beginning part of these games. You don't want to get into a bullpen game with the Padres where it's a late tie ball game and you have to try to out pitch their pen that's not going to end well for the Mets in most games. They're really deep in that bullpen. You can make an argument if they have the best bullpen in baseball after getting Tanner Scott at the deadline as well as Jason Adam from the Rays. They really did take a strength and make it much, much stronger and that's really what they've been winning with since the deadline but even before it it was really good pitching. So that's what you got to go up against in this series. As I mentioned again a couple weeks ago came the Padres stayed this hot all the way through with their winning every day. Well you've seen now that they had taken a slight step back. They lost the series against the Rockies over the weekend. They beat the twins in the first two games of their series this week but they couldn't finish off the sweep. There's some vulnerability there and the Mets just have to play their best friend of baseball and I honestly think if the Mets do that they can beat any team. Now the pitching match ups in this series you got Luis Severino and Dylan Sees for the first game tonight. That's going to be a thrilling one. The Mets really beat up Dylan Sees when they faced him earlier this season. I'm sure he wants some revenge since then the Padres have gone eight and three and Dylan Sees his last 11 starts. But remember the Mets scored seven runs on Sees and knocked him out of the game in the fourth inning. So can they have similar success this time be very interesting to find out. Luis Severino is coming off a shutout. Can he build off that? Be a better version of himself down the stretch. The Mets are going to need him to really pick it up and close this season strong. He's had a good year but he has a chance to finish this and have a great year to really set himself up for free agency as well. Charmonized the clear ace of this team right now. But Seve's got to be the number two. So we'll see how he does in this series. You're not going to get an eye. So Seve's got to get this team off to a good start. Game two is Paul Blackburn versus Joe Musgrove. Mets fans don't like Joe Musgrove. I don't think after that playoff game a couple years ago. He missed a large chunk of this season due to tendonitis in his elbow caused from a bone spur. So now he's back. He's made two starts since coming off the IL. But he's not full go yet. He has not hit 75 pitches in these two starts. I think it was 67 in the first one. 73 in the most recent one. He was pulled at four and a third innings each time. So hasn't even gone through that fifth inning yet. That is a chance for the Mets to maybe get to some of those middle relievers, not the late inning guys. And even if you do get into the late inning guys, if you can knock Musgrove out of the game early and you get that bullpen more tired for the back half of this series, that's going to be really important. It's a very pivotal game too, I think. If I look at this series, the games that stand out to me, it's game two and game four. No game one, good pitching match up seven universities, game three, same thing. David Peterson versus Michael King. King's been great this year, 3.1 ADRA on the season. Since June 1st, he's seven and two. He's pitched to a 2, 3, 9 ERA and he leads major league baseball and wins above replacement according to fan grass and three wins above replacement, racked up 75 and a third innings pitch in those 13 starts and he's striking out more than 11 per nine during that span. So Michael King has pitched like a frontline guy of the last couple of months. He's been huge for them. That's going to be a tough game three. David Peterson though has been very good for the Mets and the Mets typically win when Peterson's on the mound. So that'll be a fun one. If the Mets can win two of those first three games, I kind of like the final matchup. And I know that sounds crazy because it includes Jose Quintana, but he's going up against Martin Perez. And Martin Perez has been very good since coming over to the Padres. He has a 2, 7, 4 ERA and four starts, but with the Pirates prior to the trade, he had an ERA over five. So I think he's due for a bad outing, hoping the Mets are in position to win a series, not just, you know, salvage a split when they get to that point. And if they are, maybe this is the star with Jose Quintana can turn things around, but I'll be covering it all for you game by game all the way through the weekend. So make sure you listen wherever you get your podcast, subscribe, follow a rate review on YouTube. Do me a favor, hit that subscribe button. We're trying to get to 10,000 subs by the end of the season. So I appreciate all of you continue to subscribe. You found me on X at Finkelstein Ryan follow the show it locked on Mets. Thank you for making lockdown match. 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