Francisco Lindor shines with a two-home run game, including a grand slam, as the New York Mets secure another victory against the Padres.
David Peterson continues his stellar performance, pitching into the 8th inning and lowering his ERA to 2.85.
This episode of Locked On Mets, hosted by Ryan Finkelstein, breaks down the key moments of the game, including Lindor's MVP-caliber play and Peterson's consistency on the mound.
The discussion also touches on the Mets' bullpen strategy, the Wild Card race, and the upcoming series against the Diamondbacks and White Sox.
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It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Francisco Lindor added to his MVP resume with a two-home run game and David Peterson pitched another gem, I'll talk about the latest Mets victory on today's show. You are Lockdown Mets, your daily New York Mets Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello to all you amazing Mets fans, you're listening to Lockdown Mets, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you for making Lockdown Mets your first listen every day, Lockdown Mets is free and available on all platforms including YouTube. On the show today, we have another Mets victory to discuss. Francisco Lindor had a great game as did David Peterson, I'll talk about their performance in the first segment. Second segment, we're going to look at Danielle Nunez's return to this bullpen, how the Mets are set up for this game on Sunday and just a status update on the wildcard race as a whole. Then in the final segment, I'll give you the latest on Paul Blackburn's injured hand, seems like he could avoid an IELSTENT, but even if he doesn't, I will lay out the scenarios both ways for what the Mets can do with their rotation moving forward. 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 @FickelsteinRyan, you can also find some of my writing at JustBaseball.com where I work as the managing editor. Well, another great victory from the New York Mets, they will not lose this series to the Padres as they have taken two of the first three games and will be looking for a series victory in a four game set on Sunday with Jose Quintana on the mound. Very good stuff throughout this game to discuss. For Francisco Lindor's performance, where he put together another MVP type game, homered from both sides of the plate, including a grand slam. And there's David Peterson, who continues to be the best bet for the Mets to get a victory. When Peterson's on the mound, the Mets score runs today, seven runs scored, and he, all of a sudden, is pitching deep into games. David Peterson, for the first time this year, pitched into the eighth inning today. But everything started off in the first inning with the Mets getting a fortunate bounce, and you need those. You do. Francisco Lindor flew out to lead off the game. Then Mark Vientos and Brandon Emo each drew walks. Peter Lanzo comes up against Michael King and gets completely sawed off, breaks his bat, hits a chopper towards third. The ball hits the bag, though. Machado maybe could have turned that into a double play. Instead, hits out the bag, bounces away from him. Vientos comes around to score, and Peter Lanzo has the softest hit double of his career. The Mets don't score any more in the inning. Starley Marte, if I'm not mistaken, struck out the bases loaded. But that was a big first run to get. David Peterson held that lead for the Mets. Then in the fourth inning, Starley Marte got a two-out hit off of Michael King. Francisco Alvarez hits a line drive right at Manny Machado, and he drops it. And here's the thing that we talked about after the first game of this series. The Padres potentially being a little bit more lackadaisical, not taking this series as serious. I don't want to say that they're not serious. But the Mets have been the team that has showed more intent in this series. They just play it harder, that has their back against the wall a little bit more. And I feel like that showed Manny Machado has not had a good series, in my opinion. In this game, first three of bats, he got out on the first pitch each time. And then that was a really bad play, a line drive hit right to him. He doesn't catch it. It's an air that extends the inning. Jeff McNeal gets hit by a pitch to load the bases for Francisco Lindor. Lindor works into a hitter's count, gets 2-0, and then gets a hanging sweeper, crushes it for a grand slam. And that really put this game in the Mets favor in a considerable way, where with Peterson on the mound, the Mets were pretty much able to cruise from there. The fifth inning we did see, you know, a threat as David Peterson ran into a little bit of trouble in field tip, where it was hit hard right back at him and he deflects it. He then makes a super athletic play, trying to run over, field it by the third baseline, jump third of first, Peter Lanzo tries to hold on the bag. They ruled him off the base on the field. The replay sort of looked like Lanzo did keep his toe on the bag, but it was not conclusive. So that runner was ruled safe. David Peterson then walked a batter to put two on with one out and then gave him a base sit in front of Brandon Nemo that kept all the runners in place. No one scored, but bases loaded one out. So that was the real inning where the game could have gone the other way, but Peterson continued to make his pitches, gets a grab by Mark Fantos that scored a run, but got him a second out, then got a comebacker and ultimately was able to escape that inning, having allowed just the one run and that was the only run that he gave up in the game. The Mets get another one back in the seventh inning as Francisco Lindor leads things off with a solo homer. This one coming from the right side of the plate. So Lindor Homer from each side of the plate. He also made two really nice plays on balls that were scorched right to him, both with an extra velocity of 99 miles per hour or higher. There was another play where Luis erizes a soft grab there and Lindor came charging on it, makes the throw from a low angle and Steve Gelb's hopped on the broadcast at that point and talked about that play. There was one, I can't remember who it came against, but Gelb's was talking about how there was a play that Lindor tried to make maybe a week ago where he came in, tried to throw over the top and he couldn't get a handle on the ball and it was a mistake that he made that allowed a rally to happen when doors now been working on those balls where he comes in, trying to field it low and throw from that low angle, that side arm angle and that just shows the evolution of Francisco Lindor when there's something that is not completely right with this game, the work ethic that he's putting in to make everything as sharp as possible and this is why I will go back and continue day after day on this podcast where Lindor does MVP things to talk about it because yeah, show it on the actual Homer again tonight and Otani, you can see the stage being set for show, hey Otani to hit 10 more home runs this year, get over 50, maybe he ends up with 53, 54 home runs and he might run away with this MVP, but on this show in particular, we're going to continue to talk about Francisco Lindor playing on an MVP level and I will stand by what I said on yesterday's show and I will continue to stand by it until Otani makes it too much of a definitive case for me to continue to make the argument on the other side but I will not give Otani credit for being more valuable than Francisco Lindor when Shoei Otani plays about seven to ten minutes a night as a designated hitter, he gets to go down in the tunnel, take as many swings as he wants, if he gets a massage in between things, we never know what's going on down there, Shoei Otani has a much easier job than Francisco Lindor and yes, he's getting all the big hits to help the Dodgers win but his job is nowhere near as difficult as Francisco Lindor who has to play every single out of each of these games making key plays at the most premium position on the field and is doing it offensively and again since July Francisco Lindor has been a better offensive player than Shoei Otani, I believe at this stage, Lindor should have the ability, voters should let this be a race down the stretch where whoever has the better September wins the award. So if Shoei Otani hits 14 home runs on the stretch, yeah he wins it but if Shoei Otani does what he's been doing since July which is mostly hitting home runs, getting on base at a 340 clip, not a 380 clip where Lindor is up towards 380, Lindor is hitting for a higher average and playing both sides of the ball, Otani is just taking advantage of every mistake hitting home runs and stealing a bunch of bases, just patting stats really, I will continue to die in the hill that Lindor deserves the MVP. So another great game for that and then again getting back to David Peterson, he was really solid, got the Mets through seven innings, pitched into the eighth, got the first out of the eighth, then gave up a double, Danielle Nunez comes on and closes out the game but Peterson now lowers his area at a 2.85 on the season and just continues to pitch to contact and he kept the ball in the yard tonight, you know that that was the big thing, other games we see Peterson get the ball in the ground a little bit more today, there was some more contact hitting the air and by the way Jesse Winker made a fantastic diving play, didn't know he had that in him, so that was really nice to see Marte making some nice grabs out in the outfield but Peterson keeping the ball in the yard, pitching to contact, attacking the zone, outside of that final double he gave up, he kept the ball away from the gaps as well, so just really keeping everything in front of him and did a very nice job giving the Mets another consistent start, the Mets are now 12 and 3 when David Peterson takes the mound, Harrison Bader home run this game as well, so another outing like I mentioned where the Mets score seven runs for Peterson. Here as I said 2.85 on the season in the month of August 1.71 he's got at least six innings and four of his five starts and his last two he has made it through seven, I believe they said that was the first time in his career that he's gone seven innings and back-to-back starts, this guy is getting better as the year wears on and he's becoming a pitcher that you are very comfortable handing the ball to in any game and hopefully in October he might get a chance to pitch an apply-off game, great stuff from David Peterson tonight, I want to talk a little bit about Daniel Nunez's return tonight, how the Mets are set up for this game on Sunday and then we'll also touch on the wild car race a little bit, all of that coming in just a minute, first though quick word from our sponsors. 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Hey every dayers for your second listen enjoy the locked on MLB podcast, both Paul Sullivan aka Sully is here daily to provide national expertise with his trademark humor to help you get ready for the MLB playoffs, here in the dog days of summer. Prepare for the fall classic with Sully who has it all covered every single day on locked on MLB, available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. For every day, let's turn to the show, make sure you become a locked on Mets insider. This is our texting service, we can ask me questions anytime, we'll get updates anytime news breaks to the Mets, you can also take partner locked on Mets signed photo giveaways and get the live graphic sensor phone each day, so you're noticing the Mets starting nine with that ever having to go on social media. If you want to be a locked on Mets insider, find the link in the episode description, go to subtext.com/lockdownmets. All right, so let's talk about this bull pen a little bit because Danielle Nunez made his long awaited return and it was fantastic to see him get on the mound and look just like he did pre injury. He touched 99 on the fastball. His slider was befuddling hitter as he had that great bite to it. It was nasty through 28 pitches to get through one, two, third innings got five outs, struck out many Machado struck out a couple more guys in that ninth inning. Nunez is fully back and I did like the decision by Carlos Mendoza to keep them on for the ninth inning. Yes, it was a lopsided game, but you don't have or you probably didn't have Ryan Stannick, Adam Adavino, Danny Young, all those guys that threw a bunch of pitches with Paul Blackburn exiting early on Friday. You stay away from Jose Budo, Reed Garrett, Edwin Diaz, Phil Mayton for tomorrow and Nunez wasn't going to pitch it back to back anyway. Off day on Monday, he now gets two days arrest. I would if this was the strategy moving forward where Danielle Nunez pitches once every three or four days and same thing with Jose Budo and you get multiple innings out of these guys where maybe you drop them in to a let's say tomorrow, Jose Cantana is in the fifth inning and that's our win four to two and there's two guys on. Don't run the risk of Jose Cantana blowing that game. Send in Jose Budo to get you out of a jam and then maybe he pitches you through the fifth inning and the sixth inning after that or whatever it is, right? Don't remember what inning I said this all happens, but let's just say at some point the fourth inning on Cantana is pitching and there's some some jam have Budo put out the fire and then maybe get one more inning. I think that is the best way to utilize your best two relievers right now outside of them. And Diaz, you still have Phil Mayton and Reed Garrett that can pitch in those high leverage spots leading into Edwin Diaz more Mayton than Garrett at this stage. Garrett still has to prove himself, but this bullpen is deeper than it's been all season and looking at Budo and Nunez as these guys that can be dropped into games games. If you have a chance to win and very critical spots, I think that's the best way to leverage them moving forward. And now that you have Nunez, you have that ability to have that alternative option because tonight this was a game that we would have seen Jose Budo enter in the past, but Daniel Nunez hadn't pitched yet. So you get him his first look out there. You see what it is for him, how he's throwing the ball, look great. Now he gets two days off and he should be good to go for that series in Arizona. Now this is a huge final game in this series. If the Mets walk away having split a four game set, that's fine. Okay, that that's acceptable against a good Padres team, but you have the chance there to win a series and you're going up against Martin Perez. This is a game where the Mets really have to try to get a victory and that would improve their fortunes going forward in a pretty significant way. You're looking at a race now where the Braves all of a sudden just seem to win every single day. They're nine and three over the last 12 games. They've won four consecutive series. They're going to go for a sweeping as the Nationals on Sunday. The Mets aren't really gaining games here. The two and a half games back and they're sitting there. They have picked up a game on the Padres. Now you win this series. All of a sudden you pick up a couple games on the Padres. That's really important because you look at the road ahead. Both the Padres and the Diamondbacks have a tougher schedule down the stretch than the Atlanta Braves. The Braves, they got this final game against the Nationals. Then they got three against the twins. Twins are a good team. So hopefully they can do some damage against the Braves and then a four game series in Philly. So all of a sudden we all got to be Phillies fans, I guess, because you want to see the Phillies put a beat down on the Braves to give the Mets a chance to gain some games at the same time that that series is going on. The Mets are going to be playing against the White Sox. So hopefully this upcoming week we can see the Mets get much closer to the Braves because after that the Braves are going to return home to face the Rockies and the Blue Jays and then the Reds for one game, a make-up game. So those are all games that they could conceivably win. Then two more against the Nationals before they'll play a four game set against the Dodgers at home, three versus the Reds, three in Miami, and then the Mets come into town to play the Braves in that final week of the season. Outside of that series against the Dodgers, the series against the Twins and the ones against the Phillies this upcoming week, the Braves have a very light schedule and they are showing the ability to beat these bad teams. So I don't know if the Mets are going to be able to catch the Braves but maybe one of the Padres or the Diamondbacks falls back and that's why you have to do everything you can to win this series on Sunday and beat the Diamondbacks in this upcoming set. It's such a pivotal week for the Mets so hopefully they can get the job done and I do think the stage is set very well on Sunday. Obviously I don't love Jose Quintana being the starter for the Mets but having a fully rested Jose Budo to be able to drop into the game and maybe give you an inning or two, like I said, maybe comes in to bail Quintana out and then gives the Mets another inning. If not a couple more innings with the off day on Monday, we're just going to get some extra rest there. That could be huge. You have Edwin Diaz fully rested, you have Phil Mayton fully rested, you every Garrett fully rested. So maybe it's Budo coming into a more challenging spot. Maybe Garrett gives you multiple innings of relief. Mayton to Diaz will see exactly what happens here. Who knows? Maybe Quintana is going to finally bounce back and give you a quality start. That would be huge for this team but they got a score early and often against Martin Perez and hopefully they can find their way to being the Padres in this series. Maybe send them on a little bit of a tailspin and that might be the team you catch. We don't know how this race is going to unfold but the Mets have to just focus on themselves. They keep handling business on there and they win series over series over series. Hopefully the rest will handle itself. This is that very stressful time of year where you're constantly box score watching and when you see the Braves beat the Nationals again, it's just like, oh man, come on, lose. Hopefully some of those losses will come but all we can worry about is what this Mets team is going to do. And I closed the show today. I want to talk about Paul Blackburn. We learned the status of his hand after he got hit by that line drive on Friday night. The Mets got good news but it doesn't mean they're out of the woods here. I want to talk about their options moving further in the rotation. Whether Blackburn is going to need Nye Elston or if he can get by, we'll go through in just a minute. First though, another word from our sponsors. Today's episode is brought to you by Liquid Ivy. Get hydrated with electrolytes, essential vitamins and clinically tested nutrients from the number one powdered hydration brand in America. Liquid Ivy. What I love about Liquid Ivy for one is the taste. Strawberry lemonade, my favorite flavor. Sometimes I'm trying to stop myself from having too many of these pouches a day because they taste so good. They're also so convenient to use, tear up in a pouch, pour it into six tennouts of water, it's going to hydrate you more and it's going to be again very convenient. It's powered by live hydro science and optimized ratio of electrolytes, essential vitamins and clinically tested nutrients that turn ordinary water into extraordinary hydration. No more thirsty summers when you indulge in hydration with Liquid Ivy, get 20% off your first order of Liquid Ivy when you go to liquidiv.com and use the code MLB at checkout. That's 20% off your first order when you shop better hydration today using promo code MLB at liquidiv.com. Today's episode is also brought to you by FanDuel. You've heard us talk a lot about FanDuel America's number one sports book, but we have something a little bit different for you. Now through September 22, all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Then with a YouTube TV base plan, you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of market game. Again, this is for all FanDuel customers, not just new customers. All you have to do is place that $5 bet and get a three week free trial of FanDuel Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. All you need is a Google account, the current form of payment, and you can cancel anytime. Just visit fanduel.com/lockdown to download America's number one sports book. Stay up to date with all the latest in the world of sports by checking out Lockdown Sports today streaming 24/7 on YouTube. Well, the Mets dodged a bullet with Paul Blackburn. He got a CT scan in San Diego and it came back negative for any fractured bones. So he is good to go relatively. He still has a bruise and it's still his pitching hand. So the question is, how quickly can he grip the baseball? Is there any pain when he throws? Can he throw his normal motion without being hindered anyway by this bruised hand? He's going to throw the ball on Sunday. That's going to give the Mets an idea of what they're working with here. Laskar Brosabond is still with the team. Tim Haley confirmed that today. I talked about this on yesterday's show. You can add Brosabond back to the roster if he's replacing an injured player. So if Blackburn can't go, Brosabond could be added to the bullpen for Sunday's game potentially as well as the series in Arizona. There's an off day on Monday. So things do set up pretty well for the Mets in either scenario. In one case, Paul Blackburn throws the ball on Sunday, feels great. He's going to be good to go to make his next start or feels good enough for the Mets are confident with it. They can send Brosabond back the Syracuse or they can just keep him with him. That's on the trip, but she's actually probably the most likely thing they do. But regardless about Brosabond, you can trust that Blackburn's going to be good to go. But I would still give him that extra time. David Peterson should make the start on Thursday. The Mets have an off day on Monday. They play Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday in Arizona in a series that is huge for them down the stretch and the Diamondbacks are the highest team in baseball. David Peterson or Paul Blackburn, who would you rather pitch in that series, especially when the weekend series is going to be against the White Sox. To me, it's a no-brainer for the Mets at this point, regardless of whether it's Blackburn or Tyler McGill to make that next start. You've got to go with your best arms in that series. So it sets up well for the Mets, where it would be Sean Maniah, Louise Severino, and then David Peterson still pitching on regular rest on Thursday, going up against the Diamondbacks. Then you have the White Sox series, where it could either be Blackburn, McGill, even Katana, if you wanted to on Friday, then you would have to pitch somebody on that Saturday. So let's just say Blackburn throws, it goes well enough, but they want to give him as much time. They could play with it a little bit, essentially turn him into the fist-trigger. You would finally have the Mets pitching in their rotation order of guys affecting this, although who knows? Maybe David Peterson should be the ace, but it would set things up moving forward for the rotation to be aligned with Maniah Severino, Peterson, Quintana, Blackburn. Now, let's say Blackburn throws on Sunday, he can't go. Again, Brozabon could be in this bullpen for the rest of this week. Then when you needed a picture on Saturday, let's say, you could go to Tyler McGill, or on Friday, if you wanted to give Quintana a blow, McGill did pitch today. He went four and two thirds, allowed just one hit, walked two, struck out six, a very good outing. He was at 79 pitches and was pulled in the fifth inning with a runner on third base, that runner reached via an error. So he had gotten three outs in that inning. One of them didn't convert to a now because of an error made, but the fact that they pulled McGill at 79 pitches, I think that's pretty interesting. My guess is the assignment or what they decided was letting McGill go 80 pitches, keep them in line, and then they'll make that decision next week. So McGill is definitely the guy that would be filling that spot. If Blackburn hits the IL, we just don't know if he's going to have to at this point. Obviously, best case scenario, Blackburn can pitch without pain, be good to go, but you also don't want to compromise Paul Blackburn making keystarts for you. I'd rather a fully healthy, ready to go, Tyler McGill, make that start on Friday or Saturday against the wet socks, because I would prefer a rested, ready, healthy Tyler over a Blackburn who's pitching at 80%. The two starts that would be coming up for Paul Blackburn or McGill in this spot in the rotation. It would be, assuming that that's due what I'm saying here as far as having Peterson starting against the Diamondbacks, it would be one against the wet socks and I believe one against the reds, two teams that don't have the best lineups. So in my opinion, the Mets can be fine either direct direction to go. And if it is McGill, I think he can hold down the fort, see what he looks like in two starts, and then you can go back to Paul Blackburn after a 15 day stint on the IL. But that is the latest when it comes to the Mets rotation. We'll see what they do here to close out this series against the Padres. They can win it. That's going to be very, very big for them. Then you get an off-down Monday to rest up for another pivotal series against the Diamondbacks. The Mets can win the next two series here and then can handle business against the white socks. And I'm not going to say it, but you all know what handle business means. And the Braves have a subpar week against the twins and the Phillies. By the end of next week, the Mets could be in a playoff position again. But a lot's got to happen before then. And I'll be covering all of it here every single day with lockdown Mets. I appreciate all of you who continue to tune into this show. If you are listening on the audio side, do me a favor, follow, rate, and review wherever gets your podcast. You're watching on YouTube. Our goal is to get to 10,000 subscribers by the end of the season. I appreciate all of you already have subscribed. You're watching. Do me a favor. Hit that red subscribe button. You can also follow me on XS Finklestein Ryan. Follow the show on lockdown Mets. Thank you for making lockdown Mets. Your first listen or 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. World of sports, talking about life on sports today with your local experts from each team, league wide experts from each league, by life on sports today, streaming 24/7 on YouTube. A prime member. You can listen to this lockdown podcast at free on Amazon music. Download the Amazon Music app today! (upbeat music)
