The New York Mets can breathe a sigh of relief as they return to Citi Field on Tuesday against the Oakland Athletics after a lengthy 10-game road trip. However, they’ll need to capitalize on playing in front of their home crowd in order to shake the 4-6 funk they entered while away from the Big Apple.
In the month of August, which encapsulates their entire road slate, the Mets sit last in the MLB with seven home runs, own the fourth-fewest runs scored (35) and RBIs (32) as a unit, and sport the third-worst OPS (.670) despite sitting in the middle of the pack with 347 at-bats. New York’s pitching staff has been solid, owning a 4.18 ERA and one shutout performance, but they too could surge with a boost from their home crowd. Individually, as a team, and when analyzing their opponent, there are three storylines that will heavily factor in how the Mets come away from their next three games.
Mets storylines: A continued hot pitching streak and a battle at the plate
SNY’s John Harper accentuated five storylines that will prove vital in the Mets’ upcoming three-game slate against the Athletics. Of those, three stood out, including Paul Blackburn’s ability to keep up his strong play since being traded to the Mets ahead of the deadline, the Mets’ sluggers doing everything in their power to break out of their current hitting slump that led to three straight shutout losses, and whether or not they can prevent Athletics star slugger Brent Rooker from continuing to dominate at the plate.
Paul Blackburn can do 1/3 of the work for the Mets in his next anticipated start
There’s nothing not to like about Blackburn’s start to his Mets career, and he can let the Athletics know about it when he takes on his former team this week. The 30-year-old has fanned away 12 batters on his way to a squeaky clean 1.50 ERA in his first two starts for the Mets. The opportunity is ripe for Blackburn to stifle an Athletics team that is one of only six squads with a sub-.230 batting average in August. He has momentum behind him. Seeing that Blackburn has sat for the last four games since making his last start on Aug. 7, he can make it three straight dominant performances in one of the next three games at an opportune time for the franchise.
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Mets breaking out of hitting slump goes hand-in-hand with thwarting Rooker
The Mets were one run away from suffering three shutout losses in a series for the first time in franchise history, narrowly escaping that undesired milestone in their 12-1 loss to the Seattle Mariners in their series finale on Monday.
New York will need their reeling sluggers in the month of August in Pete Alonso (.222 BA), Brandon Nimmo (.206 BA), J.D. Martinez (.188 BA) and Mark Vientos (.143 BA) all to meet Francisco Lindor (.318 BA), the ever-so-efficient Jeff McNeil (.276 BA) and Francisco Alvarez (.280 BA) where they are at from an efficiency standpoint at the plate in their upcoming slate and beyond.
On the other side of the coin, the Mets will have to worry about a player in Rooker who has nine hits in as many games this month and owns a strong .273 batting average and .927 OPS in that span. He is a bright spot on the Athletics’ underwhelming roster and may give New York problems over the course of their three meetings. Showing him a variety of pitches and keeping his potent bat at bay could help the Mets keep Oakland’s offense quiet.
