It was another wild week in Major League Baseball.
Some MLB teams saw their week go from a high to a low from series to series, a pitcher continues to dominate for his new team, one team’s manager has a week to forget, and a National League West Division team continues its surprising 2023 season with a first-year pitcher. All of that will be covered in this week’s edition of Stock Up, Stock Down.
Stock Down: New York Mets
After being rained out last Saturday, the New York Mets and Cleveland Guardians played a split doubleheader the next day at Citi Field and it was a chance for the Mets to get some momentum before hitting the road.
They took advantage of the situation by sweeping the doubleheader, winning Game 1, 5-4, then riding the right arm of Justin Verlander to a 2-1 win in Game 2. They won the first game of the series Friday night, 10-9, in 10 innings with a three-run bottom of the 10th and winning it on a Francisco Lindor walk-off single.
Who else but Francisco Lindor!? In his first ever game against Cleveland, he walks it off for the Mets!
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) May 20, 2023
(via @SNYtv)pic.twitter.com/AXS7giy5Xr
Momentum is just what they needed as they are looking to turn around their disappointing season. It didn’t happen.
After sweeping the Guardians to get to two games over .500, they went to Chicago and dropped two out of three against the Cubs, a team that had lost seven of eight games entering the series. That’s not an opportunity that New York wanted to waste at a time when it looked like they were turning a corner.
The Mets have crept into a Wild Card spot and closed within 5.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves, but a three-game series in Chicago in late May was the perfect time to pick up some momentum and they failed to do so. One step forward, two steps back for Buck Showalter’s crew, and don’t say that all games in a long season don’t matter. Not when a team like the Mets have high hopes for this season and have been inconsistent.