New York Mets: Production essential from all starters
If the New York Mets don’t get production from all five starters, they will not be successful in 2018.
In 1982, Billy Joel sang “We will all go down together”, in his song Goodnight Saigon. It’s a concept that holds true with all team sports, but it is especially important when looking at the 2018 New York Mets. They are not a team built with a lot of margin for error. On Sunday afternoon, the Mets fell to the Cardinals by the score of 5-1. The Mets did take the series two games to one, but it made something clear. It’s clear that if the team is going to be successful they must get production from all five starters.
We know what Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom are going to do. As long as they stay healthy, they are going to be consistent and they are going to be successful. If the starters behind them don’t pitch well, it will be another year back to the drawing board for the Mets. Two strong performances in every five games will not be good enough.
Syndergaard and deGrom led the team to a 2-0 start, and Sunday’s game was the first for Steven Matz. He was much better at the end of spring training, leaving fans to believe he was finally rounding into form. However, his debut for 2018 didn’t work out so well. He couldn’t make it to the fifth inning, being pinch hit for after four innings. Matz allowed three runs, two home runs, and gave up three walks in those four innings.
It wasn’t exactly the way that Matz hoped to open the season.
The Mets don’t have a lot of room for error here. It’s not as if they have a ton of major league ready pitching that can come up and fill in when the current five are slumping. Zack Wheeler will probably be in the majors again at some point, and Aaron Gsellman is out there in the bullpen, but that’s about it. If the starters don’t pitch well, all of them, there aren’t many resources to fix the problem.
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Keep the lineup in mind as well. They can hit, don’t get me wrong. But they aren’t exactly the ’27 Yankees. Judging by their one run performance on Sunday, we know they won’t hit every single game. The team is going to live and die by its pitching, and not just the front end of the rotation. They all have to be consistent and that includes Steven Matz.