The Morning Meeting: Are the New York Mets trying to make a run?

Don't look now, but the New York Mets have been pretty good over the last two weeks and are starting to make some noise

New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso is greeted by teammates after hitting his third home run of the weekend against the Kansas City Royals / Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

What a weekend in the NL East - the Atlanta Braves made it dramatic against the Miami Marlins, while the Philadelphia Phillies met their match in the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals dropped their series against the Oakland A’s. But, the New York Mets picked up a series win against the Kansas City Royals and are a half-game out of 2nd place (and .500) on Monday morning. 

Let's look at what each team did yesterday, where they currently stand in the division as of this morning, and what today's game has in store. It's The Morning Meeting!

Who is winning the National League East right now?

(divisional standings as of April 15th)
Braves - 9-5 (.643), -- GB, +19 run diff
Phillies - 8-8 (.500), 2.0 GB, -13 run diff
Mets - 7-8 (.467), 2.5 GB, +1 run diff
Nationals - 6-9 (.400), 3.5 GB, -14 run diff
Marlins - 3-13 (.188), 7.0 GB, -35 run diff

Don’t look now, but the New York Mets are making a climb? They’ve gone 7-3 in their last ten games, and that includes a series against both the Atlanta Braves and the 2nd-place Kansas City Royals, a team with the highest run differential in all of baseball.  

Game recaps from the weekend

Atlanta Braves & Miami Marlins

The Braves went 2-1 against the Marlins this weekend, winning the series thanks to a clutch 9th inning, two out, two strike homer from Marcell Ozuna that gave Atlanta the late lead and the series. 

Miami showed that the pitching still isn’t where it needs to be overall, with their  bullpen struggling all weekend, Opening Day starter Jesús Luzardo getting whacked on Sunday and closer Tanner Scott then blowing the save, but there’s hope. Max Meyer looked great on Saturday in shutting down Atlanta’s offense and Trevor Rogers, despite taking the loss on Friday, pitched well enough to win if the Marlins lineup could have scored runs in support of him. 

Philadelphia Phillies 

Philly went 1-2 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, who have had an incredibly hot start to the 2024 season. The offense continues to not really be the “Ball Go Boom” offense that mashed Philly to two deep postseason runs - the clutch factor wasn’t there, going only five for twenty-one with runners in scoring position over the weekend. But we’ve learned that it’s only a matter of time for them to figure it out - maybe we should do another standing ovation thing? 

Christopher Sánchez made another great start, allowing only two runs (one earned) in six innings on Friday night, but took the hard-luck loss. Spencer Turnbull was fine, albeit in a short outing (four innings) on Saturday, while Zack Wheeler got blown up (five runs, four earned) on Sunday.  

Washington Nationals

The Nationals got taken behind the woodshed by the...Oakland A’s? The Nats dropped the series two games to one, with both A’s wins being one run affairs, one in extra innings. Jesse Winker continues to enjoy a resurgence, going 6-12 on the weekend, including a game-tying 9th inning solo homer on Friday. Getting Lane Thomas going is of vital importance to Washington; he’s batting only .213, a figure boosted by a 3-5 day on Sunday after logging just one hit (with three strikeouts) in the first two games of the series. 

Starter Mackenzie Gore looked great on Saturday, going five scoreless innings with eleven strikeouts to only one walk, lowering his season ERA to only 2.81. With Josiah Gray on the IL and Patrick Corbin continuing to be...well, Patrick Corbin, it’s imperative that Gore continue to compete every fifth day. Flowers as well to Jake Irvin, who went six innings on Friday with a 3rd inning solo shot from Lawrence Butler being the only blemish on his ledger.   

New York Mets

Pete Alonso remembered it’s a contract year at just the right time, launching three homers over the weekend as New York knocked off the upstart Royals for a series win. He went 5-9 on the weekend, scoring four runs, driving in four, and walking four times to only one strikeout. Francisco Lindor also showed signs of life, getting two hits on Sunday to rise his batting average to a whopping .129. 

Starter Sean Manaea got shelled in the middle game, allowing eight runs (six earned) in just 3.2 innings, but both Luis Severino (5IP, 1H, 1R) and Jose Buttó (6IP, 2H, 0R) pitched well enough to either earn the win (Severino) or keep New York in it until some runs could be scored (Buttó).  

MVP's for the weekend

Hitter: Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna - 5-10, HR, 2R, 4 RBIs, 3 BBs 
Pitcher: New York’s Jose Buttó - 6IP, 2H, 0R, 1BB to 9Ks 

Who's playing today?

Full slate of games today, although some interesting start times: 

Philly (Nola) vs COL (Quantrill) - 6:40 PM ET
Miami (Cabrera) vs SFG (Harrison) - 6:40 PM ET
New York (Pérez) vs PIT (Houser) - 7:10 PM ET
Atlanta (vines) @ HOU (Arrighetti) - 8:10 PM ET
Washington (Parker) @ LAD (Glasnow) - 10:10 PM ET

Enjoy the games, everyone.