The New York Mets at last ended their seven-game losing skid with a 5-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday. The sorely needed victory comes on the same day Mets owner Steve Cohen seemed to suggest the jobs of manager Buck Showalter and general manager Billy Eppler are safe.
Central to the Mets' winning efforts in Pittsburgh in the second game of the three-game set was right-handed starter Kodai Senga, who limited the Pirates to only one run, unearned, on two hits in seven innings of work. He struck out six and walked four and with the effort lowered his ERA in this, his first MLB season to 3.34. On offense, Brandon Nimmo reached base three times, Mark Canha doubled twice, and rookie catcher Francisco Alvarez hit his 12th home run of 2023:
He's now tied with Sean Murphy of the Braves and Salvador Perez for the most home runs by a cacher this season. However, Alvarez has reached his tally in 136 at-bats, while Murphy and Perez have needed 184 and 227, respectively. As Sarah Langs notes, Alvarez is on target to set the record for most home runs in a season by a catcher age 21 or younger. Right now, Hall of Famer Johnny Bench holds the record with 26 home runs in 1969. The 21-year-old Alvarez, who entered the year as our No. 3 prospect in all of MLB, is now slashing .250/.301/.559 for the season.
The win pushes the Mets to 31-34 on the season – and 2-7 in June – with a run differential of minus-22. They're in fourth place by a half-game behind the Phillies, and they trail the first-place Braves by 9.5 games. On the wild-card front, the Mets are three games out of the final NL playoff spot and behind four teams in the queue. Coming into Saturday's slate, the SportsLine Projection System gave the Mets a 45.5% chance of making the postseason.
Moving forward, the challenge when it comes making up ground will be scoring runs without the team's best hitter and the MLB home run leader Pete Alonso, who's out for perhaps the next three or four weeks with a wrist sprain and bone bruise.
After the Sunday rubber match in Pittsburgh, the Mets will return home for two games against the Yankees followed by three against the Cardinals.
