Diaz hasn’t blown a save and denied another comeback Monday in LA.
Mets fans are notoriously hard on closers. Randy Myers, John Franco, Armando Benitez, Braden Looper, Billy Wagner, Francisco Rodriguez, Bobby Parnell, and Jeurys Familia know what it means to experience fans’ wrath. So it shouldn’t be surprising that Edwin Diaz would get the same treatment, even though he has always been reliable, going back to three seasons ago when he had 32 saves.
So, what’s up? Mariano Rivera set the standard for closers, and Mets fans want their version of Rivera. Reality says that may never happen. Rivera was one-of-a-kind, with a postseason record of 8-1, a 0.70 ERA, 110 strikeouts, and 42 saves in 96 appearances. So, in the real world, Diaz is as good as it gets for the Mets. Yet he seems to be underappreciated this postseason.
Diaz isn’t as dynamic today as he was two years ago. That’s because he tore his patellar tendon in his knee during a celebration at the 2023 World Baseball Classic and missed the 2023 season, But he is still an efficient reliever, even if it’s not always pretty.
That brings us to what happened on Monday in LA. In Game 2 of the NL Championship Series. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza summoned Diaz to secure a four-out save and even the Series at one game apiece. Diaz entered the game in the 8th to relieve Ryne Stanek, needing one out to end the inning. Stanek had gotten Freeman to ground out and Smith to line out, but two Dodgers were on base when Diaz entered to protect a 6-3 Mets lead.
Tommy Edman had singled and went to second on a walk to Max Muncy. Those two then executed a double steal on Diaz and catcher Francisco Alvarez, putting men at second and third with the tying run, Enrique Hernandez, at the plate. Diaz worked the count to 1-2 before throwing a 91-mile slider on a 1-2 count pitch. Fly out to right, inning over.
Threat quelled, the Mets tacked on an insurance run in the ninth inning to make it a 7-3 game when Starling Marte’s single scored Pete Alonso from second.
Now, it was up to Diaz again, this time in the always-tense bottom of the 9th. Diaz began by struggling to find the strike zone, and he quickly found two men on base–Andy Pages hit a single, and Shohei Ohtani walked. Two on (one in scoring position) with no outs is a situation that often gives hitters an advantage over a closer. Not this time, though. Diaz regained composure, got ahead in the count, and finished off a formidable trio of Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernandez, and Freddie Freeman–all on swinging strike threes–to snuff off the Dodgers’ threat and earn a save.
Diaz came through, and that should alleviate concerns about Diaz. But will it? “We’re with you until they aren’t” goes with the territory. Diaz knows that, and the Mets brass knows he is the right guy to close games. Diaz can overpower hitters, and he is especially adept when the pressure is on, as he was in the ninth when he got three consecutive swinging strikeouts.
Yes, you can talk about him blowing a 6-3 lead in the eighth inning against the Braves in Game 1 of the doubleheader two weeks ago, but to his credit, he wanted the ball by saying he got this shit after Francisco Lindor hit a two-run home run to have the Mets regain an 8-7 lead. He rewarded Mendoza’s decision to have him pitch the ninth by getting a save. And how about when the Mets closer threw 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief in the seventh and eighth of Game 3 of the NL Wild Card series after Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick hit back-to-back home runs off Jose Butto to start the seventh inning? His performance set the stage for Pete Alonso to hit a three-run home run off Milwaukee Brewers closer Devin Williams in the ninth inning that would have the Mets take a 4-2 victory over the Brewers and advance to the NL Division Series.
Diaz returned to close out the NL Division Series in Game 4. He struggled with control in the ninth, walking J.T. Realmuto and Bryson Stott to start the inning. He raised his game by striking out Kody Clemens, getting Brandon Marsh to fly out, and finishing off Kyle Schwarber to end the inning and series.
It is hard to complain about how Diaz has been performing. Face it, closing out postseason games differs from closing a regular-season game because there is much more intensity in October baseball. It’s like a closer experiencing 120 mph of intensity. Either a closer knows what he is doing, or he doesn’t. We have seen Williams blow a save after Alonso hits a home run off a changeup, and Emmanuel Clase blow a save, too. But you can’t say the same for Diaz because he hasn’t blown one. Fans can be concerned if they want to, but Mendoza and his teammates believe in Diaz, and that’s the only thing that matters.
The Mets know his value, and there’s a good chance we’ll see him on the mound again in one or more tense situations as the Series shifts to Citi Field starting Wednesday night. There’s every reason to believe the next three home games will go a long way toward determining whether the Mets will be World Series-bound.
