If Mendoza manages Game 3 like Game 2, the Mets won’t get to play the hated Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza had a great first year. He has the players’ respect, knows how to manage the roster, and takes an even-keel approach to his job. Result? The Mets made the playoffs.
But something else popped up Wednesday night in Game 2 of the Mets’ NL Wild Card series vs. Milwaukee. Mendoza overmanaged out of panic, and that led directly to a late-inning implosion and a 5-3 loss to the Brewers.
Mendoza pulled Mets ace Sean Manaea after five innings. He had only thrown 86 pitches, and there wasn’t an apparent reason to pull Manaea in the sixth inning. But rather than trust him to pitch one, perhaps two more, innings, Mendoza applied Analytics, even though Manaea had averaged seven innings a start and pitching to a 3.09 ERA over his final 12 starts.
Yes, Reed Garrett and Ryne Stanek did a terrific job keeping the Mets’ lead at 3-2 in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, but wouldn’t it have made more sense to use those two late in the game or extra innings if the game was tied? Indeed, Mendoza should have deployed both early in Game 1 when Luis Severino struggled to get by. To Mendoza’s credit, his faith in Severino in the sixth paid off, and it made his job easy to utilize Jose Butto for the seventh and eighth innings.
If Mendoza can have faith in Severino in Game 1 to pitch one more inning, why can’t he do the same for Manaea, who’s a better pitcher than the Mets’ Game 1 starter? Let’s face it: the Mets don’t have a deep bullpen. They have five good relievers, and that’s it. The Game 2 formula should have been Manaea for seven innings, followed by Butto or Garrett for the eighth, and Mets closer Edwin Diaz for the ninth.
Sure, there’s no guarantee that it would have worked, but it made more sense to use that approach because the Mets have succeeded by using their starter in the seventh inning and their best relievers to close games out. That’s why it’s baffling why Mendoza brought in Phil Maton in the eighth inning to protect a 3-2 lead. According to the Mets winning script, that inning is Butto’s to pitch.
Yes, Butto threw 25 pitches in two innings of Game 1, but so what? The postseason is when a manager can’t worry about pitch count or if his reliever is tired. If Button had blown it, so be it; you must ride your best guy in that spot. Mendoza didn’t do that. Instead, he brought in Maton, who gave up a game-tying home run to Jackson Chourio and a tie-breaking home run to Garrett Mitchell. Game over.
Maton was not the right guy in that spot, and the Mets lost a game that they should have won, and the Brewers won a game that they should have lost. Rather than end the series in two and move on to the NLDS, we move on to Game 3 with the season on the line.
If Mendoza manages Game 3 like Game 2, the Mets won’t have a shot at playing the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS.
