Mets Facing Challenges: Miami Looks to Capitalize Tonight

Let's start New York with now the Mets scratching Freddy Peralta. Jason Junk, I like this kid, Craig, I really do. He was on the IL, came up, pitched pretty decent. I mean, he's a middle back-end rotation guy. I think he's got pretty good stuff when healthy here. I thought Miami should have and could have won that game last night, but the bullpen let him down a little bit there late. But an opportunity to get back and a lot of questions in that Met locker room to me here, which has got to be advantage Miami. Yeah, you would think so, but you don't know what can happen on any given day. But yeah, I mean, the Mets, if I'm not mistaken, they also made an IL move today and they put a left-handed pitcher on the IL and called up two other guys. So the Mets aren't quite playing, Joe, with a MASH unit yet, but we're getting close. You know, when you train a pitcher and then you scratch another and then you put another on the injured list, it's getting to that point. So I understand the notion there. As far as Junk is concerned, Joe, I mean, he can pitch six innings, but he's more or less been a five-inning pitcher, like a lot of the pitchers are in the big leagues. And he's been a little hit or miss, I think that's fair to say. What I saw last night in that game between the Marlins and Mets was, I came away thinking, you know, look, I think the Marlins definitely are better than the Mets, there's no question. But I came away wondering, Joe, how this, how that Mets team with Juan Soto lost so many games. Like, this is not a bad team on paper. They have, like, I'm watching the game and they have Benj and Ewing and Lindor and, uh, you know, Simeon, Bichette, like, I mean, you can understand how the Mets are pissed. Like, I mean, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. It seems like a pretty okay team to me. And I think that's the difference between what we're watching right now with the Mets versus, like, let's say a Sacramento or a Kansas City or even Detroit at some point, they'll probably be completely out of it. So you're talking about teams that are 15, 16, 17, 20 games under 500, but those teams in Colorado are genuinely horrible. Like, the Mets have a $300 million payroll and they have big league players who are going to be looking to salvage the second half of the season. It's a different scenario. So don't be surprised, Joe, to see the Mets, they may not win a lot, but don't be surprised if they're in a lot of games the rest of the year, they have quality guys and former quality guys too. Uh, you know, Polanco may be the exception to the rule there. I don't know what happened to him. He's batting at buck 50. It looks horrible. He shouldn't be on the field. But everybody else they have are former all-stars and former good players. So I don't think anyone's going to roll over the Mets, but the Mets, what'll happen, Joe, will probably blow some leads, you know, that, that kind of thing. And in a game like tonight with Senga, uh, I mean, it would be a miracle if he threw two, two good innings. I think that's probably all they're looking for tonight from him is just to make them, you know, honestly, Joe, if he threw two shutout innings, I think they would take them out. So he feels good leaving the park, you know, I think that's probably what they would do. Yeah. And yeah, eight and a half is a total, I'll tell you right now, I think their runs are coming because I do think Miami, uh, the bats will absolutely be able to get to Senga. And I keep hearing Luke Weaver's name mentioned with a lot of teams, he did a great job of turning it around. Uh, and he's been one of the most consistent arms in that Mets bullpen this year. It was a little, didn't go quite well last year, uh, with the Yankees. Didn't start off great this year with the Mets, but he has been solid. He would be a tremendous, uh, acquisition, uh, for bullpens on some contenders here. Uh, but I do, I like your Marlins here tonight to get, uh, to get back going. What do you, what do you make of some of these home road splits? I meant to ask you this yesterday, uh, you know, going down the list of some of these guys. I mean, we talked about woo, what a ridiculous home roads, even I'm looking at junk right now. The home road splits on some of these pitchers is just, it's night and day with, and it's not always they're great at home and bad on the road. Sometimes it's the other way around. Why such a difference, uh, sometimes with that this year? Yeah, I'm not really sure, Joe, if they knew the answer, I guess that's that they, that's why they get paid the big bucks. You know, I really don't know the answer to that. You're right about woo. He's, he's been fantastic in Seattle and the second he leaves Seattle, he hasn't been good at all. So, uh, you know, hard for me to say, I don't know the answer. I mean, I follow obviously following Miami. I mean, I'm watching their games every day and I think they have the third least or fourth least wins in all of baseball on the road. Why? I don't know. They just seemingly playing better at home. And by the way, Tampa Bay is 64 and 44. Take a look at their road record. It ain't that good. You know? So yeah, they got 40 wins at home. Yeah. I mean, I think the rays have the most wins in baseball at home. They, they remember Milwaukee, one of the two. So yeah. So that's kind of the dynamic there, but you know, those kinds of small ball teams, Joe, they usually find ways to take advantage of their ballpark at home. It's happening. Milwaukee does a lot of bunting. Tampa does a lot of bunting. Miami plays a lot of small ball, you know, it's not a coincidence. I think that those teams have records. Slug will get you a great record on the road because the three run home run just changes the game. But in this case, maybe that has something to do with it.