The scheduling powers in Major League Baseball were not particularly kind to the Mets when they penciled in Monday's makeup game with the Cardinals.
Jammed in between three-game series between Anaheim and Denver, the Mets circled back to make up their series finale from early May.
The Mets got the most of their voyage to the Midwest, grabbing a 6-0 victory over the Cardinals in a rare mid-afternoon weekday game at Busch Stadium. In the process, the Mets claimed a potentially-important tiebreaker by winning the season series against the Cardinals with a 4-2 edge.
"It's what we're going through right now," Mendoza told reporters of the road trip. "We knew that we were going to be facing this type of challenges, but at the end of the day, they're big-league players, we're a big-league team and our job is to continue to win baseball games, regardless of the circ*mstances.
"We'll take it one day at a time. Now, we got to get on a plane and go to Colorado for another series."
After dropping a three-game series to the Angels over the weekend, it was an important step in the right direction for the Mets, who now face the Rockies, the team with the worst record in the National League, across a trio of games beginning Tuesday. The Mets are 59-53, 1.5 games back of the Diamondbacks for the final NL wild card spot.
Here's what stood out during the Mets' bounce-back effort on Monday:
Sean Manaea spins another gem
As Sean Manaea has refined his arsenal, the results have followed.
On Monday afternoon, the Mets left-hander relied largely on a three-pitch mix of his sinker, sweeper and four-seam fastball. It led to the team's fourth shutout of the season.
For the second straight game, Manaea recorded double-digit strikeouts, notching 10 strikeouts across seven scoreless innings while scattering six hits. It was his second straight outing of seven scoreless innings after he did the same against the Twins back on July 30.
"I think he found a rhythm here where every pitch is working for him," Mendoza said. "I think just the fact that he’s commanding the baseball. He’s executing pitches when he needs to do. I think he found a rhythm where it’s pretty impressive."
In the early going, Manaea needed to work through some traffic. The Cardinals had runners in scoring position in each inning between the second and fourth frames. In each case, Manaea ended the frame with a strikeouts. He picked up five whiffs apiece on his two fastballs and three on his sweeper.
"Getting ahead of guys, really using my fastball to get ahead of guys and then the sweeper’s been good as a first pitch or trying to get back foot to guys," Manaea told reporters of his efficiency. "Yeah, I’d say those two things and finishing guys off early."
With Monday's win, Manaea improved to 8-4 and shrunk his ERA to 3.30. It is the most wins and best ERA in the Mets' rotation.
Tweak to the lineup pays dividends
The final two games in Anaheim had been a struggle for the Mets' offense, so Mendoza made an adjustment to try and spark the lineup.
After the Mets went a combined 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position and left 15 runners on base in back-to-back losses to the Angels on Saturday and Sunday, the Mets manager shifted Brandon Nimmo back to the third spot, J.D. Martinez into the cleanup spot and Pete Alonso to No. 5 for Monday's game.
That left Tyrone Taylor to fill in the void behind Francisco Lindor at the top of the lineup. The Mets outfielder did not disappoint, tagging a 1-2 sinker for a three-run opposite-field double down the right-field line, boosting the Mets ahead 5-0 in the fifth inning.
"It’s great when it works, but it’s baseball," Mendoza said. "Sometimes it’s gonna work, sometimes it’s not gonna work. I’m just glad that Tyrone got a good pitch there and was able to use the whole field and came through there."
After the Mets long rode the combination of Lindor-Nimmo-Martinez-Alonso at the top of the lineup to a resurgent June and July, Mendoza said that his lineup decisions would be day-to-day for now.
"I don’t think you’ll see (Taylor) in the two-hole tomorrow, but that’s baseball too," Mendoza said.
Jeff McNeil adds another long ball
One of the lone bright spots as the Mets offense has scuffled over the last week has been Jeff McNeil.
McNeil continued to swing a hot bat on Monday afternoon as he belted a six-inning solo shot inside the right-field foul pole off Cardinals reliever Shawn Armstrong. The Mets second baseman finished 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI in the victory.
In 17 games since the All-Star break, McNeil is now 20-for-55 with five of his 10 home runs, 15 runs and 13 RBI. Monday's performance was his seventh multi-hit performance during that time.
On the Mets' road trip so far, McNeil is 4-for-10 while upping his batting average to .239 — his highest mark since May 24.
