NEW YORK — The path for the New York Mets to at least pause if not end the constant chatter around them regarding the probability of a major selloff at the trade deadline looked a bit like what happened Thursday night.
To be clear, their 3-2 win over the lowly Miami Marlins didn’t come without concerning stretches and the Mets showing their warts, hallmarks so far of 2024. But they rode performances from two major contributors resembling obvious trade candidates in Luis Severino and J.D. Martinez. Indeed, those players generating trade deadline buzz can still help the Mets, it turns out (and New York would prefer that continue to be the case). And most important, Edwin Díaz, their closer, returned from the injured list, finally flashing dominance like his old self.
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For the first time in his 14-year career, Martinez hit a walk-off home run. He joked later that his family and friends can now stop giving him grief over it never happening. For the Mets (30-37), it was worth the wait. They sorely needed to win a series, and Martinez’s two-run home run allowed them to take two out of three against the last-place Marlins (23-45) and otherwise avoid embarrassment.
Between their errors throughout the series and their uber-aggressive approach offensively (swinging at 3-0 on pitches out of the strike zone, chasing early in counts), the Marlins’ play matched their record. The Mets couldn’t lose a series at home to them and realistically view themselves as capable of pulling off a considerable winning streak or stretch of better play. Squeaking out a couple of wins against the Marlins — New York didn’t record a hit until the seventh inning in Thursday’s game — hardly qualifies as a breakthrough, but the Mets will take it.
“That was huge,” Martinez said.
J.D. MARTINEZ.
WALK-OFF BLAST. 🚀 pic.twitter.com/SAvgsmiIxe
— New York Mets (@Mets) June 14, 2024
The biggest reason for optimism was Díaz’s outing. During his time on the injured list and stretch of poor pitching before that, the Mets proved they have little chance of relevancy this summer without Díaz being a dependable closer. In a 1-2-3 ninth inning, in his return, Díaz looked the part.
Díaz hit 99-plus mph three times — he had thrown only four such pitches (and none in the same game) this season before the outing. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he liked Díaz’s sequencing, which popped up as an issue last month. With the clean inning, Díaz lowered his ERA to 5.14.
“I was feeling 100 percent. I saw I was throwing 99, 100 today; I didn’t do that early in the season,” Díaz said. “I was locating pitches the way I wanted to. My slider was sharp. And I just did my job.”
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So did Severino, who tossed six innings and allowed seven hits, three walks and one run with two strikeouts. Severino struggled at times to put batters away, but he escaped trouble by executing pitches at critical points, like getting a double play with the bases loaded to end the fourth inning. To do so, Severino utilized his sinker, a pitch that he has relied on more than ever in his career and a pitch the Mets have helped him develop and gain confidence in.
Rival evaluators suggested Severino could fetch the best return among the Mets’ trade candidates — possibly more than even Pete Alonso — because of the number of suitors needing pitching help. And Díaz is probably deserving of being the club’s All-Star representative. The way he’s pitching, he’d help any team. For the Mets, he ended a streak of four straight games of a starting pitcher not appearing beyond the fifth inning. Before Thursday, Severino was the last Mets starter to do it, when he tossed eight innings in his previous start on June 5, which was also a win.
For the Mets, the scene of Martinez getting mobbed at home plate looked familiar. It was the Mets’ sixth walk-off win of the season, the most such wins in the majors. Each walk-off win this season has occurred in the series finale. Each time, though, the Mets have failed to bottle up the feeling for a sustained amount of time.
Next up is the San Diego Padres (37-35), winners of three straight. They’re much better than the Marlins and have rallied to climb above a pack of mediocre rosters vying for two of the National League’s three wild-card spots (the Mets are three games out). All it required was a stretch of solid — not great — play. It’s the low bar the Mets must clear with the trade deadline a month and a half away.
“We’ll be ready,” Mendoza said. “We’ve had some tough losses, but the guys continue to show up, continue to battle, continue to fight. Today, we saw it. On a night where it was hard for us offensively, we found a way and won a baseball game.”
(Photo of J.D. Martinez getting doused after his walk-off homer: Elsa / Getty Images)
Will Sammon is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering the New York Mets and Major League Baseball. A native of Queens, New York, Will previously covered the Milwaukee Brewers and Florida Gators football for The Athletic, starting in 2018. Before that, he covered Mississippi State for The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi’s largest newspaper. Follow Will on Twitter @WillSammon
