The Mets’ ace (Kodai Senga) is not yet able to throw upright.
Team president David Stearns heard enough queries about a potential future ace (Brandon Sproat) before the game that he showed some impatience in stating, “As for right now, he’s a Triple-A player,” and Stearns would talk more about Sproat if and when he becomes a major leaguer.
There are plenty of questions about the Mets’ staff because it lacks top-end arms, which probably will matter eventually.
But if the club is going anywhere this year, it likely would be because its offense slugs its way to October.
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The Mets’ best weapon is a deep and powerful lineup that is showing signs of getting hot again.
Carlos Mendoza’s group collected five extra-base hits, including a pair of homers, to pound Marlins pitching in a series-opening, 7-3 win in front of 32,311 loud and happy fans on a gorgeous Friday night.
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During the club’s four-game skid that stretched from last weekend into this week, it scored a total of five runs.
In the Mets’ past three games — two of them victories — they have touched home 22 times and reminded that the top of the order can carry them, the middle of the order can deliver and the bottom of the order is stronger than most.
“One-through-nine, we can do damage,” Mendoza said after the whole lineup contributed with 10 hits and five walks. “We got guys who can drive the ball out of the ballpark. We got guys that can put the ball in play when we need to. Guys that have the ability to use the whole field.
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“… We’re seeing some signs now, where: OK, we’re getting back on track.”
Their first lead arrived in the first, when Brandon Nimmo reached second on a Miami error and J.D. Martinez came through with a two-out, RBI single.
Their second lead arrived in the fourth, when the Mets responded to a two-run Marlins top of the inning with a six-run bottom of the inning.
No. 8 hitter Jeff McNeil jumped on a slow slider from Roddery Munoz — who had stymied the Mets twice this season — and crushed his seventh homer of the second half, a two-run shot that gifted the Mets an edge they soon would extend.
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After a Harrison Bader walk, leadoff hitter Francisco Lindor snuck an RBI triple inside the first-base line. Mark Vientos was drilled, putting two on base for a deeply slumping Nimmo.
One day after a stomach bug knocked Nimmo from the lineup, he demolished a first-pitch slider into the right-field seats for a three-run shot.
“When you have a longer lineup, obviously there’s less mistakes to make,” said Nimmo, whose dinger was his first since July 10. “The more guys that are swinging the bat well, the better. What I would hope is we’re coming into a stretch where we’re swinging the bats really well and we have a few guys doing it.”
Both Mets homers came against Miami sliders, which might prove significant.
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Before the game, hitting coach Eric Chavez talked with his group about its struggles against breaking pitches.
“There’s a trend right now,” Chavez said. “Teams are throwing us a lot of spin, and we’re not very good on it.
“What do you guys want to do?”
It has become obvious what opposing pitchers want to do: Throw Mets batters as many breaking pitches as possible.
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Entering play, no team in baseball had seen more breaking balls (6,067, according to Baseball Savant) than the Mets, who were encountering a curveball, slider, sweeper, slurve or knuckleball 33.5 percent of the time.
There is good reason other teams’ staffs have tried to spin their way past Mets bats: Those Mets bats were hitting just .225 against the pitches.
Their .350 slugging percentage against breaking pitches was the ninth-worst in baseball.
After a couple home runs, that slugging percentage will improve.
The cushion proved plenty for Sean Manaea (seven innings in which he allowed three runs) and Jose Butto (two scoreless innings).
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Manaea rebounded from a dud in Seattle and pitched through the seventh for a third time in his past four games.
“I’m just trying to help this team win,” said Manaea, whose ERA is 3.46. “That’s sometimes only four or five innings or seven innings — great. It feels good to go seven, but I’m just trying to help the team win any way that I can.”
He did what the Mets needed him to do: Pitch well enough to allow his offense a chance to run away with the game.
