Mets show energy they can build on after series win vs. Rays

If Wednesday night was nothing short of a miracle, Thursday afternoon was more like what was expected this season, a fairly routine win built around strong pitching, a Pete Alonso home run and just enough hitting otherwise.

And just like that, suddenly it feels as if there is hope again for the 2023 Mets. Out of nowhere, it seems, the ballclub is energized and the fans are back on their side.

It can happen quickly in baseball. Especially for a team with so much talent.

Somebody just had to break the dam. For these Mets, it was the kid fresh out of Triple-A, Mark Vientos.

He’s one of three rookies, together with Francisco Alvarez and Brett Baty, who offer hope for a big turnaround for this team.

Indeed their power potential is what this offense desperately needs, which is why all three should be in the lineup on a near-daily basis, and also why the fan base had a right to be losing its collective mind about Buck Showalter sitting Vientos on Thursday so he could DH Daniel Vogelbach.

The manager obviously believes in Vogelbach, and the big guy does have some value as a high-percentage, on-base guy against right-handed pitching.

But even if you look past the fact that he’s been very cold lately, and takes way too many pitches in RBI situations, the more important point is that Vientos needs the chance to play regularly so the Mets can find out if his power can be a difference-maker at the major league level.

In any case, Showalter’s loyalty made him look bad Wednesday night when he pinch-hit Vogelbach for Tommy Pham in an RBI spot when the Mets were trailing 1-0. He had to know Kevin Cash would counter with lefty Jake Diekman, and as badly as Vogelbach hits lefties, the strikeout looking was as predictable as Showalter’s strategy was baffling.

“Honestly,” one long-time scout told me, “it’s about the only time I can remember seeing Buck get outmanaged in a matchup situation. He had a better chance leaving Pham in to hit [against Kevin Kelly]. Buck always has a plan but I can’t figure that one out.”

In that sense, Showalter was lucky his team came back and the move wasn’t an issue. Look, I’m not jumping on the anti-Buck bandwagon by any means. I’ve known him forever and, like so many people in baseball, I’ll always have tremendous respect for his knowledge and the way he prepares. As the scout said, he always has a plan.

Yet it does seem fair to say he has been slow to warm up to the idea of playing the kids this season, whether it was Baty upon his arrival, then Alvarez, and, judging by Buck’s pre-game comments on Thursday, it sounded as if he will take a similar approach with Vientos.

Maybe he thinks it’s the best way to break in the rookies, but the perception among fans is that he’s too beholden to veterans who aren’t producing.

As it applied to his Thursday lineup decisions, I thought Buck would have tried to seize that Vientos-fueled momentum from Wednesday night.

Technically, after all, you can make the argument that Alvarez and Alonso hit bigger home runs in that wild win on Wednesday night, but I’d argue that neither of those happen without Vientos.

Just remember the sense of doom and gloom at the time.

One night earlier, Justin Verlander had taken a pounding on Tuesday and the Citi Field crowd booed loudly, as if these Mets were the worst team that money could buy.

They weren’t hitting. They weren’t pitching. They were making mental mistakes that you don’t expect from a Showalter team.

Let’s face it, for about three weeks they had been unwatchable.

And after six innings on Wednesday, they looked like a lock to be shut out for the eighth time this season.

Then Vientos hit that game-tying home run to dead-center in the seventh inning, and, well, put it this way: no team crumbling under the weight of its own expectations ever needed a jolt of electricity more than these Mets.

At least that’s how it feels after they backed it up Thursday.

Specifically, it was vital that Tylor Megill followed up Kodai Senga’s dazzling outing with perhaps his best start of the season, largely shutting down the best offense in baseball for six innings.

In truth, lousy starting pitching has been at the root of the Mets’ problems almost from Day One, and if there is to be a true turnaround to this season, it will revolve mostly around a rotation that appears to be healthier and better equipped to deliver quality starts, and at least some dominance on a regular basis.

Of course, that feeling could change quickly if Carlos Carrasco returns from the IL on Friday night against the Cleveland Guardians and looks anything like the guy who pitched to an 8.56 ERA in his three starts before his injury.

Most importantly, however, I think Verlander will be fine. He got hurt by a couple of long balls against a home-run-hitting team in the Rays, but overall his three starts have offered plenty of reason to think he can still be a No. 1-type starter.

And Max Scherzer finally looked like Max Scherzer in his last start, proving that when he’s not protecting some injured body part, he still does have that much-needed zip on his fastball.

Meanwhile, the bullpen is starting to show cracks that were inevitable after the Edwin Diaz injury, but David Robertson has been as good as anyone could have hoped as the primary closer, and the pen is the area easiest to address at the trade deadline.

What the Mets need most is for their starters to hold the fort early. Too many times this season the offense has been playing from behind, and while some of that is their own fault, at some point in recent weeks it felt as if the weight of early deficits was adding to their struggles.

Maybe they’ve been freed up now, the hitters as well as the pitchers. It’s only two wins but you’d have to think that taking the series against the Rays, the way they’ve been playing, should do wonders for the Mets’ confidence.

Was a weight lifted Wednesday night by the kid sluggers? It sure feels that way.