Mets miss a late-game lefty, lose another DH in doubleheader: 3 takeaways

New York Times

11-07-2025

BALTIMORE — It was a forgettable Thursday for the Mets.
The Orioles swept New York in a doubleheader, 3-1 and 7-3, at Camden Yards. The Mets' bullpen blew a late lead in the opener and couldn't keep one in the nightcap. The offense went 2-for-19 with runners in scoring position.
'We just couldn't put anything together,' manager Carlos Mendoza said.
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Let's run through some takeaways.
Shortly after losing pitcher A.J. Minter for the season, president of baseball operations David Stearns acknowledged the magnitude of the loss.
'We're not going to be able to explicitly replace what he meant for our team,' Stearns said in the middle of June. 'So we're going to have to figure out a way to cobble that together. Whether it's in August, September or October, we're going to be facing very good left-handed hitters in leverage spots, and we're going to have to have pitchers who can get those guys out. Some of those pitchers are probably on our roster right now. To the extent we can continue to balance our pen with additional players who can get lefties out, we're going to look to do that.'
The Mets have felt Minter's absence at various junctures this season, but never more acutely than in Thursday's first game. Ryne Stanek gave up the go-ahead homer to lefty-swinging Gunnar Henderson in the eighth inning of the 3-1 loss.
Ryne Stanek is asked to assess his first half of the season:
"Besides a couple ugly ones, I think I've thrown the ball pretty well…overall, trying to stay away from the big, ugly ones is more conducive to putting up overall good numbers" pic.twitter.com/rbm8VIazSp
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) July 10, 2025
New York led 1-0 into the eighth. Mendoza had already started going batter-to-batter with starter David Peterson in the seventh inning. (This essentially means that Peterson was going to be removed if anyone reached base.) After Peterson's 1-2-3 seventh inning, Mendoza sent Peterson back out with 87 pitches and 6-7-8 due up in the Baltimore order.
But when Peterson allowed lefty Colton Cowser's leadoff single the other way, Mendoza decided Peterson had done more than enough for the day. He turned to righty Ryne Stanek out of the pen, even though going with a righty meant the O's could pinch-hit their two best hitters, Gunnar Henderson and Ryan O'Hearn, who had started the day on the bench because of their struggles against southpaws.
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This was a spot that Minter would have filled if healthy. With him out, Stanek stood out as the best of Mendoza's bullpen options. Of the right-handed set-up men in Mendoza's pen, Stanek has been the best against lefties throughout his career and this season. (He's actually been better against lefties than righties for his career, and this season he's held lefties to a .660 OPS, compared to .746 for Reed Garrett and .816 for Huascar Brazobán.)
Perhaps bringing in lefty Richard Lovelady would have kept Henderson and O'Hearn on the bench; however, Lovelady has allowed six hits (four of them for extra bases) in 16 at-bats against righties this season. Mendoza could have gone outside the box by bringing in reverse-split righty Chris Devenski, who's always been good at getting lefties out but has traditionally struggled against righties (albeit not as much in limited big-league action this year).
The only other real option was keeping Peterson in, and Mendoza had already signaled (by warming Brazobán as early as the sixth inning and by telling Peterson he was batter-to-batter by the seventh) that he didn't want to extend his starter too much.
'Once you get to the eighth inning, I had Stanek ready,' Mendoza said. 'We're in the eighth, 90 pitches, (Peterson) did his part.'
'I felt like I was in a good spot, pitch-wise. I felt great, physically,' Peterson said. 'He made it clear that he was going to be aggressive, so I wasn't really surprised when he came out and signaled to the bullpen.'
Once in the game, Stanek just didn't have it. Henderson golfed his 2-1 slider onto Eutaw Street in right field to turn a one-run deficit into a one-run Baltimore lead. Stanek then walked four of the next six hitters, throwing a total of 11 strikes in 31 pitches.
When Jesse Winker and Starling Marte have been healthy, the Mets have gotten excellent results out of their planned DH platoon: The two have combined to be about 20 percent better than a league-average hitter. That would place them eighth in baseball in production from the DH spot.
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However, Winker missed two months with an oblique injury and was headed for an MRI on Thursday for back tightness, just two games into his return. Marte is already on the IL with a bone bruise in his right knee, the same one that required an injection in spring training.
If these were one-off injuries where you could bank on better health in the second half, the Mets could feel comfortable moving forward with Winker and Marte. But both players have struggled to stay on the field in recent years, and it's hard to count on that platoon being fully healthy for the stretch run and into October. Yes, the Mets have other options (see the next header). However, the inconsistency at the bottom of their order and this uncertainty at DH should make adding another established bat a consideration at the trade deadline.
When Winker's back tightened up in Thursday's first game, Mark Vientos came off the bench and delivered a pair of hits — the same number of knocks he'd had in his prior 27 at-bats since coming off the injured list himself.
Mark Vientos lines a double to start the 6th pic.twitter.com/PRVg6ktovC
— SNY (@SNYtv) July 10, 2025
'That was good to see. He hit the ball hard,' Mendoza said. 'He's going through it. Hopefully that game gets him going.'
(In the nightcap, Vientos went 0-for-4. After a 10-pitch at-bat ended in a groundout in the second inning, his last three at-bats lasted just seven pitches, including two strikeouts.)
Vientos has seen his playing time dwindle, first with the injury (a low-grade hamstring strain) and then with the slump since his return. Mendoza has been juggling Vientos with Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio and Jeff McNeil on the infield, and Vientos has been the cold bat.
But with Winker's back tightness requiring a trip home to New York for an MRI, it wouldn't be a surprise if he landed on the 10-day IL. Given that Marte is also on the shelf, that would open up the DH spot for Vientos for the whole series in Kansas City and potentially for a few games after the break. Vientos hasn't started games on four consecutive days since May 18 to May 21.
(Photo of Tyrone Taylor and Juan Soto: Greg Fiume / Getty Images)