Mets Facts — June 21, 2024

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Sixty years ago, on Father’s Day, June 21, 1964 in the first game of a twin bill, the Phillies’ Jim Bunning no-hit the Mets at Shea Stadium, striking out 10 while walking none in the only perfect game ever pitched against the Queens men. It was Bunning’s first season with the Phils after being traded to them by the Tigers in one of baseball’s most lopsided deals.

Unfortunately for the home team, despite getting three hits in the second game they were again no match for the league-leading Phils, whose three runs in the top of the first were one more than then the Mets scored in the whole game, the Phillies sending nine batters to the plate before the Mets could get their turn in the batter’s box.

The day’s two losses put the cellar-dwelling Mets 21.5 games behind the Phils in the National League standings and 11.5 behind the next-to-last Milwaukee Braves.

At that point in the season, the Mets were the only NL team whose pitchers had yielded more than 300 runs.

At season’s end, their top four starters all had losing records:

StarterWL
Jack Fisher1017
Tracy Stallard1020
Al Jackson1116
Galen Cisco619

Since 1962, only 15 Mets pitchers have lost 16 or more games in a season and, only in 1964, did four do that. Further, in 1962, three accomplished that feat; in 1963 and 1965, two did.7

The last Mets’ pitcher to lose >= 16 in a season was Mike Torrez, who lost 17 in 1983 while walking 113 batters on a team that won only 68 games.

Mets Facts — June 20, 2024

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This season, Brandon Nimmo and J. D. Martinez are tied with the most hits (13) when they swung with a 0-0 count with the Mets. As a team, the Mets rank 13th in first-ptich hits, the Houston Astros first, per Baseball Savant.

Ninety-nine times since 1962, the Mets’ first batter in a game got a first-pitch hit on their first at-bat, per Stathead, with Jose Reyes getting the most, 17, and Jeff McNeil having the 3rd-most at 7.

McNeil is also one of three current Mets in the Top 10 of Mets with the most first-pitch hits, regardless of inning.

#3 is Jeff McNeil with 196.

#8 is Brandon Nimmo with 130.

#10 is Brandon Nimmo with 125.

This season, Jose Altuve leads the majors in 1st-pitch hits with 23. The most a Met has is 13 (Nimmo).

A Historical Look

The first Met to start a game with a first-pitch hit was Dick Smith in 1964. It wasn’t until 1988 that a Met did it more than once in a season, Len Dykstra accomplishing the feat four times. Lance Johnson broke that record in 1996, getting a first pitch, game-leadoff hit eight times, a feat Jeff McNeil fell one short of tying in 2019.

Only six Mets started a game with a first-pitch homer. Jeff McNeil was the last one to do it in 2019 and Jose Reyes the only one to do it twice.

Test Your Mets Knowledge

Which Met has the most hits on his first-pitch swings in all his at-bats?

Mets Facts — June 18, 2024

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Six Mets hitters had two or more hits in yesterday’s 14-2 win over Texas Rangers, led by Lindor’s four hits.

The Mets’ record is nine batters getting more than two hits in a game, done in 2018 in a 14-2 win over the San Diego Padres.

Unfortunately, the Mets haven’t always won the games in which they had a number of batters getting multiple hits. One such loss occurred earlier this year against the Miami Marlins on May 18.

Going into the bottom of the ninth, the Mets were ahead 9-5; then, the bullpen folded. In the game, six Mets batters had at least two hits.

For stat buffs, the MLB record for most multi-hit batters in a game for one team is 10, first set in 1922 by the Pirates and then repeated in 1925 by the New York Giants, both games against the Phillies.

Data source: stathead.com

Wanted: Third Baseman

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Rylan Bannon by the Numbers

With a hole at the hot corner that has heated up with Ronnie Mauricio’s leg injury, a probable product of his playing spring, summer, fall, and winter ball, the Mets have invited a former high school second baseman who was the Big East Player of the Year in 2017, Rylan Bannon, to spring training.

After homering 15 times in his last season playing for the Xavier University Musketeers’ baseball team, he dipped into the double digits in homers in every season since, including 18 for the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, the PCL team with the lowest won-loss percentage in 2023, a fact Bannon’s resume is unlikely to mention.

His home run total, however, was the third most on the team in a league where it is common for batters to touch all four bases on a hit, 68 hitters doing that at least 10 times last season — 12 played third base.

Bannon didn’t just draw attention with his bat; he also showed skill on the basepath, stealing 12 bases, tying him for the league lead among third basemen.

In the field, in 479.2 innings at third, he made just five errors while notching 85 assists.

Bannon’s presence in spring training should increase the competition at a position where the Mets again do not have a proven “name” vying for the everyday job at third.