00:00This is Joel Sherman again with three things I'm thinking. I'm going to begin with Clay Holmes and I'm going to talk about running the marathon and performing at a level of expectation and how important that is.
00:15If on March 27th, when the season began, I had told you that Clay Holmes would make 30 starts, have a positive ERA plus, the Mets would be 17-13 in his starts, he would pitch more than 150 innings.
00:34You'd go, where do I sign up for that? Well, that's what Clay Holmes has done this year.
00:38The Mets signed him to a three-year, $39 million contract to transition him, and they hoped he'd be a strong back-end starter.
00:46You know what he's been? A strong back-end starter.
00:49377 ERA has run, and again, just attendance sometimes matters.
00:56Over the course of this season, Griffin Koenig, Frankie Montas, Tyler McGill lost to injury.
01:02Kodai Senga, first loss to injury for a significant period, now in the minor leagues.
01:07Clay Holmes going out there and making starts has really, really mattered for the Mets.
01:13You know, it's interesting. Holmes didn't keep his job for a whole season last year with the Yankees as their closer.
01:19He ultimately ended up being the setup man to Luke Weaver at the end of the year,
01:24and then a valuable, very valuable reliever in the postseason as the Yankees made a run to the World Series.
01:30I wonder if we did see the beginning of Holmes being valuable again in some kind of hybrid form in the postseason
01:38with him and Sean Minaya piggybacking a game to open the series against the Padres,
01:42but just isolating Clay Holmes, who was the surprise opening day starter for the Mets on March 27th against Houston,
01:49and here he is months and months later as one of the guys who has survived the season and performed above average.
01:57That's what the Mets were hoping for, and that's what Clay Holmes has given him.
02:02Number two, let's talk about somebody who was back in the lineup last night.
02:06That's Anthony Volpe.
02:08Look, it was one game.
02:09It was against a Minnesota team that gave up 10 runs right away,
02:15but it's pretty clear Aaron Boone wants Anthony Volpe to be the shortstop of this team.
02:22He thinks that that is the best form for the Yankees,
02:26and with Jose Caballero being able to be used especially as a late-game weapon for the right running situation
02:32or double switch into a game and play someplace on the field.
02:37So I think Volpe's going to get a shot here.
02:39In these last 10 days to see if he could win back his job.
02:42He missed six games.
02:44Some of them, about three or four of them, were because he took a cortisone shot.
02:49You remember he made a diving play earlier in the season.
02:52He has a torn labrum in his left shoulder.
02:56And maybe this calmed it down.
02:59Maybe this is a reminder that a guy Volpe's size shouldn't play day after day.
03:03That maybe one of the ways to get the best out of him is to play him four out of five, five out of six,
03:09but not just run him into the ground over and over again.
03:12What was the most encouraging thing from the game?
03:15Both hits by Volpe were to right field yesterday.
03:18He had a double and a single besides a walk.
03:21I am no hitting guru, but I think that Anthony Volpe is at his best
03:25when he does not get into the turn and burn, open up his front hip,
03:30try to hit the ball in the air constantly.
03:32And I think he loses the ability.
03:34You know, as an amateur, he was thought of as a terrific hitter, not a power hitter.
03:41As a guy who could put the ball in play and have some average,
03:44we obviously haven't seen that as a Yankee.
03:46But I thought the best he ever was as a Yankee was in the postseason last year.
03:50And in the postseason last year, he was an all-fields hitter.
03:53He is not a guy who should be trying to put the ball in the air to the pull side constantly.
03:59He should use counts and moments to maybe try to drive the ball in the air.
04:04But yesterday was an example of when he uses the field, he can be a better hitter, I think.
04:10We'll see what happens moving forward.
04:12But clearly, Aaron Boone wants Anthony Volpe to be the shortstop of the New York Yankees.
04:18Why don't we close it out by pointing out the Mets have won two straight games as we speak.
04:24I still feel like they're going to be that last wildcard team.
04:27They're so much better than the teams who are chasing them.
04:31At this point, San Francisco and Cincinnati are under 500 teams.
04:35Arizona is barely above it.
04:38I want to point out one quirk in the playoff tiebreaker situation.
04:43As you might or might not know, there are no longer playoff games to decide those one-game knockout games if two teams are tied.
04:52And the Diamondbacks, who are now a game and a half behind the Mets and the Mets, are tied in their season series, 3-3.
05:00So that's the first tiebreaker.
05:02The second tiebreaker is within your division record.
05:06Which means the Mets have six games coming up against the Nationals and Marlins.
05:11They better do some damage in those games.
05:14Because right now, that's the second tiebreaker.
05:17The Mets are 500 against their division.
05:20They're 23-23.
05:22The Diamondbacks are 25-20.
05:24Now they have six left against the Padres and Dodgers.
05:27Plus one tonight, as we're speaking, against the Giants, who they took two from.
05:32If they get to a second tiebreaker right now, the Diamondbacks would win that second tiebreaker.
05:37How many times have we seen the Marlins break the Mets' hearts over the years?
05:43The last three games of this season for the Mets are against the Marlins.
05:48Can you imagine if this came down to a tiebreaker and the Mets lost the second tiebreaker within the division record because they couldn't beat the Marlins again?
05:58So it's not just that the Mets are on good footing now.
06:01But they should be able to put a brick on the gas pedal and move far ahead of these teams.
06:05But one way to secure this and know for sure if the Diamondbacks are actually getting hot late in the year.
06:10And it's incredible that the Diamondbacks are getting hot.
06:13Remember, they were a big seller at the deadline.
06:15They traded one of their best starters, Merrill Kelly.
06:18They traded their corner infielders, Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez.
06:24Shelby Miller got traded.
06:26Randall Gritchick got traded.
06:27They lost Corbin Burns early in the season.
06:29Their ace, he needed Tommy John surgery.
06:31They lost two of their best relief pitchers, Justin Martinez and A.J. Puck.
06:36Recently, they lost their first base platoon in Pavan Smith and Tyler Locklear.
06:42I mean, they are a wounded warrior trying to get to the finish line.
06:46The Mets should finish off this team.
06:48One way to do that is to take care of business in their division.
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