Mets vs. Astros recap: Flexen, Mets swept by Astros

In their series finale in Houston on Sunday afternoon, the Mets briefly had a pretty good shot at winning but went on to lose anyway. Although they scored twice in the first and twice again in the second, taking a 4-1 lead into the third inning, things unraveled from there.

Chris Flexen, who pretty clearly isn’t quite ready for major league success just yet—which shouldn’t be surprising given the context of his original call-up—surrendered five runs in the bottom of the third and one more in the fourth to put the Mets behind. They never quite recovered from that, though they came close to tying the game late.

The bright spots in the game came at the plate. Nori Aoki, who went 3-for-4 with a walk, two runs scored, and two runs batted in, was one of them. Through his first weekend with the Mets, he’s hitting .444/.500/.556 for the team. Brandon Nimmo drew three walks, went 1-for-2, and scored and drove in one run apiece. Dom Smith went 2-for-5 and drove in a run, and Jose Reyes went 2-for-4 with a couple of runs scored. Just how much those four players will factor into the Mets’ 2018 plans remains to be seen—the best guess right now is that the answer will be “heavily”—but at least the younger pair of players have shown some promising signs.

With that three-game sweep at the hands of the Astros behind them, the Mets head to Philadelphia, where they will face one of the only teams that’s very likely to draft ahead of them in the amateur draft in June.

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Box scores

ESPN
MLB.com

Win Probability Added

FanGraphs

What’s WPA?

Big winners: Nori Aoki, +21.4% WPA, Brandon Nimmo, +16.4% WPA
Big losers: Chris Flexen, -57.2% WPA, Asdrubal Cabrera, -23.2% WPA, Kevin Plawecki, -19.1% WPA, Travis d’Arnaud, -12.2% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Nori Aoki doubles in the eighth, +14.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Cameron Maybin hits a three-run home run to put the Astros up 6-4 in the third, -18.5% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -54.4% WPA
Total batter WPA: +4.4% WPA
GWRBI!: George Springer