How Francisco Alvarez has made Mets’ pitching staff better: ‘Love this kid’
NY Post
The Francisco Alvarez Effect has been real.
The Mets are 29-13 in games in which their precocious young catcher plays and 17-32 without him.
Sure, the upgrade with the bat — his .852 OPS began play Wednesday as third-best among catchers with at least 100 plate appearances — has been significant.
But Alvarez’s influence on the pitching staff has been nearly as stark.
Consider the fact that with Alvarez squatting behind home plate, Mets pitchers brought a 3.25 ERA into the Mets’ 6-2 win over the Nationals at Citi Field.
The Mets’ team ERA entered play an entire run higher — 4.25 — and only four primary catchers in all of MLB brought better marks than Alvarez’s into play (Atlanta’s Sean Murphy at 2.55, Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto at 2.86, Boston’s Reese McGuire at 3.01 and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh at 3.25).
With the Yankees on an impressive run of mostly correct decisions, there’s some reason to leave them alone and just let the best team in the American League continue to roll. But they did raise serious doubt and leave room for suggestions (and even ridicule) following maybe the most inexplicable decision of this season, or any season.
The Giants have never been 0-2 under Brian Daboll, until now. They were 2-0 and flying high in 2022 and 1-1 after a rousing comeback in Arizona in 2023. So, this represents a low point as far as early-season difficulties for Daboll and the Giants. They had no business beating the Vikings in the opener and no business losing to the Commanders in Week 2. But here they are.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Harrison Butker kept making a lonely walk to midfield after each quarter Sunday to check on the direction of the wind, which tends to swirl inside Arrowhead Stadium. He did it one last time during the 2-minute warning, when his Chiefs were trailing the Bengals by two and trying to give him a winning field-goal attempt.