DENVER – Francisco Alvarez can rest Monday.
As tempted as manager Buck Showalter was to rest his rookie catcher on a Sunday morning after a night game, removing the reckless Alvarez from the Mets lineup wasn’t an option.
Alvarez threw again, with his second homer in as many days, in the Mets’ 11-10 loss to the Rockies at Coors Field. Alvarez’s blowout was his seventh in his last 15 games, and three of those came on this wild ride.
“It could have been a tough day for him today, but no one told him he was supposed to be tired,” Showalter said. “I don’t want to be overly descriptive, but it was a strength.”
Alvarez, who recently removed any doubt about who should receive the majority of casts behind the plate even when Omar Narváez returns from the injured list (likely in early June), has a .315/.383/.778 slash over his past 15 games.
Alvarez’s three-run homer in the fourth gave the Mets a 6-2 lead. After the Mets fell into an 11-7 hole, he came to the plate with two runners on base in the eighth, but got into a double play. Alvarez singler against gloved Daniel Bard of Ezequiel Tovar left the bat at 109.9 mph.
“He keeps doing things like that and he’s really going to help us get away from our offense and you’ve already seen that,” Brandon Nemo said. “I have already seen it. We produce more runs when he’s in the lineup and doing his thing.”
Jeff McNeil was absent from the starting lineup resting his right groin, which he said he made the final adjustment in Friday’s game. McNeil entered the Sunday game as a pinch hitter in the ninth and pitched a single. His prediction is that he will be back in the starting lineup for the home starter on Tuesday against the Phillies.
The Mets lost both of their series on this road trip after splitting four games against the Nationals to cap off their previous game. The Mets haven’t won a road series since winning two of three games at Dodger Stadium on April 17-19.
