The start of a new week means another tough weekend to unpack for the New York Mets.

It was largely a weekend to forget for the Mets in Philadelphia. An implosion from the bullpen led to an ugly 10-2 defeat and a seventh straight loss in Friday’s series opener. The team had seemingly hit rock bottom.

Then, on Saturday, a corner seemed to have been turned. The offense exploded into life with seven home runs in a huge 11-4 win to end the losing streak in style.

However, all that joy and excitement proved to be short-lived. The Mets returned to losing ways on Sunday, dropping the finale and the series to cap off a miserable stretch of baseball. New York has now lost eight of its past nine games. The ballclub no longer sits atop the NL East. A crucial four-game series with the Braves in Queens now awaits.

Before we get to that, however, let’s recap everything from the weekend in the latest edition of 3 Up, 3 Down…

Juan Soto (22) Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images

3 UP
SHOWING IMPROVEMENT

Despite not having plenty of time to prepare, Blade Tidwell delivered a better performance in his second career MLB start. The rookie was told the night before he would be starting Friday’s opener against the Phillies. Despite the resulting rush, Tidwell was better than his nightmare debut in which he allowed six earned runs. The righty held an explosive Phillies offense to three scoreless innings. He did run into trouble in the fourth, allowing two earned runs. However, it was a step in the right direction for Tidwell, who showed plenty of upside with his fastball.

HITTING HIS STRIDE

Juan Soto is starting to look more like himself. He is hitting .350/.458/.800/.1.258 over his last six games. Furthermore, the superstar hitter is reaching base at a high clip. He drew three walks in the two losses to the Phillies. Then, in the middle game of the series, Soto went off. He finished 4-for-5 with two runs scored, two home runs and four RBIs. When he’s at his best, Soto can take over games as he did on Saturday. When looking at a larger sample size, the four-time All-Star is slashing .338/.495/.716 with 22 walks, eight homers, four doubles, 16 RBIs and 20 runs scored over his last 22 games. Those stats, coupled with Saturday’s stellar showing, suggest Soto is becoming more and more locked in. That could be crucial to helping the Mets out of their current rut.

OFFENSIVE POTENTIAL

The lineup didn’t do a good enough job overall this weekend. That’s why the Mets dropped another big series. However, on Saturday, we saw the full potential of this offense. The lineup exploded for 11 runs, including seven home runs. It was just the fifth time in franchise history that the Mets hit seven or more home runs in a single game. They also hit back-to-back-to-back homers for just the 10th time in franchise history. Both Soto and Brandon Nimmo went yard twice. Francisco Lindor, Jared Young and Francisco Alvarez also hit home runs in the win. Although they couldn’t repeat the feat on Sunday, we saw just how dangerous this lineup can be when it is at its best. Now, the offense just needs to find some consistency.

Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

3 DOWN
STUNNING DEMOTION

Okay, so the writing has been on the wall for a while as it pertains to Francisco Alvarez potentially getting sent down to Triple-A. But it didn’t make the actual event any less shocking on Sunday. The struggling Alvarez was officially optioned to Triple-A Syracuse on Sunday. He will now look to work on his flaws and claw back some confidence without having to worry about the spotlight every single day. It is a demotion that makes sense for all parties. Alvarez has regressed both defensively and offensively this year, and not by a little bit, either. He has looked lost both behind and at the plate. He’s been making defensive errors while hitting just .236/.319/.333 with six extra-base hits.

A reset has been needed for a while. As for the Mets, they are trying to compete for a championship and don’t have the luxury of allowing a young player to work it out on the fly. The Mets will now hope that Alvarez can make the necessary adjustments and show he’s ready to return to the big leagues sooner rather than later.

RARE MISTEP 

It is never a good sign when a team’s most reliable starter gets knocked around. That was the case for David Peterson,who endured a rare off-night on Sunday. In the series finale, Peterson got shelled for five runs on six hits and three walks in just four innings. He also gave up two home runs in the fourth, including a three-run shot that blew the game wide open. Peterson never recovered from that blow, and neither did the Mets. With the bullpen exhausted and the offense going quiet again, New York needed Peterson’s usual best. Sadly, he just didn’t have it on Sunday.

RUNNING ON EMPTY

The bullpen is reeling right now. An already taxed unit was pushed to its absolute limits over the weekend. It started in the series opener on Friday. After Blade Tidwell could only go 3.2 innings, the bullpen was called upon to carry the majority of the workload. It worked for a while until Reed Garrett entered the game and proceeded to allow four runs to blow open what had been a tie game. Justin Garza couldn’t limit the damage, also giving up four earned runs as a close game morphed into an embarrassing loss for the Mets. To be fair, the relief pitching rebounded on Saturday with four innings of scoreless relief. But, on Sunday, the bullpen would allow another two earned runs. More crucially, relievers are being asked to log a lot of innings right now. That just isn’t sustainable, and it will lead to more blown games.