I don't think a West Coast road trip ever counts as soft, even when the teams aren't very good. Those were also both .470-.480 teams, far better than the Pirates or Marlins. In baseball even the worst team is gonna win 1 out of 3. They should have gone 3-3 on that trip and you could have forgiven 2-4 as just being a tough break, so I'm not defending it, but I also don't think it was easy.
Right or wrong they must have some data on Alvarardo's usage - or knowledge of how his arm feels - that affects they way they use him. Or maybe Thomson actually is misreading things - still thinking of him as the guy from previous years (or earlier this year) just like he thinks of Robertson as a horse.
Sky is not exactly falling though. Arguably most of these injuries - certainly Wheeler and Seranthony, and Schwarber never even went on IL - would have been things the players played through if it was later in the season or a tighter playoff race, or if they had a shot at the fourth seed. They felt they had some cushion, and they were right. Lead over Milwaukee today is bigger than it was the week both Seranthony and Wheeler went on the IL, if only slightly. They've lost ground to San Diego but that still seems like a blessing, especially if the Mets don't blow it (yeah, we've played the Braves better but the Braves just seem to keep getting better. The upcoming six games will be very clarifying, both for how they measure up and for whether they continue to have this semi-comfortable lead.
