The Mets face three challenges tonight:
- Last year, and continuing into this year, Sunday’s are not their thing
- The Mets struggled to sweep three game series in 2017
- The Nationals are a good team that just lost two in a row to the underdogs in the division
Three challenges. Three trends the Mets could buck tonight. This weekend’s series against the Nationals has already been a success but now the Mets are in a position to make a statement. Starting for the Mets tonight is the pitcher who used to be all about making statements: Matt Harvey. In Harvey’s first start of the season he held the Phillies to one hit and no runs over 5.0 winnings while walking 1 and striking out 5. Last year Harvey faced the Nationals twice. In April he held the Nationals to 3 runs over 7.0 innings from 4 hits and 2 walks (2 K’s) in a game the Mets eventually lost. It was his first average start of the season and ushered in three terrible starts. His second to last start of the season was against the Nationals where he allowed 3 runs over 4.0 innings from 4 hits and 2 walks (also two strikeouts). The Nationals have the following numbers against Harvey:
- Harper 2-29, HR, 3 BB, 7 K
- Rendon 9-23, 2B, 3B, HR, 2 BB
- Zimmerman 6-23, 2B, 2 HR, 2 BB, 6 K
- Taylor 5-20, 2B, BB, 5 K
- Kendrick 2-11, BB
- Eaton 0-5
- Turner 1-5
The Mets bats draw Tanner Roark today who is coming off a strong start to kick-off the season. He allowed 1 run from 4 hits and a walk over 7.0 innings. Last season he went 13-11 over 32 games (30 starts) in 181.1 innings posting a 4.67 ERA, 4.13 FIP, 1.335 WHIP and 95 ERA+. He faced the Mets twice last year allowed 6 runs from 12 hits and 3 walks in 12.2 innings where he still struck out 14 Mets. The Mets have the following numbers against Roark:
- Lagareus 3-17, 2 2B, BB
- Bruce 2-14, 3 BB
- Cespedes 2-13, 2B, 2 BB
- d’Arnaud 1-13, 2 BB
- Flores 2-13, 2B
- Reyes 3-11, 2 BB
- Conforto 3-9, 2B, HR, 3 BB
- Carbera 2-8, 2B, BB
- Frazier 2-7, HR, 2 BB
- Gonzalez 3-7, 2B, HR
- Nimmo 2-3, HR
Who’s Hotter than the weather the Mets get to experience tomorrow in Miami?
Cabrera! He manufactured one of the runs completely yesterday from getting Rosario in to dominating the base paths. He’s now hitting .310/.375/.414 on the year.
Who’s Colder than the weather the Mets played in pretty much every other day this year?
The umpiring crew yesterday. The Home Plate umpire had an inconsistent strike zone to say the least, made a questionable ejection and heard about his zone from 90% of both teams.
Let’s Go Mets!
