Thursday just was not the day for the Mets, and it really started on Wednesday. We all knew that the Mets were going to have a tight turn around going from a night game in Miami to a day game in New York in a situation that didn’t seem fair. (Remember, the Mets started their road trip with a workout in Syracuse following a day game in Sarasota, and then went to DC for a day game). The situation became even more unfair for the Mets after the game as Dominic Smith was selected for a random drug test so the Mets couldn’t leave the ballpark in Miami until 11 PM.
On top of that, Strasburg is a pretty good pitcher and on Thursday he was on his game and the Mets as a team, after slogging hits all week could only muster 4 hits against Stephen on Thursday. Now the Mets are coming off of a much needed day off, hopefully got some sleep and are ready to take on the Nationals at WWE day at Citi Field.
The Mets used the off-day to switch Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler in the rotation to break up Matz followed by Vargas in the rotation. In Matz’s first start of 2019, he allowed 3 runs, only one earned, over 5.1 innings off 6 hits and no walks while striking out 3. Steven faced the Nationals a ton last year and generally struggled against them making 6 starts totaling 26.0 innings allowing 18 runs, 17 earned from 32 hits and 10 walks (a 5.88 ERA). The Nationals have the following numbers against Matz:
- Michael A Taylor 4-23, HR, 2 BB, 13 K
- Anthony Rendon 8-24, 3 HR, 9 K
- Ryan Zimmerman 3-16, 2B, HR, BB, 3 K
- Howie Kendrick 3-13, 3 K
- Juan Soto 3-8, 2 K
- Adam Eaton 1-6
- Victor Robles 1-2, HR
- Patrick Corbin 0-4 , 3 K
Patrick Corbin will make his second start of the season against the same team he made his first start of the season against. Thank you baseball schedulers. Opening Weekend against the Mets he allowed 2 runs off 7 hits and 6.0 innings while walking 2 and striking out 4. I feel compelled to tell you in this paragraph that Todd Frazier is 4-15 with a double and a homer against Corbin, even though he’s injured right now, just because today is his bobblehead day at Citi Field. The Active Mets have these individual numbers against Corbin:
- Juan Lagares 2-16, 2B, HR, 2 K
- Michael Conforto 5-11, 2B, 3 HR, BB, 3 K (8 RBI)
- Keon Broxton 6-8, 2B, 3B, 3 BB (.818 OBP)
- Amed Rosario 2-11, 2B, HR, K
- Brandon Nimmo 3-9, BB, 3 K
- Robinson Cano 1-5, HR, BB, K
- JD Davis 1-6, 2B
- Pete Alonso 2-2, 2B, BB
- Wilson Ramos 0-2, BB, K
Let’s Go Mets!
