During the 2015 Queens Baseball Convention Wally Backman raved about Steven Matz. It was before the 2015 season, Matz and Syndergaard had yet to make their debuts and while the buzz was about Noah, Backman wanted to focus on Matz.
Last night we finally saw that Matz. Steven Matz has always had the stuff, the general consensus has been that he can get in his head sometimes. Yesterday he tossed a 99-pitch complete game shutout, only the third time since 2006 that a Mets pitcher has tossed a complete game under 100 pitches (John Maine ’06, Johan Santana ’12).
And not to be lost in the pitching performance by Matz, Michael Conforto and J.D. Davis both hit bombs, both continuing to put together solid seasons. Conforto, who has oddly been heavily criticized by significant portions of Mets fans this season, is slashing .251/.356/.469 (.825 OPS) and J.D. Davis is slashing .297/.359/.483 (.842 OPS).
Today the Mets will look to complete the sweep of the Pirates on a sunny, hot day in Queens behind Jason Vargas, who like Wheeler and Syndergaard before him, may be making his last start in Queens today (although unlikely). He is 5-5 over 18 games and 17 starts with 88.2 innings of work posting a 3.96 ERA, 4.67 FIP, 1.252 WHIP and 104 ERA+. He’s coming off a strong start against the Padres, holding them scoreless over 6.0 innings from 1 hit and 4 walks while striking out 8. Last year he wasn’t so good against the Pirates, allowing 3 runs over 4.1 innings. The Pirates have the following stats against Vargas:
- Melky Cabrera 10-28, 2 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 3 K
- Corey Dickerson 1-3
- Gregory Polanco 0-3, K
- Elias Diaz 2-2
- Josh Bell 0-1
- Adam Frazier 0-1
- Jung Ho Kang 0-1, K
- Starling Marte 1-1, 2B
The Mets get a look at Chris Archer today, which has a slight cosmic irony to it. If the Mets are are going to trade Syndergaard at the deadline, they are hoping for a deal better than the one the Pirates put together for Chris Archer last year. Chris has struggled this season. In 96.2 innings he has a 5.40 ERA, 5.66 FIP, 1.417 WHIP and a 81 ERA+. He leads the league in the juiced-ball era of homers allowed at 24. July has more or less been representative of his season as a whole, pitching 23.0 innings allowing 13 runs including 6 homers. The Mets have the following numbers against him:
- Robinson Cano 0-16, BB, 5 K
- Todd Frazier 2-10, BB, 4 K
- Adeiny Hechavarria 1-5, K
- Michael Conforto 0-3, 2 K
- Wilson Ramos 0-2, BB
Let’s Go Mets!
To get ready for the upcoming trade deadline, we checked in on how the players the Mets acquired in the 2017 and 2018 sell-offs are doing here.
