Game Preview: Mets @ Phillies

The Mets are hoping to arrive in time for the game tonight. They scheduled a group trip to a cave earlier today to find some bats. Then they dug up some Halloween decorations to make sure they have fake bats all over the locker room. They are really focusing on bats.

For a third time this week, Mets pitching had a tremendous game, but the bats fell silent and the Mets lost. This time, Stroman was working on a gem before he had to leave due to a hamstring issue. The bullpen kept the lid on behind him but the Mets offense could only squeak out a run.

There’s also the bench clearing incident from last night’s game too. Not sure if that’s going to help things right now. The Mets are slumping and they are now at the part of the slump where they are aware they are slumping, adding pressure to the slump and the games they are losing are games they could easily win if the bats just hit a little bit. It’s a bad situation right now and it feels some hitters either are spiraling right now or on the verge of spiraling.

Taijuan Walker will look to keep the Mets pitching going. In 4 starts this year and 21.0 innings he has a 2.14 ERA, 3.03 FIP, 1.238 WHIP and a 181 ERA+. Walker really worked in his last start and the result was great. He tossed 95 pitches and allowed 3 hits and 3 walks and held the Nationals scoreless. Earlier in the year against Philly he allowed 3 hits and 3 walks and through 80 pitches in only 4.1 innings (this was also a 7-inning game). The Phillies have the following numbers against Walker:

Alec Bohm 2-3, 2B, 2 BB
Roman Quinn 1-3, BB, 2 K
Rafael Marchan 0-1, BB, K
J.T. Realmuto 0-1, K
Bryce Harper 1-7, BB
Andrew McCutchen 1-8, 2B, 4 K
Brad Miller 0-4, 2 BB, 2 K
Scott Kingery 0-3, K
Matt Joyce 0-5, K
Rhys Hoskins 0-2, 2 K

The Mets draw Zack Wheeler again! In 5 starts and 31.2 innings this year, Wheeler has a 3.13 ERA, 3.64 FIP, 1.105 WHIP and a 126 ERA+. He is coming off of a great start against the Cardinals where he held them to 1 run over 8.0 innings from one hit and three walks while striking out nine. Before that he had a rough three game stretch where he allowed 10 earned runs over 16.2 innings from 22 hits and 8 walks. Four of those hits were homers, which were unusual for him as he led the league last year in HR/9 (0.4). One of those starts was against the Mets (who, no surprise here, didn’t homer) and the Mets scored 3 runs from a whopping 10 hits and a walk in 6.1 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Wheeler: