Game Preview: Mets @ Rays

The Mets are looking to snap a two game losing streak and avoid a sweep by the Rays today with Marcus Stroman on the mound.

There was some good news yesterday. A criticism of the Mets offense this year has been the lack of homers. Jose Peraza hit a three run homer in the first inning, Pete Alonso hit a homer and Francisco Lindor homered. Let’s see if the Mets can keep that part of yesterday going (and forget the part when the bullpen collapsed).

Marcus Stroman is 3-3 over 7 starts and 40.1 innings with a 2.01 ERA, 3.15 FIP, 1.017 WHIP and a 192 ERA+. He’s coming off of a strong start against the Orioles where he allowed 1 run over 6.1 innings from 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5. It was also his third start this season where he reached 90 or more pitches and his second start this season where he recorded an out in the 7th inning or later. His last start against the Rays came in April 2019 where he allowed 3 runs, all unearned over 4.0 innings from 3 hits and 4 walks. The Rays have the following numbers against Marcus:

Kevan Smith 2-4, HR, K
Mike Zunino 1-2, HR
Willy Adames 3-4, SB
Joey Wendle 2-3
Manuel Margo 1-2
Brandon Lowe 1-4, BB
Yandy Diaz 0-3, 2 BB, K
Ji-Man Choi 1-7, K
Austin Meadows 0-3, K

The Mets bats draw Ryan Yarbrough for the series finale. Ryan has pitched in 8 games and made 4 starts this year totaling up to 40.2 innings with a 4.20 ERA, 3.10 FIP, 1.279 WHIP and a 91 ERA+. The Mets are among the leaders in the league in being hit by pitches and Ryan is the league leader with 5 hit batsmen this year. He also led the league last year with 7 hit batsmen over 55.2 innings. Anyway he hasn’t started for a couple of weeks and has done much better. In his last two outings he allowed 1 earned run over 7.1 innings from 7 hits and 2 walks. As a reliever he has a 1.00 ERA in 18.0 innings. As a starter he has pitched 22.2 innings allowing 17 earned runs (6.75 ERA). The Mets have the following numbers against Ryan: