Happy Independence Day!
Due to the holiday today – I am writing today’s game preview before the Mets play game 1 and officially name their starter. Originally Tylor Megill was going to pitch for the Mets tonight and the Yankees starter was TBA. After the postponement on Friday the Mets elected to push Megill to Monday. As of right now the game is listed as TBA vs Nestor Cortes, which is the pitching match up I’m sure ESPN was hoping for on a nationally televised game.
Mets beat writers were reporting last night that they expect Corey Oswalt to get the start for the Mets today. Depending on bullpen usage in the first game, I think Oswalt, Reid-Foley and Loup are all options for considerable chunks of work today. Anyone not getting work will surely see it on Monday.
In 2 games and 6.1 innings this season, Corey Oswalt has allowed only one run from 8 hits and a walk while striking out 6. He pitched 4.0 scoreless innings in his last outing against the Phillies, reaching 52 pitches. Before getting called up, he had a 4.15 ERA over 6 games and 13.0 innings in Syracuse. If he is the starter this afternoon, 4.0 innings from Oswalt would go a long way.
Aaron Loup is the odd name on this list, and the most likely to be used in the first game if needed. Loup has been tremendous this year for the Mets, pitching 23.2 innings over 27 games with a 1.52 ERA, 1.22 FIP, 0.972 WHIP and a 255 ERA+. Almost all of his outings are one inning or less but he went the extra mile for the Mets back on June 22nd when Marcus Stroman got injured. He pitched 3.0 innings of scoreless baseball, tossing 40 pitches. If he has to go that long again, he won’t be available for a few days, given the Mets schedule right now they will probably want to avoid that.
The final candidate is Sean Reid-Foley. In 20.2 innings over 12 games he has a 5.23 ERA, 3.84 FIP, 1.500 WHIP and 74 ERA+. He hasn’t pitched since his terrible outing on June 30th where he allowed 5 runs, 3 earned, while only getting one batter out. This year he’s had two terrible outings, both in June. Between those two outings he allowed 10 of the 15 runs he’s allowed on the season.
The Yankees will be sending out Nestor Cortes Jr., making his first start in 2021 and his third career start overall. This year for the Yankees he has pitched 17.2 innings, allowing 3 runs, 2 earned, from 11 hits and 8 walks. He owns a 1.02 ERA, 1.69 FIP, 1.075 WHIP and a 429 ERA+. This has been a career year for him (his last full season, 2019, he pitched 66.2 innings with a 5.67 ERA). Nestor has the ability to go long, throwing 65 pitches twice this year and going 3.0+ innings three times this year. All of the runs he has allowed this year have come in games where he has pitched 3.2 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against him:
- Billy McKinney 1-2, HR, K
- Francisco Lindor 1-3, HR, K
- Dominic Smith 0-1
- James McCann 0-2, 2 K
Let’s Go Mets!
