The Mets, winners of a franchise record seven consecutive series to start a season, welcome the Braves to Citi Field tonight. The World Series champs will play four games against the Mets in three games with tomorrow featuring a double header.
This is also the second of four consecutive series the Mets have against NL East opponents (Phillies, Braves, Phillies, Nationals), including 11 games in 10 days. These types of stretches in May can set the tone for the rest of the first half of the season. So far the Mets have thrown a combined no-hitter in and rebounded with a series win after a tough single game loss.
This article is being published before rosters shrink to 26 players. Sean Reid-Foley‘s injury a couple of days ago becomes one roster spot gone the other spot is a bit more difficult for the Mets. Is it going to be Robinson Canó who has played poorly but is owed a lot of money? Is it going to be Dominic Smith who played incredibly well last night, has upside, but also has a minor league option. I’m hoping that Smith stays and Robinson is cut, we’ll find out this afternoon.
Chris Bassitt will open up the series tonight for the Mets. In his first four starts and 24 innings he has a 2.25 ERA, 3.13 FIP, 0.917 WHIP and a 167 ERA+. He had a rough start on April 20th where he allowed five runs out of the six runs he’s allowed all season. He bounced back in his last start holding the Cardinals to two hits and nothing else over six innings. Due to the age of Atlanta’s roster and how the league schedule has been for the last couple of seasons, very few players on the Braves have seen Bassitt in a major league game:
- Travis Demeritte 2-3
- Eddie Rosario 1-3
- Orlando Arcia 0-2
- Marcell Ozuna 0-1, BB
The Mets bats draw Max Fried to start the series. In four starts and 24 innings he has a 3.00 ERA, 2.25 FIP, 0.917 FIP and 138 ERA+. He is currently leading the league in BB/9 at 0.4 (career mark is a 2.7) which means he’s also leading the league in K/BB at an insane 21.00 (career mark is 3.34). In his last two starts he has allowed only one run over 13 innings from 6 hits and no walks while striking out 12.
Fried faced the Mets three times last year pitching a total of 18 innings with a 2.50 ERA. He allowed five runs from 13 hits and six walks while striking out 24 batters. The Mets have the following career numbers against Fried:
- Pete Alonso 4-18, 2 HR, 5 BB, 7 K
- J.D. Davis 4-18, 3 BB, 6 K
- Jeff McNeil 7-20, 3 2B, 5 K
- Brandon Nimmo 2-10, 2B, 3 BB, 5 K
- Starling Marte 3-9, 2B, K
- Francisco Lindor 1-9, HR, 3 K
- James McCann 0-5, 2 BB
- Eduardo Escobar 2-5, 2 K
Let’s Go Mets!
