Well, yesterday was rough. Jacob deGrom struggled for the first time in forever and the Braves beat the Phillies. The Mets enter play today with the Braves 1.5 games out and with one game in hand.
But the Mets have Max Scherzer on the mound. Over 21 starts and 133 2/3 innings this year, Max has a 2.15 ERA, 2.42 FIP, 0.883 WHIP and a 180 ERA+. Over his last three starts he has allowed two runs from seven hits and two walks in 18 innings of work while striking out an absurd 25 batters (1.00 ERA, 1.56 FIP).
Following the trend for basically every pitcher this weekend, Scherzer has not faced many members of this Athletics squad. Stephen Vogt is 1-6 with a strikeout against him and Cristian Pache is 0-2 with a strikeout. Max is a mystery to everyone else.
The Mets bats were able to make some noise early in the game yesterday and hopefully they can do that again today. Pete Alonso hit his 38th homer on the year, and now is knocking at the door of setting a Mets single season RBI record.
JP Sears will try to keep the Mets offense in check today. Sears, like yesterday’s starter Waldichuk, was traded from the Yankees to the Athletics at the deadline this year. Sears has pitched in 15 games, making 10 starts throwing 60 1/3 innings this season. He has a 3.58 ERA, 4.45 FIP, 1.260 WHIP and a 107 ERA+. As an Athletic, he has made eight starts tossing 38 1/3 innings with a 4.46 ERA, 5.20 FIP, 1.487 WHIP and a 85 ERA+.
Sears is coming off of a good start against the Mariners where he held them to one unearned run from one hit over five innings of work. In his two previous starts he allowed 11 earned runs from 15 hits over six innings. The only person the Mets roster who has seen Sears in a major league game is Tyler Naquin, who is 0-2 against him.
Let’s Go Mets!
