The New York Mets look to do something they didn’t do all of last season – win a series against the Padres.
Max Scherzer labored last night and was still able to give the Mets five innings of shutout baseball. The bullpen behind him returned the favor. Meanwhile the offense provided one of the more memorable innings of 2023 with two perfect bunts that set up a two-run hit by Francisco Lindor to break the game open. Not exactly the gameplan, but it worked!
David Peterson looks to bounce back from his last start tonight. Over his first two games he has allowed six runs from 13 hits and six walks while striking out 10 leading to a 6.00 ERA, 6.06 FIP, 2.111 WHIP and a 79 ERA+. Almost all of the damage was done in his last start where he allowed five runs from five hits and five walks against the Brewers in Milwaukee. Last season he faced the Padres once in the regular season, allowing a run on two hits and a walk in one inning of relief. He then faced the Padres twice in the Wild Card Series allowing one run from two hits across two innings. The Padres have the following career regular season numbers against Peterson:
- Juan Soto 1-6, 2B, 3 BB, 2 K
- Xander Bogaerts 0-5, BB
- Nelson Cruz 0-3, K
- Matt Carpenter 0-1, K
- Ha-Seong Kim 0-1
- Austin Nola 1-1
The Mets bats will get a look at Ryan Weathers tonight who is making his second start of the season. In his first start he allowed two runs from five hits and a walk while striking out two in five innings of work. He only made one start in the majors last season where he allowed four runs in 3 2/3 innings. Weathers pitched in 31 games including 22 starts with El Paso in 2022 where he had a 6.73 ERA and a 1.789 WHIP over 123 innings. Only a few Mets have seen Weathers in a game before:
- Starling Marte 0-1
- Eduardo Escobar 0-1, K
- Tim Locastro 0-1
Three Things To Watch For:
- Winning twice: In June of last year the Mets won the series opener against the Padres, and then lost the next two games. In July the Mets lost the first two games in San Diego, and then one last game of the series to avoid being swept. In October the Mets won second game of the Wild Card Series as the Padres eliminated them in a best of three series. Today the Mets have a chance to do something they couldn’t do all of last year – win two games in a series against the Padres. The Mets have had a rough go of it so far in 2023 with injuries and being swept by the Brewers. The secret of the Mets success last season was winning series. Let’s get that 2022 energy back today!
- Bullpen usage: The Mets have used six different pitchers in their bullpen over the last two games (Nogosek, Santana, Curtiss, Smith, Robertson, Ottavino). Out of the group, Nogosek was the hero, tossing 3 1/3 innings on Sunday and preventing even more pitchers from having to enter the game. Everyone who pitched yesterday only went in one inning. The Mets aren’t in a dire situation yet, but an early exit by Peterson tonight could create one for tomorrow’s getaway game.
- Brandon the Swiper? Brandon Nimmo stole only three bases in 2022. Prior to this season he stole 23 bases over his seven seasons and 608 games in the major leagues. Last night he stole for the third time already in 2023. We knew stolen bases were going to be up this year with the rule changes and this looks like a significant development.
Let’s Go Mets!
