For a second Sunday in a row, the New York Mets go for a sweep this afternoon! The Mets had 17 walks and 17 runs on Friday Night to beat the Athletics by 11 runs. Yesterday afternoon the Mets had a comeback win and just squeaked out a 3-2 victory. Yesterday’s close game featured two starters with ERA’s above 11 and they both were able to settle down and create a pretty good pitching matchup. That’s baseball!
Today was supposed to be Max Scherzer day. However he was scratched from today’s start with “lingering soreness”. Max had imaging done and it doesn’t appear that he is dealing with anything too serious. He said he didn’t want to be selfish and pitch today if he’s not 100% healthy. As of right now, Max will now slot into Wednesday’s start, giving the Mets that extra day of rest for starters in the middle of the road trip that they were looking. To be completely honest, this whole situation isn’t too confidence inducing.
José Butto will make his 2023 debut today in Scherzer’s absence. In two starts for Syracuse this season, Butto has allowed two runs from six hits and five walks over 9 2/3 innings (1.86 ERA). He made his major league debut last year pitching only one game and it was a doozy. In four innings he allowed seven runs from nine hits and two walks against the Phillies in Philly. Overall, Butto has pitched in the Mets minor league system for six seasons now with a 3.40 ERA over 104 games and 460 innings. The Mets do not have too many starting pitching prospects in Syracuse – today is a great opportunity for Butto to shine and make some noise.
The Mets bats will try to find their Friday version of themselves tonight against JP Sears. In his first two starts of the season Sears has allowed six runs from 11 hits and two walks over 9 2/3 innings (5.59 ERA). Both starts this season he has allowed exactly three runs, but he allowed eight hits in his first start and only three in his second (but two of those three hits were homers). The Mets saw Sears at the end of last season and were able score six runs from eight hits and two walks against him over 3 2/3 innings. The Mets have the following career numbers against JP:
- Mark Canha 1-3
- Francisco Lindor 2-3, 2B
- Brandon Nimmo 1-2, BB, K
- Pete Alonso 1-2
- Eduardo Escobar 2-2
- Jeff McNeil 0-1, BB
- Tomás Nido 0-2, K
- Tommy Pham 0-1, K
Three Things To Watch For:
- Pete continues his hot start! Pete Alonso hit his seventh homer of the season yesterday. He is now tied with Devers for the league leading (each time we write this segment, Pete is sharing the league lead with someone new). The Mets as a team have only 15 homers, good for 19th in the league. If Pete hits a homer before another member of the Mets, Pete will once again hold 50% of the team’s homers. Absurd for multiple reasons.
- Brandon Nimmo is walking and hitting now! Before this road trip Nimmo was walking all over opponents, but he wasn’t collecting a ton of hits. Nimmo went 2-for-4 at the plate yesterday, collecting his fourth double of the year and his 8th RBI. Over his last three games he is now 7-for-13 with two walks (.539/.625/.769). He’s second in league for walks with 14. He’s now 8th in the league with a .468 OPS. He’s been one of the most consistent and important parts of this Mets offense this season.
- Is this the last game the Mets will play at the Oakland Coliseum? This year marks the first season that every major league team plays every major league team. I am assuming right now if the Athletics and Mets play their series in Oakland this year, that means next year preference will be given for the Mets to host the series. The Athletics lease on the Coliseum is ending at the end of next season. Right now the organization is being operated as a real life version of “Major League”. They want out of Oakland. This could mean they move to another part of the Bay Area or another city entirely. They could also stay in Oakland and build a new stadium. There’s a non-zero chance that the Mets are playing their last game at the Oakland Coliseum this afternoon.
Let’s Go Mets!
