The Mets look to win a series for the first time in a few years weeks this afternoon as they take on the Reds in a rubber game at the Great American Ballpark.
Justin Verlander gave the Mets what they so desperately needed last night – seven innings from a starting pitcher. After a rough first inning, Verlander was in control for the rest of the night. Showalter was able to hand the game off to Ottavino and then Roberts. The whole game was just cleansing. Now Kodai Senga, who leads the Mets with two quality starts, looks to duplicate Verlander’s work.
In six starts and 32 innings this season, Kodai Senga has a 3.38 ERA, 5.15 FIP, 1.469 WHIP and a 125 ERA+. In his last two starts he has allowed only two runs over 11 innings. He’s scattered seven hits in that stretch but has also walked eight batters (but has 11 strikeouts). So far this season the walks and homers have hurt Senga. He has 22 walks on the season (6.2 BB/9) and has allowed five homers (1.4 HR/9). That’s a bad combination for keeping runs off the board. However his pitches keep hitters guess so often, he’s going to collect a lot of walks while he racks up the K’s (10.1 K/9).
The Reds are going with a bullpen game of sorts today with Derek Law as the opener and Ben Lively getting a bulk of the work after. Law has pitched 18 innings over 17 games this season with a 3.00 ERA, 5.31 FIP, 1.500 WHIP and a 163 ERA+. He allowed three runs over two outings at the end of April and hasn’t allowed any runs in his four games since pitching five innings of one hit baseball (four walks though). His last outing was the first game of this series where he allowed a hit, a walk and nothing else against the Mets. The Mets have the following numbers against him:
- Tommy Pham 2-4, K
- Starling Marte 1-3, 2 K
- Daniel Vogelbach 0-2, BB, K
- Mark Canha 1-2, HR
- Eduardo Escobar 2-2
- Francisco Álvarez 0-1
- Francisco Lindor 0-1
The Mets should also see Ben Lively pitch in the majors for the first time since 2019 today. Lively was drafted by the Reds in 2013 and was traded to the Phillies before the 215 season for Marlon Byrd. In 2017 he started 15 games for the Phillies with a 4.26 ERA over 88 2/3 innings. Lively went to Korea in 2020 and returned to the Reds organization in 2022. So far in the minors this year he has pitched 27 innings over five games with a 2.33 ERA and 1.074 WHIP. He has thrown six innings in a game twice in the minors this season and in his most recent start he tossed 92 pitches. A few Mets have seen him over the years:
- Brandon Nimmo 0-7, BB, 2 K
- Starling Marte 1-3
- Francisco Lindor 0-1, BB
- Mark Canha 0-0, HBP
Three Things To Watch For:
- Let the league know Pete is back. Alonso hit a homer again last night, retaking the major league lead with 13 on the season. In his last four games he is 3-for-12 with two homers and six walks, leading to a .250/.500/.750 batting line. Alonso has also only scored twice (literally from his two homers) meaning every time he has walked, the Mets have just left him out on the base paths.
- Daniel Vogelbach got an opposite field hit last night. Vogelbach collected two hits last night and now has four hits in his last five games. He’s also collected three walks in that stretch (.412 OBP). First, it was nice to see Vogelbach hit a ball yesterday to part of the field he rarely does. Vogey has gotten criticism this year and I’m not sure if he’s the right person right now for the DH spot, but he’s starting to show some early signs that he’s turning things around.
- Brandon Nimmo looks to build off of a busy night. Between May 5th and 6th Brandon Nimmo had back to back games where he had two hits in each game. After going hitless in his next two games he had a busy night last night, collecting three hits. This is already his 6th game this season with at least three hits! On one negative note, Nimmo has struck out now 11 consecutive games (15 times total in that stretch). In the 25 games before this stretch he struck out only 14 times total.
Let’s Go Mets!
