The Mets and Nationals play the game they were supposed to play at around 1:35 today at 4:35 as Max Scherzer returns to the rotation and takes on Jake Irvin.
Happy Mother’s Day to everyone who is a Mother-figure in someone’s life! Hope you feel celebrated and appreciated today! For the Mets players, I hope the Nationals poor handling of yesterday’s rainout doesn’t interrupt your Mother’s Day plans too badly!
Max Scherzer’s last start was scratched due to neck spasms. His injury kept the Mets rotation for this weekend a mystery as the Mets needed to figure out how slot him back into the rotation. This season Max has made five starts (22 2/3 innings) with a 5.56 ERA, 6.29 FIP, 1.412 WHIP and a 76 ERA+. His last start was his first since his suspension and he allowed six runs from eight hits, including two homers, over 3 1/3 innings. Last season Scherzer faced the Nationals three times totaling 17 2/3 innings and had a 3.06 ERA (0.906 WHIP). The Mets would be ecstatic if that is the Max Scherzer that shows up today! The Nationals have the following career numbers against him:
- Corey Dickerson 5-18, HR, 4 K
- Dominic Smith 0-16, 2 BB, 7 K
- Keibert Ruiz 1-7, K
- Jeimer Candelario 1-5, 2 K
- Luis Garía 3-5, HR, K
- CJ Abrams 1-2
- Joe Meneses 0-2, K
- Lane Thomas 0-1, BB, K
The Mets bats draw rookie Jake Irvin today who has allowed only one earned run from six hits and seven walks in his first 10 2/3 major league innings. Before getting called up, Irvin was having a rough go of it in Rochester where over 22 1/3 innings he allowed 14 runs from 23 hits and 11 walks (5.64 ERA) but he also struck out 20 batters. The Mets are going to need to practice patience with Irvin this afternoon, working walks and raising his pitch count. More recently we’ve seen the Mets play a bit more impatient and aggressive in the second game of a doubleheader.
Three Things To Watch For:
- How hard do the Nationals hit Scherzer? One of the most alarming things for Scherzer this season has been how hard he’s been hit. He’s in the 18th percentile for average exit velocity, 37th for hard hit percentage, 13th for expected slugging, and 7th for barrel. We’ll probably know within the first two innings today if Scherzer has been able to make adjustments.
- One more Scherzer note. Max Scherzer dominated his starts last season – except when he had to play his hold club in D.C. He opened the season against them last year and allowed three runs over six innings. Later he he allowed three runs, two earned over 6 2/3 innings. We would take both of those starts in a heartbeat today, but last year they weren’t very Scherzer like.
- More Francisco Álvarez. With Michael Pérez catching the first game today, we’ll get to see more of the Mets top prospect tonight (hopefully – I’m writing this at 8:30 AM so who knows). Álvarez has impressed so much already with bat and glove, and we are starting to see it appear on websites like Baseball Savant. Álvarez is already in the 92nd percentile for maximum exit velocity and he’s in the 90th percentile for pitch framing.
Let’s Go Mets!
