The Mets are riding high right now with five consecutive wins. The Mets have been “never say die” during the stretch, coming back from behind in almost all of their wins and winning each game by only one run. Now the Mets will look to extend their winning streak to six games as they take on the Cubs in Chicago.
Kodai Senga has pitched 43 innings (eight starts) this season with a 3.77 ERA, 4.36 FIP, 1.442 WHIP and a 112 ERA+. Senga is coming off by far his best game of the season where he allowed one run in six innings while striking out 12 Rays. He has now tossed three quality starts on the season, including two of his last three games. Senga’s 12 K’s in his last start has brought him to 55 on the season, good for a 11.5 K/9. He also limited his walks last time to only three (26 on the season), which raised his K/BB ratio to 2.12.
The Mets bats will look to keep their momentum going against Drew Smyly. Smyly is off to a tremendous start posting a 2.86 ERA, 3.47 FIP, 0.934 WHIP (league leading) and a 153 ERA+ over 50 1/3 innings this year. In two starts against the Mets last year he allowed four runs, only two earned over 9 1/3 innings scattering nine hits while striking out nine. The Mets have the following career numbers against Smyly:
- Eduardo Escobar 8-14, 2B, 4 HR, 2 BB, 2 K
- Francisco Lindor 5-15, 2B, BB, 3 K
- Starling Marte 4-15, 2 2B, 3 K
- Mark Canha 1-12, BB, 3 K
- Pete Alonso 3-11, 2B, HR, BB, 3 K
- Brandon Nimmo 3-10, 2B, BB, 2 K
- Daniel Vogelbach 2-8
- Jeff McNeil 0-5, 2 BB, K
- Tommy Pham 1-5, HR
- Mark Vientos 0-2, K
Three Things To Watch For:
- Mets are feasting on quality starts now. The Mets were last in the majors in quality starts going into this win streak. They’ve now had four quality starts in their last five games including Justin Verlander’s eight inning performance on Sunday night. We saw this past week how tired and overworked the Mets bullpen has been. Eventually the pen was going to hit some trouble due to the sheer volume of work they’ve needed to do. The Mets look to keep the quality starts trend going tonight and keep the bullpen rested. Also, the Mets are 10-0 when they get a quality start.
- Mets power numbers are climbing. The Mets are tied for 14th now with 54 homers and 18th in slugging with .391 on the season. In the last week though the Mets are tied for first place in homers (13, with the Rays) and are in 5th in slugging at .468. This is not surprising as the home run has been the Mets calling card during this current win streak.
- Francisco Lindor has another multi-hit game. Francisco Lindor had another multi-hit game in the night cap on Sunday. In his last eight games he has gone 11-for-35 with three doubles and a homer (.314/.333/.486). This was his fourth multi-hit game during this eight game stretch.
Let’s Go Mets!
