The Mets roll into Pittsburgh tonight in a tough place. The Mets entered last weekend three games above .500 and then promptly got swept by the Blue Jays. In that series the pitching was there but the offense evaporated. Then the Mets went to Atlanta and blew huge leads in three consecutive games. Can the Mets get the pitching and hitting to click at the same time?
The Mets bats will have to face the surprising Pittsburgh Pirates who are in second place right now in the NL Central, one game behind the lead. They aren’t winning at the same pace they were earlier this season, but they’ve still won six of their last 10 games and have the second best run differential in the division at -2 (the best run differential is +1 for the last place St. Louis Cardinals).
Tylor Megill looks to get the Mets pitching back on track tonight. Over 12 starts and 59 1/3 innings, Megill has a 4.40 ERA, 5.19 FIP, 1.618 WHIP and a 94 ERA+. He’s coming off of a strong start against the Blue Jays where he held them to one run, despite allowing five hits and five walks. The Pirates have the following numbers against him:
- Ke’Bryan Hayes 3-5, K
- Bryan Reynolds 1-5
- Rodolfo Castro 0-2, 2 K
- Wil Crowe 0-2
- Andrew McCutchen 0-1, BB, K
The Mets get to face an old friend tonight – Rich Hill. Over 12 starts and 65 1/3 innings, Hill has a 4.41 ERA, 4.42 FIP, 1.378 WHIP and a 99 ERA+. Like Megill, Hill is also coming off of a good start after two rough starts. In his last start he allowed one run from four hits and three walks over 6 2/3 innings. In his two starts before that he allowed 11 runs over 11 1/3 innings. The Mets have the following career numbers against Hill:
- Starling Marte 3-11, 2B, BB, K
- Mark Canha 0-5, BB, 2 K
- Franacisco Lindor 2-8
- Brandon Nimmo 1-4, 2B, 3 K
- Eduardo Escobar 1-2
- Tommy Pham 1-4, HR, BB, K
- Pete Alonso 0-3, 3 K
Three Things To Watch For:
- Baby Mets are back! Yesterday we wrote about how the Baby Mets were starting to show signs of coming around at the plate. Yesterday Batty went 2-for-4 at the plate with a walk. Álvarez went 2-for-5 at the plate, hitting two homers which now makes three homers in two days. Vientos got a start last night and struggled at the plate with three strikeouts, but he also has incredibly inconsistent playing time over last couple of weeks. Can the Baby Mets keep this going in Pittsburgh
- Can the bullpen pick itself up? The starting pitching the last couple of days, with the Mets twin aces pitching, has not done the Mets bullpen any favors. Bullpens eventually buckle when over worked and we saw that last night. For the first time in a while, everyone in the Mets bullpen has pitched over the last three calendar days. Nogosek, Brigham, Robertson, Raley, Ottavino and Smith have each tossed over 30 pitches in the last three calendar days.
- Who is providing the power? With the Mets three homers last night, they’ve now had 76 on the season, which is good for 10th in the league. At the start of the season, their power was only coming from Pete Alonso. Now Álvarez and Lindor are helping Alonso out. Between the three of them, they have hit 44 homers this season. Then there’s a power vacuum on the team. This is a symptom of why the Mets offense tends to disappear from time to time, it’s riding on three bats. Pham has recently started to add some power and it would be wonderful if Canha, Marte and McNeil could too.
Let’s Go Mets!
