The Mets will try to turn a new page this evening after possibly their worst game of the year yesterday. The Mets imploded in the 8th inning and lost a three-run lead thanks to an error and hitting two Phillies with the bases loaded. Buck Showalter made the curious decision to not use his best reliever in the bullpen while the gaming was slipping away. In the end, the Mets lost a game that they both needed to win and should have won. Things in Metsville are getting pretty bad with their playoff chances falling to 16% on Fangraphs.
Justin Verlander looks to turn around the team fortunes tonight as he makes his 10th start as a Met. Over 52 innings he has a 4.50 ERA, 4.33 FIP, 1.212 WHIP and a 93 ERA+. Since his second start of the season he has had good start followed by a bad start over and over again. Last time out was a bad start, allowing four runs over seven innings. Before that he allowed one run over six innings. If the pattern holds, tonight should be a good one. The Brewers have the following career numbers against Verlander:
- Jesse Winker 3-20, 2B, HR, 6 K
- Abraham Toro 0-9, K
- Christian Yelich 0-6, 2 K
- Willy Adames 1-5, 2 K
- Raimel Tapia 1-3
- Rowdy Tellez 0-3, 3 K
Colin Rea is on the bump tonight for the Brewers. Over 13 games and 62 2/3 innings this season he has a 4.88 ERA, 4.86 FIP, 1.277 WHIP and an 88 ERA+. He has struggled in his last two starts, allowing nine runs, eight earned, over 10 1/3 innings. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:
- Tommy Pham 0-3, BB, K
- Starling Marte 0-3, K
- Omar Narváez 0-2
- Francisco Lindor 0-1, K
- Danny Mendick 0-1, K
Three Things To Watch For:
- Can the Mets set the tone for the series early? Colin Rea has struggled recently, but has pitched at least five innings in all but one of his starts this season. The Mets have an opportunity today to capitalize on his recent struggles, get him out of the game early and get into a Brewers bullpen that has pitched a lot in the last three days. This can cascade through the rest of the series.
- Pete is still in the homer chase. One of the few bright spots for the Mets this season has been Pete Alonso’s power. He hit his 24th homer of the season yesterday and trails Matt Olson and Shohei Ohtani by one.
- Brett Baty has quietly been collecting hits. Whether Buck plays Baty is another story, but Baty has been quietly collecting hits recently. In his last eight games he’s gone 10-for-32 at the plate with a double and seven runs scored. This gives him a .313 batting average compared to his .243 season batting average. His OBP isn’t that different than his season numbers (+0.015), due to his walk numbers and the power has disappeared. All that being said, he’s getting on base and figuring things out. He has four multi-hit games in his last eight.
Let’s Go Mets!
