The Mets have had few nights this season where the bats, the starting pitching and the bullpen click on the same night. Yesterday the Mets got a solid five innings from Justin Verlander. Drew Smith allowed two runs in one inning in his return from suspension, and the rest of the pen looked great. But the bats never arrived and the Mets ended up losing 2-1. Now tonight the Mets will hope that the bats can come back and David Peterson can find a positive groove for the first time since his 2023 debut.
The Mets sent down Tylor Megill after his last start, but didn’t rearrange the Syracuse rotation, so David Peterson, despite his recent struggles, gets another chance in the majors tonight. As a Met this season, Peterson has pitched 39 innings over eight games with a 8.08 ERA, 4.78 FIP, 1.744 WHIP and a 52 ERA+. His H/9 was the worst it ever was in his career at a staggering 12.5 (next closest was 8.6) and his HR/9 was also a career worst at 1.8. Things didn’t get much better for Peterson in Syracuse. Over 37 innings (seven starts) he has a 4.86 ERA and 1.622 WHIP. In his first AAA game he pitched eight shutout innings. Since then he has a 6.00 ERA over 24 innings. He’s already faced the Brewers this season allowing five runs from five hits and five walks over four innings. The Brewers have the following career numbers against him:
- Willy Adames 2-6, 2B, 4 BB, K
- Brian Anderson 2-5, 2 BB, K
- Christian Yelich 1-6, BB, 3 K
- Mike Brosseau 1-6, 3 K
- William Contreras 1-4, BB, K
- Darin Ruf 1-5, BB, 2 K
- Raimel Tapia 0-3, 2 K
- Luis Urías 1-2
- Joey Wiemer 1-2, HR
- Jesse Winker 1-2, 2B
The Mets bats will get a look at an old NL East foe tonight in Juilo Teheran. Julio is off to a fantastic start for the Brewers with a 1.53 ERA, 3.92 FIP, 0.877 WHIP and 131 ERA+ over his first six starts. Julio has had a lot of bumps in the road since his long tenure with Atlanta. He’s been part of the Angels and Tigers organization and was injured for most of 2021. He then bounced around between the Atlantic and Mexican leagues before landing a minor league contract with the Padres. Things weren’t great for him there (5.63 ERA) and he opted out of his contract before coming over to Milwaukee. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:
- Starling Marte 5-27, BB, 6 K
- Jeff McNeil 5-13, 3 2B, BB, K
- Brandon Nimmo 3-9, 2B, 4 BB, 3 K
- Pete Alonso 5-7, 2 2B, 2 HR, 3 BB
- Tommy Pham 2-10, BB, 2 K
- Luis Guillorme 0-2, BB
- Mark Canha 1-1
- Daniel Vogelbach 0-0, BB
Three Things To Watch For:
- Work the counts! The Mets didn’t strike out a ton last night like they tend to do when the offense struggles, the just didn’t really fight at all at the plate. The Mets saw only 113 pitches in the game, including only 27 pitches when the Rea left the game after 6 1/3 innings. If you blinked the game was over!
- Lindor has a five game hitting streak. Lindor has the longest current steak on the Mets right now and when you expand the window to his last eight games he has gone 9-for-27 at the plate with two doubles and three homers. That’s a 1.169 OPS compared to his .747 season OPS. He also has three stolen bases during this window!
- Nittoli and McFarland have the fresh arms. The Mets bullpen usage has been the hot topic of conversation the last couple of days and only two arms now are really fresh after the last three games. Nittoli has allowed one hit over two games and 1 2/3 innings. McFarland was called up before yesterdays game. He has a 2.76 ERA over 32 2/3 innings and 23 games this season. He last pitched on the 24th and should be good to go tonight.
Let’s Go Mets!
