The Mets try to escape their four game series against the Brewers with a split tonight. After an easy victory on Tuesday, the Mets fell flat last night and couldn’t overcome some difficult calls by the umpire. Steven Cohen said before the game “All is not lost yet, but it’s getting late”. Last night’s game made it feel later than it already is.
Max Scherzer has pitched 70 2/3 innings this season with a 3.95 ERA, 4.13 FIP, 1.175 WHIP and a 104 ERA+. In his last two starts he has allowed only three runs from 11 hits and two walks while striking out 16 batters over 14 innings. In five of his last six games he has struck out at least eight batters . Before these six games the most batters he stuck out in an individual game was six. His start against the Brewers at the beginning of the season was forgettable. He allowed five runs from eight hits over 5 1/3 innings including back to back to back homers. The Brewers have the following career numbers against him:
- Christian Yelich 11-37, 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 2 BB, 11 K
- Brian Anderson 6-24, 4 2B, HR, BB, 8 K
- Victor Caratini 8-17, 2B, 3B, BB, 2 K
- Jesse Winker 1-12, 2 BB, 5 K
- Darin Ruf 3-12, 2B, 5 K
- Rowdy Tellez 2-10, HR, BB, K
- Willy Adames 1-10, 6 K
- Garrett Mitchell 1-5, HR, 2 K
- Raimel Tapia 1-5, HR
- William Contreras 2-4, 2 K
The Mets bats will try to get going again tonight as they take on Adrian Houser. Over nine games, seven starts and 40 1/3 innings, Houser has a 4.02 ERA, 3.97 FIP, 1.537 WHIP and a 107 ERA+. He allows a lot of hits (10.9 H/9), but not a ton of homers (0.7 HR/9). Houser had one terrible start this month against Oakland. Outside of that he had one terrific start (one run over seven innings), one short, but effective start (two runs, one earned over four innings) and a shutout inning of relief. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:
- Tommy Pham 4-9, 4 BB, 2 K
- Starling Marte 2-8, 2 K
- Peter Alonso 2-5, BB
- Daniel Vogelbach 1-4, 2 BB, K
- Luis Guillorme 1-5
- Francisco Lidnor 1-5
- Brandon Nimmo 3-5, 2B, K
- Mark Canha 0-2, K
- Jeff McNeil 1-4, 2B
- Denny Mendick 2-2, 2B
- Omar Narváez 1-1
Three Things To Watch:
- The Mets need a good start from Max Scherzer tonight. During Steve Cohen’s press conference, Cohen suggested that the players need to play better, that the team still has a chance at the wild card, and if the team doesn’t look like it has a chance at the deadline they’ll reevaluate what actions to take. It was also reported this week that Scherzer could be willing to waive his no-trade if the Mets end up as sellers. For both situations (the Mets go for the wild card, the Mets become sellers), the Mets need Scherzer to have a great game tonight.
- Tommy Pham continues his hot stretch. Tommy Pham went 3-for-3 at the plate last night with his eighth homer of the season. Since May 28th he has five homers and is hitting .337/.398/.639 (1.036). Before that he was hitting .200/.286/.341 (.627). Similar to Scherzer, the Mets need Pham to continue this hot streak as long as possible. Either it lifts the team up to a position where they can content or it increases the return they’ll get for him if the Mets become sellers at the end of July.
- Will the Mets hit with runners in scoring position tonight? In the first game of the series, the Mets had only three hits. Last night they had seven hits! But the Mets went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position last night. Can they string together some hits tonight?
Let’s Go Mets!
