The Mets look to do a few different things tonight:
- Win their seventh game in a row.
- Match their win total for the entire month of June.
- Win their third consecutive series of the season.
The Mets and Padres played a back and forth game last night. The game was tied 3-3 entering extra innings when the Mets led by Francisco Lindor took a critical four run lead. The Mets would give back two runs in the bottom half of the frame, but were able to stop a full comeback. There are only two more games left before the All-Star break, can the Mets keep this pivotal streak going?
Every David Peterson start is an audition. José Quintana is nearing his return. Joey Lucchesi could make his major league return (he also had a rough night in the minors last night allowing six runs over four innings). The Mets could go to a six-man rotation. The Mets could trade a starter, which would make David Peterson a regular in the rotation. There are a lot of different possibilities for the Mets after the All-Star break, David Peterson’s performance factors into a whole bunch of them.
Over 10 games and 49 innings this season, Peterson has a 6.61 ERA, 4.60 FIP, 1.673 WHIP and a 63 ERA+. Since returning to the rotation Peterson has pitched 10 innings, allowing one rune on eight hits and six walks. He has dropped his ERA from 8.08 to 6.61. He faced the Padres earlier this season and it was one of his better starts, holding the Padres to two runs (six hits, two walks) over 5 2/3 innings. The Padres have the following career numbers against Peterson:
- Juan Soto 1-8, 2B, 4 BB, 4 K
- Xander Bogerts 0-8, BB
- Ha-Seong Kim 1-3, K
- Jake Cronenworth 1-2, BB
- Manny Machado 1-3, 2B
- Brandon Dixon 1-2, K
- Trent Grisham 0-2
- Gary Sánchez 0-1, BB
Blake Snell has made 17 starts for the Padres and pitched 92 innings so far this season. He has a 3.03 ERA, 3.78 FIP, 1.261 WHIP and a 135 ERA+. He’s coming off of a great start where he silenced the Angels for five innings, allowing seven hits but no runs. Since May 25th Snell has allowed only four earned runs over 47 innings (0.77 ERA, 2.08 FIP). He had a season ERA of 5.40 before this streak. Against the Mets earlier this season he allowed four runs, three earned, over five innings. The Mets have the following career numbers against Snell:
- Francisco Lindor 4-28, 2B, HR, 7 K
- Starling Marte 5-17, 2B, HR, BB, 5 K
- Mark Canha 4-13, 2B, 4 BB, 3 K
- Pete Alonso 5-12, 2B, 2 HR, 3 BB, K
- Brandon Nimmo 5-12, 2 2B, BB, K
- Jeff McNeil 2-6, 2 BB, K
- Tommy Pham 1-4, 2 BB
- Omar Narváez 0-1, 3 BB
- DJ Stewart 0-3, 2 K
- Luis Guillorme 0-1, BB
Three Things to Watch For:
- Francisco Lindor is doing everything he possibly can to carry the Mets. Lindor is the heart and soul of this team and has put up video game numbers recently. He went 3-for-5 last night hitting his 19th homer of the season, second in two days and third in the month of July. In his last two games he’s gone 8-for-10 with two triples, two homers and five runs scored. After being snubbed for the All-Star game a second time, he made comments after the game asking why Brandon Nimmo wasn’t an All-Star, rather than complaining about his own situation.
- Francisco Álvarez is lighting up box scores. Álvarez has had three consecutive multi-hit games. Last night he went 4-for-5 at the plate! Overall in his last four games he has gone 9-for-16 with three homers (.563/.588/1.125). Last night’s game pushed his season OPS over .800 for the first time since June 17th. His breakout right now is the x-factor for the Mets.
- Daniel Vogelbach has quietly had two nice days at the plate. On June 27th Vogelbach went 2-for-4 with a homer. Then over his next five games he went 0-for-10, drawing one walk. In his last two games he has gone 5-for-9 with a double and a walk. Obviously we want more power from our designated hitter, but its nice to see him get on base so much over the last couple of days.
Let’s Go Mets!
