No bats? No problem.
The Mets bats haven’t returned yet from the All-Star break but Sunday evening the Mets pitching did. Max Schezer tossed a gem and the Mets bullpen (mostly) held it together as the Mets were able to squeak out an extra-inning win to avoid being swept by the Dodgers. Now the Mets welcome the White Sox to town. Can the Mets put together a little run like they did at the end of the first half?
Carlos Carrasco threw an absolute gem for the Mets before the All-Star break. He went eight innings, allowing three hits and no runs while the Mets won 8-0. Over 61 innings and 12 starts he has a 5.16 ERA, 5.96 FIP, 1.426 WHIP and an 80 ERA+. In his last three starts now he has allowed four runs over 17 innings while striking out 15, dropping his season ERA from 6.34 to 5.16. The White Sox have the following career numbers against Carrasco:
- Tim Anderson 11-37, 2B, HR, 12 K
- Elvis Andrus 7-19, 2 2B, HR, 2 BB, 3 K
- Yoán Moncada 1-18, BB, 13 K
- Andrew Benintendi 2-7, 2 2B, K
- Eloy Jiménez 3-4, 2B, HR
- Clint Frazier 1-3, 2B, K
The Mets bats will get a look at Lucas Giolito tonight. Giolito has pitched 112 1/3 innings this season (19 starts) with a 3.45 ERA, 4.21 FIP, 1.139 WHIP and a 128 ERA+. In his last two starts he has allowed four earned runs over 13 innings (2.77 ERA). The Mets have the following numbers against Giolito:
- Francisco Lindor 6-18, 3 BB, 3 K
- DJ Stewart 1-7, 2 BB, 3 K
- Mark Canha 1-5, 5 K
- Tommy Pham 0-5, BB, 3 K
- Omar Narváez 2-5
- Pete Alonso 0-3, 2 K
- Starling Marte 2-3, K
- Jeff McNeil 0-3, 2 K
- Brandon Nimmo 0-3, K
Three Things To Watch For:
- Can the Mets bats give Carrasco run support? Carlos Carrasco was fantastic in his last start and the Mets bats gave him tons of run support. Since the All-Star Break the bats have scored only two runs and have had only 10 hits (six of them in one game). No single Met has had two hits in a game yet since returning from the break. All of these trends need to break for the Mets to have a chance to make a wild card run.
- Limited hits? No runs? Steal bases. With the Mets bats struggling this past weekend to score runs, the Mets switched back to a stealing strategy that worked for them during the win streak right before the All-Star break. On Sunday evening the Mets stole three basses (Marte, Canha, DJ Stewart). We are watching tonight to see if this was an outlier or the start of a trend for the Mets.
- The return of David Robertson. The Mets bullpen struggled on Friday and Saturday. Gott gave up the tying run on Sunday night after he came in for Scherzer who tossed seven scoreless innings. Robertson would later come into the game and pitch two scoreless innings. The Mets will probably like to avoid using him tonight, but he showed on Sunday why he is the best reliever currently on the roster.
Let’s Go Mets!
