The Mets got a quick start last night thanks to Pete Alonso. Then the bats fell silent and the Cubs were able to claw back until they eventually beat the Mets 3-2. The Cubs win with the Brewers loss meant they were able to pull within 1.5 games of first place. The Mets loss coupled with the Nationals win last night means there are only 1.5 games separating the bottom two teams in the NL East. You can look at this like a win-win for the Mets. Either they win the ball game today and win the series or they lose and get closer to that protected draft pick.
David Peterson makes his second start since returning to the Mets rotation. He allowed only one hit and three walks in three innings of work with no runs against the mighty Orioles lineup. He still needs to stretch his arm out and he made strides last Friday with that as well. Peterson tossed 52 pitches in his outing. As a reliever he was mostly landing in the mid-20’s. Peterson has a 5.65 ERA, 4.37 FIP, 1.607 WHIP and a 73 ERA+ over 65 1/3 innings this season. However since being called back to the majors at the end of June he has pitched 26 1/3 innings over 10 games with a 2.05 ERA and 3.76 FIP. The Cubs have the following career numbers against him:
- Dansby Swanson 3-15, 2B, 5 K, 2 BB
- Patrick Wisdom 0-3, 2 K, 2 BB
- Ian Happ 1-6, 4 K
- Yan Gomes 2-6, 2B
- Christopher Morel 0-2, 2 BB
- Jeimer Candelario 1-5, K
- Seiya Suzuki 0-1, 2 BB
- Nico Hoerner 2-2
- Mike Tauchman 0-2, K
- Cody Bellinger 0-2
The Mets bats will face off against the Professor tonight, Kyle Hendricks. Hendricks has a made 14 starts totaling 81 1/3 innings with a 3.98 ERA, 4.17 FIP, 1.107 WHIP and a 115 ERA+. Kendricks ended July with a three game stretch where he allowed six earned runs, seven total, over 19 1/3 innings (2.79 ERA, 2.60 FIP) before hitting a wall his last time out allowing seven runs over four innings. His first start of the season this year was against the Mets and the Mets were able to tag him for five runs, three earned, over 4 1/3 innings. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:
- Omar Narváez 1-17, 3 K, 2 BB
- Daniel Vogelbach 5-13, 2B, 5 K
- Francisco Lindor 2-13, 3 K
- Pete Alonso 1-5, K, 2 BB
- Jeff McNeil 3-5, HR, K, BB
- Brandon Nimmo 1-3, K
- Francisco Álvarez 0-2
- Danny Mendick 0-2
Three Things To Watch For:
- Pete Alonso. Alonso provided all of the Mets offense last night with a two-run homer, his 34th of the season. It was his third homer in his last two games and is now only 16 away from 50 homers. At his current pace, he has a good chance to get to that magic number. If he gets hot though, he has a remote chance of breaking his single-season record of 53 (which is also the Mets record).
- The Bullpen. Drew Smith struggled yesterday and allowed the winning run. That being said, the bullpen only allowed one run. It’s the only run they’ve allowed in the last two games. The only members of the pen that weren’t used yesterday were Brooks Raley, Jimmy Yacabonis and Grant Hartwig. Raley tossed 28 pitches on Monday though (Yacabonis threw eight). Only Grant Hartwig is completely rested for today’s game.
- Kyle Hendricks sneaky peripheral stats. Kyle Hendricks has a very interesting Baseball Savant percentile ranking page. He’s inducing a lot of weak contact this year despite a slow fastball and a low strikeout percentage. The Mets right now generate most of their runs from hitting the ball hard. Should be interesting to see how this plays out tonight.
Let’s Go Mets!
