The Mets survived the weekend thanks to an amazing start yesterday by David Peterson and now welcome the Texas Rangers to the ballpark for a three game set. The Rangers traded for Max Scherzer at the deadline to bolster their rotation and prepare for a deep playoff run. They were in first place for over 100 days this season until the Mariners took over yesterday. The Rangers have only won one of their last ten games. This is just not where you expected the Rangers to be about a month ago. The good news for the Rangers is there are still a month left of games to play and they face the Mets this week.
Tylor Megill has pitched 91 1/3 innings over 19 starts this season with a 5.54 ERA, 5.29 FIP, 1.725 WHIP and a 75 ERA+. In his last two starts he’s allowed five runs from 13 hits and six walks over 9 2/3 innings, leading a 4.66 ERA and 7.10 FIP. Megill has struggled to go deep into games since returning to the rotation due to the sheer amount of hits he gives up. The Rangers hitters have the following career numbers against him:
- Corey Seager 1-3, 2B, K
- Marcus Semien 0-3, K
- Austin Hedges 1-2, 2B
- Travis Jankowski 0-2, BB
The Mets bats will try to get going again, this time facing Jon Gray. Over 131 2/3 innings this season, Gray has a 3.76 ERA, 4.13 FIP, 1.230 WHIP and a 116 ERA+. He is coming off of a terrible start against the Diamondbacks where he allowed five runs over four innings. Before that he allowed one run over 14 innings across two starts while striking out 11. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:
- Pete Alonso 0-5, 2 K, BB
- Tim Locastro 1-5, K
- Francisco Lindor 0-3, K
- Brandon Nimmo 0-3, K
- Rafael Ortega 1-3, K
- Jeff McNeil 2-5, 2B, K
- Danny Mendick 0-2, K
- Omar Narváez 1-2, K
Three Things To Watch For:
- The return of Max Scherzer. Max pitched on the 26th and will most likely not start against the Mets during this series. Max contributed a ton to the 2022 Mets, and is a big part of why that team won 101 games. Since leaving the Mets he’s looked more like the Max Scherzer we saw last season (there were signs pointing this way before he was traded) but also talked to the media a lot about how the trade process went down. I’m curious to see if his comments have fired up the Mets to really put on their best showing over the next few days.
- The Mets are striking out a lot right now. Strikeouts have been the sign for the when the Mets bats are collectively slumping. Friday night the team had 11 strikeouts. Saturday they improved to 10 strikeouts. Yesterday they were back to 11. We’ll know the Mets bats are really coming out of this funk when these numbers start to take a dive.
- The bullpen got the rest they needed. Since the trade deadline, the stretch between Carrasco, Peterson and Megill has been pretty tough on the bullpen. Peterson had a brilliant start yesterday and tossed seven innings, so the Mets were able to go to Drew Smith and Ottavino, both who pitched on Saturday, to finish out the game. This now means that Gott and Coonrod have two days rest for tonight. Raley, Bickford and Reid-Foley are each one day’s rest. Plus they brought back Jeff Brigham yesterday. The pen is good to go!
Let’s Go Mets!
