The Mets rolled on Thursday night thanks to the first walk-off home run in J.D. Martinez’s career. For most of the night the Mets were befuddled at the plate but the bats were able to figure things as the night went on and beat the Marlins 3-2 to take the series.
The Mets will now welcome the San Diego Padres who are on a three game winning streak right now and have a surging offense. They now have a +26 run differential on the season. The Mets offense has been one of the better offenses in baseball the last couple of weeks. Both teams are catching each other while they’re hot, but there’s one thing that can slow them down – the weather.
Starting the late afternoon throughout a larger portion of the evening we are expecting scattered to severe storms across the tri-state area.
Sean Manaea has made 12 starts in 2024 tossing 60 2/3 innings. He has a 4.30 ERA, 3.79 FIP, 1.352 WHIP and an 89 ERA+. Manaea is coming off back-to-back difficult starts where he has allowed 12 runs, 11 earned, from 13 hits and three walks spread across 9 1/3 innings. His ERA has jumped from 3.16 to 4.30 from this pair of starts. Before this, Manaea allowed only five runs over 16 innings in three starts.
In four games against the Padres last season, Manaea pitched 12 1/3 innings allowing eight runs, seven earned from 15 hits. He also recorded 14 strikeouts in that stretch. The Padres have the following career numbers against him:
- Luis Arráez 2-6, HR, K
- José Azocar 1-2, 2B
- Jake Cronenworth 2-9, 2B, 2 K
- Kyle Higashioka 1-2
- Ha-Seong Kim 1-8, BB, K
- Manny Machado 7-17, 3 2B, BB, 2 K
- David Peralta 1-7, K
- Jurickson Profar 7-21, 2 2B, 3B, HR, BB, 3 K
- Donovan Solano 3-8, BB, 3 K
- Fernando Tatis Jr. 2-12, BB, 6 K
It’s a knuckleball night! Matt Waldron brings his knuckleball to Citi Field. Over 13 starts, 69 1/3 innings, Waldron has a 3.76 ERA, 3.26 FIP, 1.226 WHIP and a 104 ERA+. Since May 11th he has made six starts allowing only seven runs over 35 1/3 innings which has translated into a 1.78 ERA, 2.07 FIP. Over this stretch opponents are hitting .189/.243/.268 against him. In his last three starts he has allowed only two runs over 19 1/3 innings while recording 16 strikeouts. No player on the Mets roster has faced Waldron in a major league game before.
Three Things To Watch For:
- The Mets bats against a knuckleball. It has been a minute since the Mets have faced a starting pitcher who uses a knuckleball. Waldron has used his knuckleball about 37% of the time this year followed by his fastball at 23% of the time. He also mixes in a sweeper, sinker and cutter. This has produced some interesting stats via Baseball Savant. He’s in the 86th percentile in hard-hit% which is what you would expect from a pitcher having success with his knuckleball. Teams are not chasing his pitches (10th percentile), which also makes sense when you’re not sure where the pitch is going. Let’s see how the Mets watch Waldron over the first couple of innings and what adjustments they make throughout the game.
- J.D. Martinez, RBI machine. The hero of Thursday’s game went 2-for-4 at the plate with a double and homer. In his last five games eh has gone 4-for-20 over 23 trips to the plate. Over that time though he has recorded six RBI’s. He now has 21 RBI’s over 41 games as a Met, which is good for sixth on the team. There are three players on the Mets sitting at 32 (Alonso, Lindor, Nimmo) and they have each played between 63 and 67 games this season.
- Bullpen management. The Mets got a huge boon on Thursday with the return of Edwin Díaz who pitched a clean ninth inning. Tonight the Mets will have to balance the game script with the weather on the field. If Manaea doesn’t got deep, then the Mets will have to turn to Houser for multiple innings. But then the Mets have to hope his long relief doesn’t get interrupted by a delay.
Let’s Go Mets!
