This is Texas (woo), ain’t no subway (hey)
So bring your Grimace down, down, down down
The Mets head down to Arlington today today on a five game win streak. Going into play today the Mets are one seven* teams that are within 1.5 games of the third wild card spot in the National League (* depending on how you count the Padres and Nationals being tied, could be eight teams). The vibes on the Mets are so good right now that an 8th inning blow up on Sunday fired up the offense to pile on insurance runs.
The Mets will play a struggling Texas team who have lost three games in a row but have one of their better pitchers this season on the mound. Lets stick around, ’round, ’round, ’round for Mets baseball!
David Peterson has pitched 16 2/3 innings over three games this season with a 4.32 ERA, 4.47 FIP, 1.500 WHIP and a 90 ERA+. Peterson is coming off of a start where he allowed four runs from eight hits and two walks over five innings of work. Obviously his sample sizes are small this season so far, but players have been hitting his slider and four seamer. His slider has a .412 BA, .364 XBA compared to a .314 and .303 rate last year. Hitters are getting at his four seamer with a .444 BA, .450 XBA compared to .288 and .286 in 2023. The Rangers have the following career numbers against Peterson:
- Adolis García 0-3, K
- Robbie Grossman 0-2, K
- Nathaniel Lowe 1-2, HR
- Corey Seager 0-3
- Marcus Semien 2-3, HR, K
- Josh Smith 0-2, K
- Leody Tavaras 0-2, 2 K
Jon Gray has pitched in 13 games, making 11 starts tossing 62 1/3 innings in 2024. So far this season he has a 2.17 ERA, 2.67 FIP, 1.203 WHIP and a 182 ERA. This is a drastic improvement from his career line of a 4.33 ERA, 3.91 FIP, 1.302 WHIP and a 108 ERA+. His success has come from keeping the ball in the ballpark. He has a 0.4 HR/9 rate. From 2018 through 2023 his rate ranged from 1.1 to 1.4.
Jon Gray was activated off of the injured list on June 8th and pitched 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. A couple of days after that he allowed one run over three innings. Today is going to be his first start on regular rest since landing on the injured list on May 21st. The Mets have the following career numbers against Gray:
- Pete Alonso 0-8, BB, 4 K
- Harrison Bader 1-7, 2 K
- José Iglesias 1-2
- Francisco Lindor 0-6, 2 K
- Starling Marte 5-18, 2 HR, BB, 3 K
- J.D. Martinez 2-7, 2 HR, 2 K
- Jeff McNeil 2-9, 2B, 2 K
- Brandon Nimmo 1-5, HR, BB, 2 K
- DJ Stewart 1-2, HR, K
- Luis Torrens 0-2, 2 K
- Mark Vientos 0-1, K
Three Things To Watch For:
- There’s a heatwave (there’s a heatwave) coming at us. Nimmo is continuing to heat up! Sunday he went 3-for-5 with two runs scored. Overall in the series against the Padres he went 7-for-13 with four runs scored. Getting on base seven times and scoring four times is a recipe for Mets success.
- Too hot to think straight. There is no Met hotter than J.D. Martinez right now. In the series against the Padres, Martinez went 6-for-9 at the plate with three runs scored, two doubles, two homers and five walks. He hit .667/.786/1.556 with six RBI’s. Since May 30th he is hitting .333/.449/.702 raising his season OPS from .730 to .881.
- Too cold to panic. There was a moment Sunday where I’ll admit, I almost stopped believing. Diekman and Drew Smith together allowed two walks and two hits to become three runs. The Padres were able to bring it within one. Thankfully the Mets bats scored more runs and Reid-Foley with ice waters in his veins pitched a clean ninth to finish the game. The good news is Edwin Díaz and Adam Ottavino come into today’s game with two days rest and Reed Garrett has only tossed eight pitches in the last four calendar days.
Let’s Go Mets!
