The Mets winning streak came to an end Wednesday night in Arlington. After a phenomenal seven game winning streak the New York Mets have gone 13-5 in their last 18 games played and now to head to Chicago to take on the Cubs.
The Cubs have won their last two games and are 5-5 over their last ten games. They have played two more games than the Mets have at this point in the season and essentially have the same winning percentage (.480 compared to the Mets .479). Both teams are one game out of the last wild car spot. This weekend is a huge weekend for the Mets to make some separation between teams in a crowded wild card scene.
Jose Quintana gets the start to open the series for the Mets. Over 14 starts and 72 1/3 innings, Quintana has a 4.98 ERA, 5.16 FIP, 1.369 WHIP and a 77 ERA+. He’s coming off of a strong start against the Padres where he allowed only one run on two hits and two walks over six innings while striking out six batters. The Cubs have the following career numbers against Quintana:
- Cody Bellinger 4-18, 2 2B, HR, BB, 8 K
- Ian Happ 2-5, K
- Nico Hoerner 3-8, K
- Christopher Morel 1-6, 2 K
- Seiya Suzuki 1-6, HR, K
- Dansby Swanson 3-8, 2 2B, 2 K
- Jameson Taillon 0-2, 2 K
- Patrick Wisdom 2-7, HR, 2 BB, 4 K
Shōta Imanaga has had a phenomenal start to his major league career. Over 13 starts, 76 innings, he has a 1.89 ERA, 2.76 FIP, 0.987 WHIP and a 216 ERA+. The Cubs have a losing record as a team but have won 11 of Imanaga’s 13 starts. At the end of May Imanaga started to come down to Earth a bit. He allowed seven runs over 4 1/3 innings against the Brewers. In his next start he allowed five runs, only one earned, over 4 1/2 innings against the White Sox. Since then he has allowed only three runs over 13 2/3 innings while striking out 13.
Three Things To Watch For:
- Tomás Nido. Nido signed a contract with the Cubs earlier in the week and will probably make his Cubs debut at some point this weekend. There is something poetic about Nido who has spent parts of eight major league seasons playing for the Mets will play against the team that drafted him. There is also a question about how much knowledge he brings about the Mets to the Cubs and how much that matters in a day and age where analytics knows so much.
- Battle of the bullpens. The Cubs in general have had good starting pitching this season, it’s their bullpen that has caused them problems. By Fan Graphs’ WAR, the Cubs bullpen is #27 in MLB with a -0.5 WAR. The Mets are actually #9 with a 1.9 WAR (which is amazing considering how the bullpen problems fueled that rough stretch in May). For the Mets, they need to get Imanaga’s pitch count up early, out of the game early and into that Cubs bullpen. This will be tough as Imanaga has a league leading 1.3 BB/9.
- Mets strikeouts. Part of the issue for the Mets on Wednesday night was strikeouts. The team struck out 12 times with Martinez, Marte, Vientos and Alvarez each striking out two times. It’s hard to get any rallies going when batters are striking out. Imanaga has a K/9 rate of 9.2.
Let’s Go Mets!
