Friday and Saturday have been inverses of each other for the Mets. On Friday afternoon the Mets bats could not be stopped and the pitching sliced through the Cubs lineup. Saturday afternoon, the Cubs returned the favor cruising to a victory against the Mets. The series comes down to tonight’s rubber game!
Luis Severino has pitched 84 1/3 innings for the Mets this season over 14 starts with a 3.52 ERA, 4.18 FIP, 1.198 WHIP and a 109 ERA+. He’s coming off of a rough start against the Rangers where he allowed six runs over 6 1/3 innings from eight hits, a game the Mets eventually won 7-6. In his two starts before that one he allowed only two runs from 14 hits over 14 innings. One of his best starts this season came against the Cubs where he pitched eight innings of one-hit baseball. The Cubs have the following career numbers against Severino:
- Michael Busch 0-2, BB, K
- Pete Crow-Armstrong 0-3
- Ian Happ 1-5, BB, 2 K
- Nico Hoerner 0-6, K
- Christopher Morel 1-6, K
- Dansby Swanson 1-3, K
- Patrick Wisdom 0-2, BB, 2 K
Javier Assad is having a great season for the Cubs. Over 78 2/3 innings (15 starts), the 26-year old has a 2.75 ER, 3.79 FIP, 1.246 WHIP and a 151 ERA+. Similar to Saturday’s starter, Jameson Taillon, he had a rough stretch in mid-May to early June. During that stretch he had a 5.66 ERA, 5.81 FIP over 20 2/3 innings. Since then he has allowed three runs over 9 2/3 innings. He had a solid, if not a bit short, start against the Mets in April where he allowed one run from five hits over five innings. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:
- Pete Alonso 0-4
- Harrison Bader 0-1
- Francisco Lindor 2-5, BB
- J.D. Martinez 1-4, K
- Jeff McNeil 1-4, BB
- Brandon Nimmo 1-6, 2 K
- DJ Stewart 0-2, K
- Tyrone Taylor 0-3
Three Things To Watch For:
- How do the Mets batters handle Javier’s arsenal? According to Baseball Savant, Javier Assad has been mixing in six different pitches to hitters this year. He uses a low-90’s sinker 36% of the time. His next two most frequent pitches are a high-80’s cutter (20%) and a low-90’s 4-seam (19%). Finally he mixes in a curveball, slider and changeup.
- Strikeouts. The Mets batters has 14 strikeouts on Saturday with Francisco Lindor and DJ Stewart striking out three times each. Here’s hoping that the Mets change their approach at the plate today, work counts and wait for their pitches.
- J.D. Martinez goes for three games in a row. Saturday J.D. went 2-for-4 at the plate, the second straight game where he collected two hits. On Friday he went 2-for-4 with a massive home run.
Let’s Go Mets!
