The Mets look to comeback from Saturday’s disappointing loss this afternoon in Queens. The Mets had a huge second inning in Saturday’s game to go up 5-1 but the Astros were able to take advantage of Tylor Megill and then the Mets overtaxed bullpen to comeback and win the game 9-6. A win today gives the Mets a winning record again, another winning series against a good team and closes out a good month for the Mets.
Luis Severino has pitched 90 1/3 innings over 15 starts for the Mets with a 3.29 ERA, 3.92 FIP, 1.151 WHIP and a 117 ERA+. Severino is coming off of a strong start against the Cubs in his last start where held them scoreless over six innings and struck out a season-high 10 batters. In four of his last six starts he has allowed one run or less. It’s best that we don’t talk about the other two starts. The Astros have the following career numbers against Severino:
- José Altuve 9-33, 2B, HR, 7 K
- Yordan Alvarez 3-11, HR, 2 BB, 4 K
- Alex Bregman 5-25, 2 2B, HR, 2 BB, 5 K
- Trey Cabbage 1-2, 2B, K
- Yainer Diaz 2-4, 2 HR, K
- Mauricio Dubón 0-4
- Chas McCormick 1-5, BB, K
- Jake Meyers 1-6, 2B, 4 K
- Jeremy Pena 2-6, BB, K
It’s a bullpen day for the Astros, starting with Shawn Dubin! Dubin has pitched 22 1/3 innings over 14 games this season with a 5.64 ERA, 2.52 FIP, 1.657 WHIP and a 71 ERA+. He has the rare combination of a 10+ H/9 and a 10+ K/9 inning. Dubin can give the Astros some length as he has pitched three innings once this season and 2 1/3 innings four times. The most pitches has has thrown in an outing is 42, so that’s probably about his maximum. Interesting to note, he has not allowed a home run this season. A few Mets have seen him in a major league game:
- Pete Alonso 1-1, 2B
- Francisco Alvarez 0-1, K
- Francisco Lindor 1-2, 2B, K
- Jeff McNeil 1-2
- Brandon Nimmo 0-2, K
Three Things To Watch For:
- Ben Gamel’s first start. Ben Gamel will finally see significant playing time this afternoon since joining the Mets. Over nine major league seasons Gamel hit .252/.332/.384. He last saw regular playing time at the major league level in 2022 with the Pirates where he hit .232/.324/.369 with a 97 OPS+. Gamel was hitting well in Syracuse before getting called up (.314/.423/.539) with seven homers.
- Bullpen Reinforcements. Tyler Jay was recalled to the major league squad before today’s game and Matt Festa was called up to possible make his Mets debut. Jay made his major league debut with the Mets earlier this season allowing one run from five hits and a walk over four innings of work. In Syracuse this season eh has a 2.00 ERA over 36 innings. Festa’s last full season was in 2022 with the Mariners where he had a 4.17 ERA, 4.26 FIP, 1.130 WHIP and an 89 ERA+ over 54 innings. Across multiple minor league organizations this season he has a 3.16 ERA, 1.245 WHIP over 31 1/3 innings.
- Can Mendoza pick another three-hit second basemen? Jeff McNeil went 3-for-4 Friday night with a critical three-run home run that pulled the Mets far ahead of the Astros. He was passed over for the start yesterday for José Iglesias. Iglesias made Mendoza look like a genius and got three hits to start the game. McNeil is back in the lineup today, does he go off and make Mendoza look clairvoyant?
Let’s Go Mets!
