The Mets look to take the series against the Marlins this afternoon in Queens. Friday night was a good reset for the team with good hitting and good pitching. The Mets had a monster fourth inning where they scored six runs, Sean Manaea pitched seven innings and Buttó pitched two clean innings of relief.
More importantly for the Mets, all of the teams they are chasing for the wild card lost, so the Mets are only one game out of the last wild card spot.
The Mets are hoping they can get Luis Severino back on the right track this afternoon. Over 23 games, 133 2/3 innings, Severino has a 4.17 ERA, 4.45 FIP, 1.264 WHIP and a 95 ERA+. In his last three starts he has allowed 15 runs, 14 earned, over 13 innings from 20 hits and four walks. He’s also allowed five home runs in his last three starts (compared to just 12 in his 20 starts before that). Luis Severino has been effective against the Marlins this season, holding them to only six runs over 18 2/3 innings (three starts). The Marlins have the following career numbers against him:
- Vidal Brujan 0-4, BB
- Jake Burger 4-10, 2 HR, BB, K
- Xavier Edwards 0-2, K
- Nick Fortes 0-5, K
- Derek Hill 0-1, BB, K
- Otto Lopez 2-8, 2B, BB, K
- Emmanuel Rivera 0-3, 2 K
- Jesús Sánchez 2-8, 2B, BB, 3 K
The Mets bats look to keep form this afternoon against Max Meyer. Over seven starts he has pitched 36 1/3 innings with a 5.20 ERA, 4.94 FIP, 1.266 WHIP and an 86 ERA+. The Marlins strangely demoted Meyer, who was coming off of Tommy John, after three effective starts in April. Since being recalled at the end of July he has had a 7.91 ERA, 5.97 FIP over four starts. No one on the Mets has seen Meyer in an official game before.
Three Things To Watch For:
- Brandon Nimmo. Nimmo has been in a slump since the All Star break, hitting .140/.269/.174 with only three extra-base hits going into Friday night’s game. At the start of August it looked like he was starting to break out of his slump and then he went 0-for-13 with three walks in his last four games before Friday night. Friday night though he went 2-for-5 with a three-run homer (which gave him almost as many RBI’s as his previous 23 games combined where he had four). Get hot Nimmo! We need you.
- Jeff McNeil continues to stay hot. Jeff went 2-for-4 with a double and a homer Friday night. In his last 28 games he has seven home runs and is hitting .316/.362/.663. Only July 12th McNeil was hitting .215/.274/.308. In the last five weeks he has raised that to .240/.296/.396.
- Jake Burger. In Friday’s Game Chat we discussed how Burger was on another planet right now in terms of power. The good news for the Mets is they held him to only one hit Friday night. The bad news that hit was a home run. In his last eight games he has gone 14-for-32 with seven homeruns (.438/.514/1.125).
Let’s Go Mets!
