It’s September! The Mets are playing meaningful September games! What a luxury that we have pined for most seasons. This September 1st the Mets will go for the sweep in Chicago and their fourth win a row. Saturday was a great day for the Mets. They picked up the win and all three teams they are chasing lost. Entering play today the Mets are only two games out of the last wild card spot and four games out of the first spot. Let’s keep pushing!
Sean Manaea looks to drop the hammer for the sweep this afternoon. Over 143 2/3 innings, Manaea has a 3.51 ERA, 3.78 FIP, 1.142 WHIP and a 113 ERA+. Manaea has allowed exactly three runs in each of his last four starts. In his last three starts, he has paired that with pitching at least 6 2/3 innings. Since July 30th, Manaea has a 2.87 ERA, 2.64 FIP. The White Sox have the following career numbers against Manaea:
- Andrew Benintendi 4-12, 2 BB, K
- Nicky Lopez 2-7, K
- Luis Robert Jr. 2-4, HR
- Miguel Vargas 0-7, 3 K
- Andrew Vaughn 1-4, 2B, K
The Mets bats will face off today against one of the surprising players to not be moved at the deadline – Garrett Crochet. Crochet wanted guarantees about his workload in a trade. He didn’t want to get bumped to the bullpen, and he wanted an extension before pitching in the post-season. The White Sox have started to ramp down his work load recently so he can finish the entire season as a starter.
Over 27 games he has pitched 128 2/3 innings with a 3.64 ERA, 2.83 FIP, 1.073 WHIP and a 116 ERA+. Since July 23rd Crochet has pitched 21 1/3 innings spread over six starts (there’s a seventh start we’ll get to later) with a 6.75 ERA and a 5.14 FIP. The Mets have the following career numbers against Crochet:
- José Iglesias 1-2
- Francisco Lindor 0-1
- Starling Marte 0-2
- Luis Torrens 0-1, K
- Jesse Winker 1-1
Three Things To Watch For:
- Crochet Today: Crochet is coming off of a bizarre start, in terms on how it looks on Websites like Baseball Reference. On August 27th he is credited for the start, with no outs recorded and no baters faced – and no pitches recorded. In reality he tossed four pitches before a rain delay knocked him out. So essentially he warmed up and then didn’t make the start. Does he go deeper today because of that? He had a month long decrease in pitches per start, getting down to the 50’s before his last start.
- Jesse Winker: Winker has been on an absolute tear this weekend. Saturday he completed his second straight game of at least three hits. In his last three games he has gone 8-for-11 with a double and a homer. He has three RBI’s and three runs scored. The Mets have also faced right-handed pitching his last three games. So the Mets have a red-hot platoon hitter going against a left-handed starter today on some sort of pitch count. How does Mendoza play this?
- Pete Alonso: Hidden behind the Mets successful week has been Pete Alonso. He has homered three times in his last three games, posting a small-sample size .619 SLG compared to a not so great .217 OBP. The Mets have won all three games that Alonso has homered in. Two of those games the Mets won by two runs or less.
Let’s Go Mets!
