The Mets look to stretch their winning streak to nine games this afternoon! Friday night the Mets and Reds had a back-and-forth affair that ended with Mark Vientos hitting a walk-off homerun in the bottom of the tenth inning. The Braves and Padres both won while the Diamondbacks lost. The Mets enter the weekend still tied for the third wild card spot int he National League but the Mets/Braves are now only 1.5 games out of the second spot. Every game is vital!
Jose Quintana has pitched 145 1/3 innings over 27 starts this season with a 4.27 ERA, 5.01 FIP, 1.321 WHIP and a 93 ERA+. Quintana had a rough go of it for his first four starts in August allowing 19 runs over 20 2/3 innings. In his last two starts he has allowed two runs, one earned, over 11 1/3 innings scattering 10 hits and five walks. Quintana had a good start against Reds at the start of the season, holding them to one run on a solo homer over 5 2/3 innings. The Reds have the following career numbers against him:
- Will Benson 0-2, BB
- Elly De La Cruz 1-6, HR, 2 K
- Santiago Espinal 2-4
- Ty France 2-3, HR
- Jonathan India 3-9, K
- Luke Maile 1-2
- Noelvi Marte 1-3
- Amed Rosario 5-9, 2B, K
- Spencer Steer 2-8, HR, 2 BB, 2 K
- Tyler Stephenson 1-3
Jakob Junis gets the start for the Reds this afternoon. Junis has worked mostly out of the bullpen this season between the Brewers and the Reds. With the Reds he has pitched in 10 games totaling 20 innings with a 4.05 ERA, 3.43 FIP, 1.000 WHIP and a 79 ERA+. Overall this season he has a 3.13 ERA over 46 innings. The Reds have shifted his work load his last two outings, going from pitching 1-2+ innings to now 3-4 innings. In his last two outings he has pitched 7 2/3 innings allowing only one run. In his last game he hit a career high in pitches tossed at 62. The Mets have the following career numbers against Junis:
- Pete Alonso 1-6, 3 K
- Francisco Alvarez 0-1
- Harrison Bader 0-7, 3 K
- José Iglesias 3-15, 2B, BB, 4 K
- Francisco Lindor 20-40, 4 2B, 3B, 6 HR, 2 K
- Starling Marte 0-3
- J.D. Martinez 5-15, 2B, 2 BB, 3 K
- Jeff McNeil 0-1
- Brandon Nimmo 0-4, K
- Tyrone Taylor 0-4
- Luis Torrens 1-3
- Jesse Winker 0-2, K
Three Things To Watch For:
- Jose Quintana’s 100th Career Win. Jose Quintana is 99-102 lifetime. Pitcher wins are definitely an imperfect stat, especially on the scale of a singular game. But over a career wins can define persistence and tenacity. Getting to this plateau is pretty big deal and hopefully Quintana can do it today. For context he was sitting at 98 career wins for the better part of a month.
- Francisco Lindor’s 100th Run. Francisco Lindor is now sitting on 99 runs scored for the season. He is poised to cross the 100 run threshold for the second time as a Met and for the four time in his career. The most runs he has scored as a Met is 108 and in his career is 129. His career mark feels like a stretch at this point of the season, but it’s not impossible. He’s also only two doubles away from 40 on the season and four stolen bases from his second consecutive 30-30 seasons. A lot milestones possible for the Mets (and the National League’s) MVP.
- Mark Vientos. The hero from Friday night’s game is in the midst of a breakout season. Over his last nine games he has gone 15-for-37 with four home runs. In the month of September he has gone 8-for-17 with three home runs and only four strikeouts. He’s been an x-factor for the Mets this season. This is of course burying that he hit two home runs in last night’s game, getting the Mets bats started in the first inning and closing the game in 10th.
Let’s Go Mets!
