The Mets and Astros face off for the rare Saturday evening rubber game! There was no off-day for the Mets and Astros after Opening Day. Due to scheduling rules around interleague schedules, they are limited to a three game series. Thus, an unusual Sunday off-day.
Last night Juan Soto hit is his first home run as a New York Met. The ball left his bat at 107.3 mph and he knew it was gone immediately. The Mets bats didn’t do much of anything after his solo home run, but didn’t need to thanks to the excellent start by Tylor Megill and a bullpen that held the Astros to three walks, no hits and no runs over the last four innings.
Griffin Canning has gone from around seventh on the Mets depth chart going into the spring training to finding himself on sleeper fantasy baseball lists. Over 14 1/3 innings in spring training, Canning allowed only three hits from 11 hits while striking out a staggering 22 batters. His success this spring came from the Mets wanting him to use his cutter again and to try tossing a sinker. He pitched in 32 games for the Angels in 2024, tossing 171 2/3 innings with a 5.19 ERA, 5.26 FIP, 1.398 WHIP and an 81 ERA+. Playing in the same division as the Astros in 2024, he faced them three times allowing nine runs from 18 hits over 15 2/3 innings while striking out seven. The Astros have the following career numbers against him:
- Jose Altuve 3-13, HR, 2 BB, 2 K
- Yordan Alvarez 7-13, 2B, 2 HR, 3 BB, 2 K
- Victor Caratini 0-4, BB
- Yainer Diaz 4-10, HR, K
- Mauricio Dubón 2-5, BB
- Chas McCormick 0-4
- Jake Meyers 3-11, K
- Isaac Paredes 1-5, 2B, 2 K
- Jeremy Peña 2-12, 2B, K
- Brendan Rodgers 1-3, 2B, K
- Christian Walker 4-8, 2 HR, BB, 3 K
Spencer Arrighetti had a solid rookie season for the Astros in 2024. He had a 4.53 ERA, 4.18 FIP, 1.407 WHIP and an 87 ERA+ over 29 games (145 innings). Statcast picked up seven different pitches for Spencer last year who mainly relies on his mid-90s four seamer (40.6% of pitches), curveball (19.9%) and cutter (19.6%). The remaining 20ish percent of his pitches are sweepers and changeups, with very few sinkers and sliders mixed in. This will be his first start against the Mets with the only Mets who have seen him are Jose Siri (0-for-3, 2 K) and Juan Soto (2-for-3, HR).
Three Things To Watch For:
- PECOTA Runs Scored. The Astros are sixth for in-season runs scored + projected runs scored by PECOTA at 760. The Mets have held them to only four runs scored so far this series. The same could be said about the Mets who are projected second and have also scored only four runs. Will one (or both) of these two teams take a step towards their projected performance tonight?
- Relievers used on back-to-back days. Max Kranick is the only reliever that has not been used in a game yet. Conditions look right today for someone to get use on back-to-back days. There’s an off day tomorrow, and all of the high leverage arms went yesterday. How does Díaz do if needed for a save situation again today? Yesterday he only needed 15 pitches to get through the ninth inning.
- Still looking for firsts. The Mets have four players who are still looking for their first hit of 2025: Lindor, Acuña, Baty, Siri and Senger. To be fair, Baty and Senger have combined for a total of three plate appearances. The entire Mets team is still looking for their first stolen base. As of now, the official call on Brandon Nimmo is that he got caught stealing but was safe at second due to an error from the first basemen.
Let’s Go Mets!
