The Mets go for the elusive four-game sweep this afternoon!
Saturday the Mets shut out the Cardinals 3-0 in a brisk two and a half hour game in front of a sold out crowd at Citi Field. Senga cruised through his first five innings and the bullpen was able to get him out of trouble in the sixth. Reed Garrett continued his fantastic season, Minter was able to work around three walks and Díaz shut the door in the ninth. Pete Alonso continued his hot start to the season going 2-for-4 at the plate with a solo home run, double and two RBI’s.
Clay Holmes has tossed 19 2/3 innings with a 3.66 ERA, 2.16 FIP, 1.475 WHIP and a 107 ERA+. Holmes has become a strikeout machine with 28 strikeouts so far this season and 18 of them coming in his last two starts. On April 8th Holmes allowed four runs over 5 1/3 innings while striking out 10 against the Marlins. He bounced back in his last start in Minnesota holding them to one run and two hits over five innings, while striking out eight. Holmes only pitched one inning against the Cardinals in 2024, allowing nothing while facing three batters. The Cardinals have the following career numbers against Holmes:
- Nolan Arenado 2-4, BB
- Willson Contreras 1-5, K
- Nolan Gorman 0-1, K
- Lars Nootbaar 0-2
- Jordan Walker 0-1
The Mets bats take on the veteran Sonny Gray this afternoon. Gray is off to a hot start this season with a 3.13 ERA, 3.94 FIP, 0.783 WHIP (league leading) and a 133 ERA+ over 23 innings. He’s coming off of his best start of the season where he held the Astros scoreless over seven innings while striking out four batters. He’s limited opposing lineups to exactly three hits each in his last two starts.
Gray last faced the Mets about a year ago. Going into that game he had a 1.04 ERA over his first three starts of the season. The Mets were able to score four runs, only one earned, off of him over six innings in a game the Mets eventually won 7-4. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:
- Pete Alonso 1-5, HR, BB, K
- Brett Baty 0-1, BB
- Francisco Lindor 5-24, 2 HR, 4 BB, 8 K
- Starling Marte 3-12, HR, 2 BB
- Brandon Nimmo 3-8, 3 K
- Juan Soto 4-8, HR, 4 BB, K
- Tyrone Taylor 2-8, HR, K
- Luis Torrens 0-2
- Jesse Winker 3-8, 2B, 2 BB, K
Three Things To Watch For:
- How deep in the game can Holmes go? The Mets still have four games to go until their next off day and the bullpen has worked extra hard over the last week. Holmes reached a season high of 90 pitches in his last start and on April 8th actually pitched for a bit in the sixth inning. Hitters slash .233/.361/.233 the first time through the lineup against Holmes and that improves (in terms of OPS) to .267/.353/.333. The K/BB ration goes from 2.20 the first time through, to 3.50 the second time and down to 1.50 the third time. Batters OPS jumps from .575 pitches 1-25 to .694 during pitches 51-75. Getting through the sixth inning is Holmes’ next big step – can he do it, and save the bullpen, today?
- Pete Alonso. How amazing has Pete Alonso been? His solo shot yesterday was his sixth on the season, bringing him 232 for his career and only 20 behind Strawberry for the all-time Mets lead. He currently leads the league with 23 RBI’s, .753 SLG, 1.220 OPS and 247 OPS+. In his last six games he has gone 9-for-20 at the plate with three doubles, a triple, two home runs, five RBI’s and five walks (.450/.560/1.000). What a hot streak!
- Keep frustrating the Cardinals! We know the Mets struggle with runners in scoring position, and yesterday was another example of that (1-for-7). The Cardinals performed worse though. They went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, leaving eight runners on base. Even though the Cardinals had only three hits yesterday, they still worked five walks. Keep that pressure on the birds! Get the big outs!
Let’s Go Mets!
