Game Preview: Mets @ Marlins

The Mets look to bounce back tonight after dropping two games to Houston as they start a new series in Miami. Thursday was a rough day for the Mets as they took a loss and Carlos Carrasco had to leave the game early with an injury. But it’s a new day and the Mets finally play in Miami for the first time in 2022. Many eyes are on Sunday – the possible return of Max Scherzer – but in the meantime we’ll focus on tonight and Taijuan Walker’s turn to pitch.

Walker has made 11 starts tossing 59 1/3 innings this year with a 2.88 ERA, 3.17 FIP, 1.163 WHIP and a 3.17 FIP. In his last two starts he has allowed two runs from eight hits over 12 2/3 innings while striking out an astounding 19 batters. No other two game stretch this season even comes close to that mark. For context, 19 of his 44 K’s on the season have happened in his last two starts.

Walker’s last start was against the Marlins where he allowed one run on two hits over 6 2/3 innings while striking out 19 batters. The Marlins have the following career numbers against Walker:

Miguel Rojas 2-16, 2B, 4 K
Avisail Garcia 2-12, 2B, 6 K
Brian Anderson 3-10, 3 K
Jazz Chisholm Jr. 2-7, 2 2B, 4 BB, 2 K
Bryan De La Cruz 4-10, 2 K
Jon Berti 2-4, K
Garrett Cooper 0-3, 2 K
Jorge Soler 0-3, K

The Mets bats will get the Sandy Alcantara game out of the way early this series. Over 14 starts and 99 1/3 innings (league leading), Sandy has a 1.72 ERA (league leading), 2.84 FIP, 0.956 WHIP and a 241 ERA+ (league leading). He is also leading the league with 6.1 hits per nine innings.

The Mets know all of this well because they just faced him last week. Last week he allowed two runs from six hits over eight innings. In four starts in June, seven innings has been his shortest outing. You have to go all the way back to May 6th to find an outing where he didn’t pitch at least seven innings. Since May 11th he has pitched 63 2/3 innings over eight starts with a 0.99 ERA. The Mets have the following career numbers against him: