What a night for the Mets! The Mets won! The Braves lost! The Mets enter play today with a 2.5 game lead in the division, which feels a lot better than the one game lead they’ve been nursing for the better part of the last couple of weeks.
Chris Bassitt pitched eight fantastic innings yesterday in his old stadium, giving everyone except Drew Smith the night off. The Mets offense was on fire collecting 13 hits including a grand slam by Eduardo Escobar.
Jacob deGrom is hoping the Mets offense saved some runs for his start tonight. Over nine games and 54 1/3 innings this year, deGrom has a 2.32 ERA, 1.36 FIP, 0.607 WHIP and a 168 ERA+. He’s coming off back to back starts of allowing three runs but his strikeout numbers have been through the roof – 23 over 11 innings. He’s allowed a homer in four of his last five starts, which has been his only weak point so far this season. Unsurprisingly, there are only two batters who have seen deGrom in an official game before. Stephen Vogt is 1-5 with a double and two strikeouts against deGrom and Tony Kemp is hitless in three at bats with a strikeout.
The Mets bats will get a look at Ken Waldichuk tonight, who was part of the package of prospects the Yankees sent to the Athletics this season for Frankie Montas. Waldichuk has made four starts in the majors this year, totaling 17 2/3 innings with a 7.13 ERA, 4.75 FIP, 1.585 WHIP and a 54 ERA+.
Waldichuk’s first start was fine – he allowed one run from five hits and four walks over 4 2/3 innings. Since then he has allowed 13 runs from 16 hits and three walks over 13 innings including three homers. His last outing was his shortest one, last 2 2/3 innings, and only 52 pitches (82-93 pitches in his other starts).
Let’s Go Mets!
