The last two days of Mets baseball have been tough. The Mets have been outscored 19-0 in Milwaukee and now have been held scoreless for 20 innings. The Mets starting pitching has allowed ten runs. The bullpen has allowed nine runs. The vibes are not great right now.
On Thursday the Mets are coming home for the first time in 2023, today doesn’t feel like a must win game, but it’s incredibly important for the Mets to show they are righting the ship in multiple ways.
The Mets hope Peterson can get their starting pitching back on track this afternoon. In his first start of the season Peterson allowed one run (a solo homer) from eight hits and a walk while striking out five. Peterson pitched against the Brewers twice last season, a start and a relief outing, where he allowed five runs from six hits over 4 2/3 innings. The Brewers have the following numbers against Peterson:
- Willy Adames 2-5, 2B, 2 BB
- Luke Voit 2-5, BB
- Brian Anderson 2-4, BB, K
- William Contreras 1-3, K
- Christian Yelich 1-4, K
- Victor Caratini 1-2, K
- Luis Urías 1-2
The Mets bats will try to get themselves going against the ace of the Brewers pitching staff, Corbin Burnes. Burnes is coming off of a rough first start of the season where he allowed four runs from four hits and three walks over five innings. Last season he made 33 starts totaling 202 innings with a 2.94 ERA, 3.14 FIP, 0.965 WHIP and a 134 ERA+. Burnes had a good start against the Mets in June where he held them to two runs over six innings. In September he faced the Mets in Milwaukee and allowed five runs from seven hits and a walk over 5 2/3 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against him:
- Francisco Lindor 3-15, 3B, 8 K
- Pete Alonso 4-12, 2B, HR, B, 2 K
- Jeff McNeil 4-13, HR, K
- Brandon Nimmo 6-12, 2B, 2 3B, 2 K
- Daniel Vogelbach 2-9, 2B, HR, 3 K
- Starling Marte 2-5, 2 K
- Mark Canha 0-4, BB, 2 K
- Eduardo Escobar 1-4, K
- Luis Guillorme 0-4, 2K
Three Things To Watch For:
- The offense has been offensive: The Mets offense hasn’t scored a run in 20 innings now. This is despite the Mets working walks, getting hit by pitches, and slapping singles. The pitching hasn’t helped things the last couple of days with the starting pitching allowing ten runs and the bullpen allowing nine runs. The pitching staff could allow only one run and it wouldn’t matter if the bats don’t push runs across the plate. Let’s hope the Mets can get some momentum going into the home opener tomorrow.
- Brewers burning Burnes: Burnes lost a brutal arbitration case against the Brewers this off-season. The Brewers saved less than three quarters of a million dollars in the process. In the grand scheme of things, it seems like a small sum of money to go to court and embarrass an ace pitcher. Burnes talked about experience afterwards. Right now it seems difficult to see how the two sides can reconcile in the future. Further, Burnes had a rough start last time out. This story line is on a direct collision course with the story of the Mets offense.
- Jeff McHits: Jeff McNeil was one of the few bright spots for the Mets last night, picking up three hits. Going into last night’s game he had only four hits (and no walks) in 21 AB’s. Jeff also struggled in spring training collecting only four hits in 23 AB’s. The Mets desperately need this performance to be start of a hot streak for Jeff.
Let’s Go Mets!
