Late last night while New York was sleeping, the Mets and Dodgers played an action-packed back and forth affair with the Mets coming out on top and securing their fifth win in a row. Baty made his 2023 debut and made an impact with a late RBI. Vogelbach had three RBI’s including a two run homer.
Now the Mets have a chance tonight to take the series and win their sixth game in a row with Tylor Megill taking on longstanding Dodgers’ ace – Clayton Kershaw.
Wins are imperfect stat in baseball, however Tylor Megill could make me a believer again. He is 3-0 over his first three starts of the year where he has allowed four runs from 12 hits in 16 innings leading to a 2.25 ERA, 4.64 FIP, 1.188 WHIP and a 188 ERA+. Megill has only pitched one quality start in those three starts (six shutout innings against the Marlins on April 7th). The next step for Megill will be to consistently make it through the sixth inning. The Dodgers have the following career numbers against Megill:
- Freddie Freeman 4-8, 3 K
- Max Muncy 2-3, 2B
- David Peralta 0-3, K
- Miguel Rojas 1-3, K
- Will Smith 0-2, K
- Chris Taylor 1-2, K
Clayton Kershaw stands between the Mets and a series victory tonight. Over his first three starts and 18 innings this season he has a 3.50 ERA, 4.44 FIP, 1.111 WHIP and a 129 ERA+. His first start this season was his best, allowing one run over six innings. Since then he has allowed seven runs, six earned, over 12 innings of work. In his one start against the Mets last season he allowed only one run from one hit and three walks over five innings while striking out six Mets. The Mets have the following career numbers against Kershaw:
- Eduardo Escobar 4-22, 2 HR, BB, 5 K
- Starling Marte 4-19, BB, 7 K
- Tommy Pham 1-14, BB, 5 K
- Mark Canha 3-10, BB, 3 K
- Pete Alonso 1-4, 2 BB
- Francisco Lindor 1-5, K
- Jeff McNeil 0-5
- Brandon Nimmo 0-5, 3 K
- Tomás Nido 1-3, K
Three Things To Watch:
- Brandon Nimmo’s Glove! Brandon Nimmo has played hero the last two games for the Mets. On Sunday he made multiple, game saving catches to keep the Mets in the game. Yesterday he ran down a ball in the gap in the ninth inning. It feels like centuries ago that Mets fans were having debates about whether the Mets could really trust Nimmo in center.
- The bats are heating up! Yesterday the Mets collected 14 hits, including three players getting three hits each. Nimmo, Alonso and McNeil each went 3-5 at the plate (McNeil even collected three doubles!). Similar to this past weekend with walks, the goal is to actually score runs. Yesterday the Mets were able to convert 14 hits and three walks into eight runs. This is the way!
- It had to be Freddie Freeman. Freddie Freeman gave the Dodgers the early lead last night with a solo homer. In 195 games against the Mets, Freeman is .302/.386/.492 hitter with 28 homers. Surprisingly, this matches his career OBP exactly and is slightly less than his career slugging (.508). That being said, it always feels like Freeman is the greatest hitter on Earth when he plays the Mets.
Let’s Go Mets!
