The Mets need a win tonight in the worst way. Last night the Mets lost the series to the Nationals and their fourth game in a row, the first time since 2021 they’ve lost four games in a row. A win today prevents the sleep and can help the team get it’s swagger back. The last several games have felt lackluster.
Like everything in baseball, it all starts with one game. The Mets home opener this year came right after the Mets got swept in dramatic fashion by the Brewers. it was an ugly series in every way possible for the Mets. The Mets were able to regroup and go 4-2 at home. They then swept the Athletics and then went 2-1 against the Dodgers. It all starts with one game. Here’s hoping that’s today!
Joey Lucchesi played Mets hero in first start of the season. He allowed no runs from four hits and two walks while struck out nine batters over seven innings. It was the longest start by a starter this season for the Mets (which highlight’s the current rotation issues the team has). Lucchesi started to turn around his season in 2021 with a string of successful starts before a season ended injury. He required Tommy John surgery and missed all of last season. He now finds himself in an interesting situation. With Scherzer and Verlander due back next week, if Lucchesi has another strong start in the rotation he could end up pushing another starter out. A few players on the Nationals roster have seen Lucchesi before:
- Victor Robles 4-8, 2B, HR, 2 K
- Corey Dickerson 0-3
- Carter Kieboom 1-2
The Mets get to see an unsung hero from last year’s team – Trevor Williams. Williams pitched in 30 games, including nine starts for the 2022 Mets with a 3.21 ERA, 3.88 FIP, 1.227 WHIP and 120 ERA+. As a member of the Nationals this season he has made four starts pitching 21 1/3 innings with a 3.38 ERA, 4.65 FIP, 1.087 WHIP and a 124 ERA+. In his last two starts he has allowed only three runs over 11 innings (2.45 ERA, 4.52 FIP). Further, Williams is pretty stretched out now, tossing at least 93 pitches in three of his four starts this season. The Mets have the following career numbers against Trevor:
- Tommy Pham 3-13, 2 2B, HR, 2 BB, 3 K
- Jeff McNeil 2-7, 2B, 2 BB, 2 K
- Pete Alonso 2-7, 2B, HR, BB, 2 K
- Francisco Lindor 1-8, 2 K
- Eduardo Escobar 2-5, 2B
- Brandon Nimmo 0-4, 3 K
- Luis Guillorme 0-3
- Daniel Vogelbach 0-0, BB
Three Things To Watch For:
- Pete cannot carry the team by himself. The past four games have shown that the Mets offense needs another player to step up as a run producer besides Pete Alonso. Alonso cannot carry the team all by himself. In the four losses, Alonso is hitless in 16 trips to the plate with no walks and six strikeouts. In the 14 games before that, Alonso was hitting .339/.413/.714. Those are fantastic numbers for Alonso but also hot streak numbers. Cold streaks happen. As we saw last night the Mets can still get on base in a cold streak, but who is going to knock them in?
- Jeff McHits: Over the last six games McNeil has gone 10-for-22 at the plate with a homer leading to a .455/.539/.591 batting line. There has not been a strong correlation yet between his hot streak and the Mets winning games. McNeil, who has been on base a total of 14 times over the last six games has only scored five times. The Mets bats need to take advantage of this streak McNeil is on right now.
- Eduardo Escobar has been better recently then we all probably think. Brett Baty should be playing every day. That being said, the Mets need to find another way to get Escobar in the lineup because he is starting to heat up. In the last five games he’s played in, dating back to the Oakland series, Escobar is 5-for-18 with a double, triple and a homer and has scored four times (.278/.316/.611). He has also struck out only three times and grounded into one double play during this stretch. Before this stretch of five games, Escobar was hitting .103/.143/.205.
Let’s Go Mets!
