Let’s try that again. The Braves and Mets will attempt to play a baseball game after a rain shortened game on Friday night and yesterday’s postponement. Has it stopped raining where you are since Friday night? It has has barely stopped here.
The Mets and Braves were scoreless for four innings on Friday, with the rain steadily increasing throughout the game. The Braves were able to score four runs in the fifth inning, and the Mets couldn’t tie the game in the bottom of the fifth before the rain delay. At that point the game was official and a few hours later the rain delay turned into a rain shortened victory for the Braves.
The Mets rescheduled yesterday’s game to August 12th. Could the Mets be trying some gamesmanship since the team is struggling right now? Maybe! The move to August 12th means that the earliest Max Scherzer can pitch is now Tuesday. There’s probably a more practical reason why the Mets didn’t schedule the make up today – it’s still raining. According to the National Weather Service, at 11 AM today there’s an 80% of rain in Flushing. Flushing doesn’t get below an 80% chance until 8 PM tonight. I’m not feeling great about this game happening either.
Tylor Megill gets the start for the Mets. Over his first five starts and 25 innings this season he has a 3.96 ERA, 5.99 FIP, 1.480 WHIP and a 104 ERA+. He’s coming off of back to back rough starts, allowing seven runs over nine innings from 13 hits and five walks while striking out only six batters. Megill has also already allowed five homers this season. The Braves were able to get to Megill last season, tagging him for five runs from seven hits and two walks over six innings.
- Ozzie Albies 4-13, HR, 4 K
- Austin Riley 3-13, HR, 6 K
- Ronald Acuña Jr. 1-5, BB, 3 K
- Ehire Adrianza 0-3, BB, K
- Matt Olson 1-3, BB
- Orlando Arcia 1-3, 2B
- Travis d’Arnaud 1-3, 2B, K
- Eddie Rosario 0-2
The Mets bats have a tall order this afternoon against Spencer Strider. Strider is off to a tremendous start this season, pitching 30 innings over his first five games with a 1.80 ERA, 1.72 FIP (league leading), 0.833 WHIP and a 244 ERA+. He is also leading the league in hits per nine inning at a paltry 4.2 and strikeouts per nine inning at 14.7. Strider had two rough starts earlier in April where he allowed six runs over 10 innings. Since then he has allowed no runs and only three hits in two games and 14 innings. The Mets were able to get to Strider last year scoring six runs from 14 hits over 12 1/3 innings:
- Brandon Nimmo 4-9, HR, BB
- Francisco Lindor 4-9, 3B, K
- Pete Alonso 1-6, 2B, 2 BB, 5 K
- Mark Canha 2-6, 2B, BB, 2 K
- Daniel Vogelbach 0-6, BB, 3 K
- Jeff McNeil 2-5, 2B
- Eduardo Escobar 1-3, 2B, BB
- Starling Marte 0-3, BB, 2 K
- Tommy Pham 0-4, 3 K
- Luis Guillorme 1-3, 2 K
Three Things To Watch For:
- Which Spencer Strider shows up this afternoon? Spencer Strider looked like the best pitcher in baseball after his eight inning, shutout performance the other night. He is also only two starts removed from two average starts. The Mets have both hit Strider well and completely fell apart against him last year. Which Strider do the Mets see this afternoon?
- Another day, another reason to talk about Brett Baty. On Thursday night Brett Baty got on base four times and hit a homer. Last night he went 1-for-2, collecting one of the three hits the Mets had yesterday. His single, which bounced off the grass in the infield before going into the outfield was hit off the bat at 110.2 mph. He’s already in the 72nd percentile for max exit velocity according to Baseball Savant.
- This weather stinks, but at least it is setting up the bullpen. One of the concerns Friday night was if the Mets went into a rain delay early, then came back and immediately had to go to the pen. The bullpen got the night off on Friday and the whole day off yesterday. The Mets also did some shuffling to their pen, moving Raley to the injured list, sending Peterson down, calling up Curtiss and bringing back Ottavino. The Mets are going to need to make even more moves later this week when Scherzer and Verlander come back. If the Mets end up needing to play two games on Monday, they should be good to go.
Let’s Go Mets!
