The Mets and Phillies gear up for game two tonight at Citi Field! Last night Kodai Senga gave the Mets his best performance of the year, pitching seven innings of one hit ball, holding the Phillies scoreless. More amazingly, he struck out nine batters while allowing zero walks, the one weakness in his game this season.
Tonight Carlos Carrasco will look to build off that momentum and try to secure a Mets series victory.
Carlos Carrasco is coming off of a great start himself. In five starts this season he has tossed 25 1/3 innings with a 6.75 ERA, 6.44 FIP, 1.421 WHIP and a 62 ERA+. His last time out he held the Cubs to one run and five hits over 6 2/3 innings, by far his best start of the season. Carrasco faced the Phillies once last year (almost exactly a year ago on May 27th) and allowed five runs from six hits over 5 2/3 innings, a game the Mets eventually won 8-6. The Phillies have the following career numbers against Carrasco:
- Nick Castellanos 12-49, 5 2B, 3 BB, 15 K
- Bryce Harper 2-9, BB, K
- Jake Cave 1-8, 3 K
- Trea Turner 6-8, 3 2B
- J.T. Realmuto 2-7, 2 K
- Kyle Schwarber 0-6, 3 K
- Alec Bohm 1-3, K
- Brandon Marsh 0-2, BB, 2 K
Aaron Nola makes his 12th start of the season today for the Phillies. Over 68 2/3 innings, Nola has a 4.59 ERA, 4.32 FIP, 1.121 WHIP and a 94 ERA+. Nola is having a weird month where he has been alternating between bad starts and good starts. Three times his month he has allowed at least four runs. Two times this month he has allowed exactly two runs. Every game this month he has pitched at least six innings. If the pattern continues he should have a good game against the Mets tonight. Nola faced the Mets five times last season totaling 29 1/3 innings with a 3.99 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against him:
- Brandon Nimmo 12-43, 3B, HR, 11 BB, 16 K
- Jeff McNeil 12-39, 2B, HR, 5 BB, 9 K
- Pete Alonso 15-43, 3 2B, 5 HR, 3 BB, 12 K (1.159 OPS)
- Francisco Lindor 6-23, 2 2B, BB, 6 K
- Starling Marte 9-24, 2 2B, HR, 7 K
- Eduardo Escobar 2-9, 2B, 2 BB, 4 K
- Tomás Nido 1-9, 5 K
- Daniel Vogelbach 3-8, 2B, BB, 2 K
- Mark Canha 1-6, 2B, K
- Brett Baty 0-2, K
Three Things To Watch For:
- The Mets and Quality Starts: The Mets improved to 14-0 last night when they get a quality start from a starting pitcher. During the free-fall period in April, the Mets couldn’t barely find a quality start. Now they are starting to get them more frequently. Carlos Carrasco joined the quality start club his last time out. Two quality starts in a row from Cookie will get a long way in calming anxiety around the Mets starting rotation.
- Bryce Harper: The Mets will get their first look this season at Bryce Harper who is amazingly playing baseball again only 159 days after having Tommy John surgery. The Phillies are still exclusively using him as a DH right now and the Mets broadcast booth talked about how he could come back as a first basemen after the All-Star break since Rhys Hoskins is most likely out for the season. In his first 23 games this season, Harper is hitting .306/.406/.482 with a 145 OPS+.
- Francisco Lindor: Lindor has been destroying the baseball this week hitting three homers in his last four games, becoming the second player on the Mets to reach double digits for homers. He’s the leader of this team and if he keeps getting hot at the same time that the Baby Mets are hot, the rest of the National League needs to watch out.
Let’s Go Mets!
