The Mets look to win two-in-a-row against the Astros tonight! Yesterday the Mets got a dominating, vintager performance from Max Scherzer who held the Astros to one run over eight innings. The Mets offense went off scoring 11 runs, including five runs in the ninth inning to give the Mets their easiest victory of the season.
Tonight Justin Verlander makes his return to Houston as he faces off against their ace Framber Valdez. Verlander got his World Series ring before last night’s game, will we get a 2022 performance from him tonight?
Justin Verlander has tossed 45 innings this season with a 4.40 ERA, 4.44 FIP, 1.222 WHIP and a 95 ERA+. You have to go all the way back to 2014 to find a year where Verlander finished with an ERA+ under 100. Last week on Verlander day we wrote about how Verlander has been in a pattern since May 10th where he has a good/great start followed by a terrible start. His last time out he allowed one run over six innings, holding the Yankees to three hits. If the pattern holds, tonight would be a rough night for Justin. Hopefully he can break free tonight of this back and forth dichotomy of outcomes that has defined his season. The Astros have the following career numbers against him:
- Michael Brantley 22-76, 2 2B, 3B, 5 BB, 8 K
- José Abreu 19-49, 3 2B, 6 HR, 5 BB, 10 K
- Jose Altuve 9-16, 2B, 3 BB, K
- Alex Bregman 0-10, 3 K
- Martín Maldonado 0-8, 5 K
The Mets bats have scored a bunch of runs over the last two games, but face a test tonight against Framber Valdez. Over 14 starts (91 innings) Valdez has a 2.27 ERA, 2.84 FIP, 1.033 WHIP and a 186 ERA+. In his last five starts he has allowed five runs from 22 hits and eight walks over 34 innings. Three of those five runs came in the same start against the Blue Jays in Toronto. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:
- Mark Canha 3-12, 2 BB, 2 K
- Starling Marte 4-12, 2 2B, 3 K
- Tommy Pham 1-3, HR, 2 BB, K
- Francisco Lindor 0-3, BB
- Daniel Vogelbach 0-3, BB
- Pete Alonso 1-3
- Eduardo Escobar 0-2, BB, K
- Jeff McNeil 1-3, K
- Brandon Nimmo 1-3, K
- Omar Narváez 0-1
Three Things To Watch For:
- Daniel Vogelbach and Francisco Lindor are back! Vogelbach has gone 4-for-12 with two homers in his last four games, doubling his homerun total for the season. In his last two games Lindor has gone 3-for-8 with a double and two homers. The Mets could desperately use a Lindor/Vogelbach hot streak right now.
- Multi-hit games for everyone! So many Mets players are coming off of a two hit day yesterday. Marte, Lindor, Pham, McNeil, Vogelbach and Baty each had two hits at the plate. For Pham, it continued his impressive hot streak he’s currently on. Everyone else really needed the big day at the plate.
- The pressure is on for Houston. The Mets have been in free-fall for so long it barely even registers anymore (at least as a fan). The Astros are new to it and have currently lost five games in a row and seven of their last ten. If the Mets can get to Framber early tonight, and if Verlander looks good, they can keep that pressure up on the current World Champs.
Let’s Go Mets!
