What a difference a day makes! Less than 24 hours after a crushing Mets defeat where the Mets allowed a go-ahead grand slam in the 8th inning, the Mets came roaring back with a ninth inning win on Wednesday afternoon. The Mets have finished their gauntlet of the Orioles, Padres and Diamondbacks 6-4. The Braves finally dropped a game so now the Mets go into the weekend only three games out of the last wild card spot. Onward!
Tylor Megill will make the start for Paul Blackburn tonight. Blackburn was hit by a comebacker in his pitching hand during his last start, and while he avoided serious injury, the Mets are bumping him for at least one start. Now Megill looks to get his season back on track against the White Sox. Megill has pitched in 10 games for the Mets this season, totaling 47 innings with a 5.17 ERA, 4.08 FIP, 1.426 WHIP and a 77 ERA+. He was sent back down to the minors at the end of July and has pitched in four games since then with a 4.22 ERA over 21 1/3 innings. The White Sox have the following career numbers against Megill:
- Corey Julks 1-2
- Nickey Lopez 2-2
- Miguel Vargas 0-2, BB, K
The Mets bats draw rookie Jonathan Cannon. Over 17 games (90 2/3 innings), Cannon has a 4.57 ERA, 4.67 FIP, 1.390 WHIP and a 92 ERA+. He’s in the midst of a tough stretch where he has allowed 13 runs over his last 14 2/3 innings where opponents have hit .339/.417/.565 against him. Before this stretch of bad starts he had a stretch of good starts with a 1.89 ERA (5.80 FIP) over three starts from the end of July to the start of August.
Three Things To Watch For:
- Trap game? Once it became clear that the White Sox may be historically bad, this became the fear about this series – will these all be trap games? The White Sox are facing a historical losing milestone set by the 1962 Mets. That has to be top of mind for the White Sox players in a slightly different way when they are playing the literal New York Mets.
- Pete Alonso. Pete Alonso hit his 29th homer of the season on Wednesday. It was his 221st of his career moving him past Mike Piazza on the all time homerun list for the Mets. It was also his second home run in three games. Is this the start of a classic Pete Alonso power stretch?
- Francisco Lindor. Lindor extended his hitting streak to nine games on Wednesday with a critical, game-tying home run. Over his nine game hitting streak he has gone 14-for-39 with five doubles and four homers slashing .359/.375/.795. We are running out of things to say about Lindor, he is quite literally powering the Mets in the chase for a wild card spot.
Let’s Go Mets!
