The Mets bats are in a slump – for a third consecutive game the bats struggled to get anything positive going on Tuesday night. Every game is important and the Mets will need to put the two losses in their last three games behind them as they try to take the series from the Blue Jays this afternoon. Tuesday was the worst case scenario for the Mets were everyone else in the wild card race, including the Cubs, won. The Mets enter play today tied for the last wild card spot again with the Braves and are now 2.5 games behind the Padres.
Sean Manaea has pitched 157 1/3 innings over 28 starts with a 3.43 ERA, 3.83 FIP, 1.100 WHIP and a 114 ERA+. He’s coming off of a start where he allowed four runs over 6 2/3 innings while striking out nine batters. In his last eight starts he has posted a 2.81 ERA, 3.10 FIP – striking out 62 batters over 51 1/3 innings. Seven of those eight starts have gone for at least 6 2/3 innings. The Blue Jays have the following career numbers against Manaea:
- Ernie Clement 0-1
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 2-3, K
- Alejandro Kirk 0-3, K
- George Springer 13-39, 2 2B, HR, 3 BB, 12 K
- Daulton Varsho 0-6, BB, K
The Mets draw Bowden Francis for the series finale. Over 24 games this year Francis has pitched 84 2/3 innings with a 3.72 ERA, 4.38 FIP, 0.992 WHIP and a 110 ERA+. He’s been better as a starter, making 10 starts this year totaling 58 innings with a 3.41 ERA, 0.793 WHIP. His weakness has been homers, giving up 11 as a starter. No member of the Mets have faced Francis as a major leaguer.
Three Things To Watch For:
- The Mets are slumping. Harrison Bader on Sunday was the last Met to record more than one hit in a game. As a team the Mets had four hits on Sunday, three on Monday and six on Tuesday. Eventually the team breaks through this and comes back in a big way. We’ve seen this at several points through the season already. It would be nice for that to happen today before the off-day on Thursday.
- Containing the back of the Blue Jays Lineup. On Tuesday night the five through nine hitters on the Blue Jays combined to go 8-for-17 with two doubles and two triples. If you let the back of the lineup beat you, you’re going to have a bad night.
- One last regular season interleague game. After this afternoon the Mets will only play National League teams for the rest of the season. Post universal-DH and post schedule alignment (everyone playing everyone), American League games have lost a lot of their mystique an oddity. Being in a pennant race, and playing teams not chasing the same pennant has been weird in September. Let’s hope the Mets end on a high note!
Let’s Go Mets!
