The Mets are gearing up for a wild weekend of baseball. The Mets enter play today tied for the second wild card spot with the Diamondbacks, with two games in hand against the Diamondbacks. The Braves are one game out of the wild card. Both the Mets and Braves are trying to get playoff spots this weekend to avoid the doubleheader on Monday. Every game is vital right now!
Sean Manaea has a 3.29 ERA, 3.75 FIP, 1.056 WHIP and a 120 ERA+ over 178 innings this season. Since the end of July he has a 2.63 ERA, 3.13 FIP over 72 innings with 82 strikeouts. He has pitched at least 6 2/3 innings in his last eight consecutive starts. Since dropping his arm angle Sean Manaea has reestablished himself and the Mets need him to lead the team tonight more than ever. The Brewers have the following career numbers against him:
- Willy Adames 1-8, BB, 3 K
- William Contreras 1-5, 2B, BB, 3 K
- Eric Haase 2-4, 2B, HR, K
- Rhys Hoskins 1-4, HR, K
- Gary Sánchez 3-6, 2 2B, BB, K
The Brewers send out Frankie Montas tonight who has pitched 146 2/3 innings between the Reds and the Brewers this season with a 4.85 ERA, 4.66 FIP, 1.370 WHIP and an 89 ERA+. He’s been better as a Brewer with a 4.56 ERA, 4.20 FIP, 1.256 WHIP and a 93 ERA+ over 53 1/3 innings. Montas is trying to get positive momentum going into the post-season, in his last start he allowed eight runs, seven earned over 2 2/3 innings against the Diamondbacks. He has struck out 10 batters in two of his last four starts. The Mets have the following career numbers against Montas:
- Pete Alonso 1-3, K
- Jose Iglesias 1-7, 2 K
- Francisco Lindor 4-11, 2 2B, 3 BB, 3 K
- Starling Marte 5-8, K
- J.D. Martinez 2-9, 2B, BB, K
- Brandon Nimmo 0-3, K
- Luis Torrens 2-8, HR, 2 K
- Jesse Winker 2-7, 3 BB, 2 K
Three Things To Watch For:
- Francisco Lindor. Francisco Lindor was slated to return on Wednesday before the game got postponed. (I’m still a little surprised that Wednesday’s game made it all the way to lineup cards before it got rained out). Francisco Lindor injured his back on September 13th in Philadelphia, returned for a moment on September 15th and has been out since. He was ready to take an at-bat on Tuesday night, so hopefully these extra few days of rest have helped Lindor. Lindor has been having an MVP type season for the Mets hitting .271/.342/.494 with a 136 OPS+ and amazing defense.
- The Vibes. The 2024 Mets are the vibes team. They’re the team that poses for pictures with the OMG sign. The starting pitchers created their own huddle jump thing when of them has a good outing. The team has faced a lot of adversity this season and handled it with smiles and jokes (you might say humor and whimsy). Hopefully the Mets come out tonight as that team, and not tight from the pressure of what this series means for additional games in a different city on Monday. The vibe tone this weekend is set tonight.
- Scoreboard Watching. The Padres and Diamondbacks start an interesting series tonight. With the Dodgers clinching the west yesterday, the Mets Padres need to win one game this weekend to at least have homefield advantage over the Diamondbacks (if the Diamondbacks end up being the third wild card team). It’s a fantastic pitching matchup with Darvish facing Kelly in a game that the Diamondbacks feel they need to win. The Royals start a series with the Braves where the Royals (Singer, 3.73 ERA) have a magic number of 1 for the post season. The Braves are sticking with Max Fried because he likes to stay in his routine. If the game gets cancelled, and the Orioles beat the Twins, then the Royals won’t have anything to play for the rest of the weekend. It could be a real wild night!
Let’s Go Mets!
