The Mets look to bounce back tonight against the Dodgers before the series heads back to New York. Jack Flaherty gave the Dodgers exactly what they were looking for yesterday – a deep performance keeping the Mets off of the scoreboard. This sets up a bullpen game for the Dodgers, a strategy they used effectively against the Padres in the NLDS.
The Mets on the other hand need to right the ship. The offense looked bleak last night and three critical arms for the Mets allowed all of the runs (Senga, Peterson, Buttó) over 5 1/3 innings. There’s a lot of series left and a commanding victory today can make everything better back in New York.
Over 32 starts in the regular season Sean Manaea had a 3.47 ERA, 3.83 FIP, 1.084 WHIP and a 114 ERA+. In his two post season starts he has allowed three runs over 12 innings and is coming off of a sparkling seven inning outing against the Phillies where he allowed only one run. Manaea has the following career numbers against the Dodgers:
- Austin Barnes 2-7, BB, K
- Mookie Betts 10-32, 2 2B, 2 3B, 3 HR, 2 BB, 3 K
- Tommy Edman 1-1, HR
- Freddie Freeman 5-17, HR, BB, 4 K
- Enrique Kiké Hernández 1-11, 2 K
- Teoscar Hernández 3-15, HR, 3 K
- Kevin Kiermaier 1-7, 4 K
- Max Muncy 1-6, HR, BB, 2 K
- Shohei Ohtani 2-7, 2 BB, 2 K
- Andy Pages 1-2, 2B, K
- Will Smith 9-18, 2B, BB, K
- Chris Taylor 4-17, 2B, HR, 3 BB, 7 K
Ryan Brasier will start things off for the Dodgers this afternoon. Over 29 games in the regular season he pitched 28 innings with a 3.54 ERA, 3.11 FIP, 0.964 WHIP and a 110 ERA+. He has pitched in three games so far in the postseason. He first 1 2/3 innings in game one of the NLDS, allowing no runs and a hit. In his second outing he allowed two two runs on two hits, including a home run, in 2/3 of an inning. He was used as the opener in the fourth game of the series and didn’t allow anything over 1 1/3 innings. All of this tells us that if Brasier is effective in the first inning, the Dodgers will run him out there for another and pull him when the matchup makes sense to do so. Also if he’s not effective, they won’t feel obligated to having complete the inning. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:
- Pete Alonso 0-5, BB
- Harrison Bader 0-2, 2 K
- Francisco Lindor 1-5, K
- Starling Marte 1-2, HR
- Jeff McNeil 2-4, 2B
- Brandon Nimmo 1-1, 2B
- Jesse Winker 0-2
Three Things To Watch For:
- The Mets love hitting bullpens. Sunday night the Mets had two hits and two walks over seven innings against Flaherty. The first reliever allowed a hit and a walk (the Mets just couldn’t do anything with it). Throughout this postseason as soon as the Mets have chased the starter out of the game, they’ve been able to create big, cascading innings with crooked numbers on the scoreboard. Today is the ultimate test of this, can the Mets make this happen in a bullpen game?
- Stealing bases. We relearned during the last regular season series in Milwaukee that stealing on the Mets is a great way to throw them off the game. The Mets are facing one of the best base stealers in the league this series in Shohei Ohtani. Alvarez caught him on Sunday night. With a massive lead early on Sunday the Dodgers didn’t need to steal bases. What happens tonight if the game is closer? Can the Mets stop them?
- Hitting with runners in scoring position. In the NLDS the Mets got into trouble allowing the Phillies to get multiple runners on. They were able to work out of jams and keep damage to a minimum. The Dodgers on Sunday night went 5-for-11 with RISP, leading to the lopsided score. The Mets went 0-for-3, a collective failing we’ve seen the Mets flirt with before.
Let’s Go Mets!
