The Mets head down the eastern seaboard back home tonight to play the first game against the Red Sox this week in Queens! Last night the Mets powered their way through the Red Sox pitching behind J.D. Davis’ first* homer of the season, the shortest in the league at 328 feet off the Pesky pole!
*He hit a foul ball the night before that should have been challenged – it was a homer.
Anyway the real story from last night was David Peterson who looked good making his major league debut in one of the more chaotic days in baseball due to the spread of the Coronavirus on the Marlins and baseball’s less than adequately planned response. The bullpen behind Peterson was able to hold the game together and I am imagine the bus trip from Boston felt very different than the bus trip to Boston.
It’s Jacob deGrom day! The Mets ace was as advertised in his first start of the season on Opening Day holding the Braves to 1 hit and 1 walk over 5.0 innings while striking out 8. His average pitch velocity in the first inning was 99.2 mph. Opening Day was also a very typical deGrom start in another way – the Mets gave him zero support. Jacob last faced the Red Sox in September of 2018 allowing 3 runs over 7.0 innings from 5 hits while striking out 12. The Red Sox have the following numbers against him:
- Kevin Pillar 1-3, 2B
- J.D. Martinez 1-3
- Rafeal Devers 1-3, K
- Christian Vazquez 1-3, K
- Jose Peraza 4-14, 3 K, 3 SB
- Jonathan Lucroy 3-17, 2B, 2 K
- Jackie Bradley Jr. 1-6, 3 K
- Alex Verdugo 0-4
- Andrew Benintendi 0-3
- Xander Bogaerts 0-3
- Mitch Moreland 0-3, 2 K
For the first time in this home-away 4-game series, the Mets will face a true starting pitcher in Nathan Eovaldi, and it feels like the Mets are facing an old friend. Eovaldi has pitched in 180 games and made 161 starts since 2011, and 10 of those starts were against the Mets. Nine of those starts were between 2012 and 2016. Ten starts doesn’t sound like a lot but over the course his career he has played for the Dodgers, Marlins, Yankees, Rays and now the Red Sox and after tonight he has started against the Mets in each of those uniforms. His last start against the Mets was in 2018 where he allowed 1 hit and no runs while striking out 9 over 7.0 innings as a member of the Rays.
Anyway, Eovaldi was the Opening Day pitcher for the Red Sox and allowed 1 run over 6.0 innings from 5 hits against the Orioles. Since that point, things have fallen apart for the Red Sox, so he’s also playing the roll of stopper tonight. Last season in 12 starts and 23 games he pitched 67.2 innings with a 5.99 ERA, 5.90 FIP, 1.581 WHIP and 81 ERA+, by far his worst season of baseball (his career ERA is 4.28). The Mets have the following numbers against him:
- Eduardo Nunez 4-9, K
- Wilson Ramos 6-18, 2 2B, BB, K
- Yoenis Cespedes 4-11, 2B
- Brandon Nimmo 1-3, K
- Robinson Cano 1-3
- Amed Rosario 0-1
- Dominic Smith 0-2, 2 K
- Michael Conforto 0-5
Let’s Go Mets!
