Game Preview: Mets @ Padres

The Mets and June – a terrible combination, right? After the game on the 1st with two blown saves and a foul ball that wasn’t – life felt normal for June. Yesterday the Mets got off to a strong start, scoring 4 runs in the first, then the Diamondbacks responded with 5 runs in the bottom of the frame. June baseball right?

Not this time! The Mets bullpen held it down for 8.2 innings and the Mets offense scored a key, go-ahead run off Pete Alonso‘s bat in the top of the 9th as the Mets returned to .500 for the month!

And now the Mets head to San Diego to start a four game set. The Padres have been impressive this year. The Padres are sitting 11 games over .500 and have a positive run differential of 75 runs. All of this while losing their last four games.

The Mets will look to make it 5 straight losses for the Padres tonight with Taijuan Walker on the mound. Over his first 9 starts and 49.0 innings this year, Walker has a 1.84 ERA, 2.62 FIP, 0.939 WHIP and a 209 ERA+. His last start was his first off of the IL. He allowed no runs and two hits and a walk over 5.0 innings while striking out 8 batters, tying a season high mark for a third time. The Padres have the following numbers against Walker:

Jurckson Profar 1-5, HR
Wil Myers 2-7, 2 2B, 2 K
Eric Hosmer 3-8, 3 K
Tommy Pham 1-6, BB
Manny Machado 2-12, BB, 2 K

The Mets draw Yu Darvish for the series opener. Over 11 starts and 66.2 innings this year, he has a 2.16 ERA, 2.93 FIP, 0.930 WHIP and a 170 ERA+. He’s coming off of a rough start where he allowed 5 runs, 4 earned, over 5.0 innings from 4 hits, 3 walks and a homer against the Astros. The only other time this year where he has allowed more than 2 runs was Opening Day. In between these two bad starts, Darvish has pitched 9 games, 57.0 innings with a 1.26 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Yu: