Game Preview: Phillies vs Mets

Do you feel that vibe in the air? That feeling of swagger after a big win. The longing for another baseball game after the Mets play a fun one.

Sunday night the Mets beat the Braves thanks to a walk-off homerun from Brandon Nimmo. The Mets were down one, with one on and Nimmo came to the plate. He didn’t start in the game due to concerns about tweaking his intercostal the game before. Nimmo made solid content, prevented the Braves from sweeping the Mets and sent the Mets home with high hopes.

Now the Mets welcome one of the hottest teams in baseball to Citi Field. The Phillies have been on a roll recently, winning eight of their last 10 games with the best record in baseball. Their run differential of +62 only trails the Dodgers. It’s going to be a tough, but important series for a New York Mets team that has struggled for the better part of the last few weeks.

Sean Manaea makes his 8th start of the season tonight. Over 35 1/3 innings he has a 3.31 ERA, 3.53 FIP, 1.387 WHIP and a 116 ERA+. Manaea is coming of off an average start where he allowed three runs over six innings from six hits and a walk. Since his only terrible start of the season against the Royals, he has allowed only six runs from 17 hits over 20 2/3 innings (2.61 ERA, 3.62 FIP). In his only outing against the Phillies last season he allowed three runs from three hits and two walks over 2 2/3 innings. The Phillies have the following numbers against him:

  • Alec Bohm 1-2, HR, K
  • Nick Castellanos 5-8, 2B, 2 HR, K
  • Kody Clemens 0-1
  • Bryce Harper 1-3, 2B
  • Brandon Marsh 0-2, 2 K
  • Whit Merrifield 4-8, 2 2B, BB, 2 K
  • J.T. Realmuto 0-2, BB, K
  • Johan Rojas 0-1
  • Kyle Schwarber 0-0, 2 BB
  • Edmundo Sosa 2-2, 3B, HR
  • Bryson Stott 2-3, HR, BB

Cristopher Sánchez is also making his 8th start of the season tonight. Over 36 1/3 innings he has a 3.22 ERA, 2.86 FIP, 1.459 WHIP and a 126 ERA+. Sánchez is coming off of a strong start against the Blue Jays where he allowed only one run from six hits while striking out five. Before that he had a rough start against the Angels where he allowed four earned runs and a start against the Reds were he allowed five runs, but only one was earned. Sánchez pitched against the Mets three times last year (two starts) totaling 13 innings with a 3.46 ERA. The Mets whiffed a whopping 15 times against him. The Mets have the following career numbers against Sánchez:

  • Pete Alonso 1-9, HR, 4 K
  • Brett Baty 0-2, K
  • Francisco Lindor 2-6, BB
  • Starling Marte 2-6, HR
  • J.D. Martinez 0-1, K
  • Jeff McNeil 1-5, 2B, K
  • Omar Narváez 0-1
  • Tomás Nido 0-2, 2 K
  • Brandon Nimmo 3-5, BB, K
  • DJ Stewart 1-3, K
  • Tyrone Taylor 0-2
  • Joey Wendle 1-1

Three Things To Watch For:

  1. Brandon Nimmo: Nimmo was healthy enough to come off the bench in a huge way on Sunday night. Over his last five games he has gone 5-for-15 at the plate with three homeruns, which is half his total for the entire season. The Mets need him to keep swinging a hot bat against one of the best teams in baseball this week.
  2. Mets Bullpen comes into a busy week in a good spot. No one in the Mets bullpen has pitched in back-to-back games over the last two days, meaning everyone should be available to go today if needed. The only exception might be Garrett who did toss two crisp innings Sunday night. The Mets did use most of their higher leverage guys in their last game (Garrett, Ottavino, Diekman, and Díaz), so using any of them tonight probably makes them unavailable on Tuesday.
  3. The Mets got hits on Sunday. Overall the Mets collected 10 hits on Sunday and while that only translated into four runs, after Saturday’s affair it was nice to see them just get on base. Stewart, Lindor and Alonso each collected two hits. Lindor now has 10 hits in his last nine games and overall is hitting .278/.290/.556 in that stretch. Alonso has six hits in his last four games, including four extra-base hits.

Let’s Go Mets!

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