The Mets have a chance to take the series from the Dodgers tonight!
Friday night was a weird game that saw an odd tag up play, a 90 minute rain delay, and multiple scoreless innings of extra-inning baseball. There was a feeling early Saturday night that we were heading the same way. The Dodgers scored their second run when the umpires missed the ball being batted off of a hitters leg. Rather than letting snowball to a disaster, David Peterson settled in and delivered a masterful 7 2/3 inning performance, setting the Mets up for success tonight!
Kodai Senga has pitched 50 1/3 innings this season with a 1.43 ERA, 2.84 FIP, 1.192 WHIP and a 270 ERA+. His last start was one of the most important of the season. It was evident early on that he did not have his best stuff, but he battled through and was able to stop the bleeding at only three runs while giving the Mets six solid innings. Unfortunately, the Mets hitters took the night off and the Mets lost 3-1.
Senga will be looking to right the record after two relief outings against the Dodgers in 2024 where he allowed a total of six runs over three innings from five hits and four walks. The Dodgers have the following career numbers against Senga:
- Mookie Betts 4-4, 2B, HR, BB
- Michael Conforto 0-2, BB, K
- Tommy Edman 1-7, 2B, K
- Freddie Freeman 0-2, 2 BB, K
- Kiké Hernández 1-3
- Teoscar Hernández 1-3, 2B, BB, K
- Max Muncy 1-3, 2 BB, K
- Shohei Ohtani 2-3, 2B, 3 BB
- Andy Pages 0-1
- Miguel Rojas 0-2
- Will Smith 0-4, K
Landon Knack has pitched in six games including four starts this season totaling 23 1/3 innings. He has a 6.17 ERA, 5.18 FIP, 1.543 WHIP and a 64 ERA+. His last two outings have been particularly brutal allowing nine total runs from 13 hits, including four home runs, over 9 2/3 innings against the Athletics and the Diamondbacks. While the Diamondbacks lit him up (five runs over 4 2/3), he did strike out eight batters in that game.
The Mets got to Landon Knack in the 2024 NLCS scoring five times over two innings of relief from five hits and three walks. Four of the runs scored on a Mark Vientos grand slam! The Mets have the following career numbers against Knack:
- Pete Alonso 1-1
- Francisco Alvarez 0-2
- Francisco Lindor 0-0, BB
- Starling Marte 1-2
- Brandon Nimmo 0-1, K
- Juan Soto 0-2, K
- Tyrone Taylor 1-1, 2B, BB
- Mark Vientos 1-1, HR
Three Things To Watch For:
- Brett Baty. It’s the third day in a row that we’re talking about Brett Baty. He recorded his third multi-hit game in a row Saturday night, going 3-for-3 at the plate with a double, a run scored, a walk and two RBI’s. In his last three games he has now gone 7-for-11 with six RBI’s.
- Somehow, both bullpens are okay. The concern going into Saturday’s game was how tired the bullpens were from Friday’s marathon of a game. Thanks to David Peterson, the Mets only had to run Edwin Díaz to pitch on back-to-back days. The Dodgers recalled Bobby Miller who covered two innings of relief for the squad. Anthony Banda was their only pitcher who needed to go on back-to-back days.
- Shohei Ohtani. When the Mets shut down Aaron Judge last weekend (0-for-5, 3 K), they won the game. Saturday night the Mets did the same thing to Ohtani. He went 0-for-4 on the night with three strikeouts. Shohei has had good at bats against Kodai throughout his career. If Kodai can reverse that tonight, the Mets will be in a good spot.
Let’s Go Mets!
