There is a possibility of two different sweeps this afternoon at Citi Field:
- The Mets sweep the White Sox in a three game set
- The rain sweeps away both the Mets and the White Sox
The Mets moved to make the first option more of a possibility on Tuesday by beating the White Sox 6-4 and moving today’s game from 7:10 up to 1:10. As of writing, there’s at least a 50% chance of rain throughout the afternoon that increases as the afternoon goes on. Hopefully the Mets can wade through all of this and extend their winning streak to five games.
Griffin Canning’s stats from his last start shouldn’t count. Over 10 starts and 50 innings this season, Canning has as a 2.88 ERA, 4.01 FIP, 1.320 WHIP and a 133 ERA+. His last inning pitched was one of wackier ones this season – it looked like the Mets should have had an inning ending double play, by doubling off Conforto at second base. The rule from MLB was a runner can tag when the ball contacts the glove, so it became runners on second and third. The skies then opened up as Canning fell behind a hitter 3-1. There was a 90+ minute delay and the pitcher who came into relieve Canning immediately allowed runs.
Anyway, before that outing Canning had a 1.67 ERA, 3.47 FIP over six starts (32 1/3 innings). He had an excellent outing against the White Sox last September holding them scoreless over six innings. The White Sox have the following career numbers against him:
- Andrew Benintendi 3-11, 2 2B, BB, 3 K
- Korey Lee 0-2, K
- Luis Robert Jr. 0-6, 5 K
- Josh Rojas 1-5, 2B, BB
- Lenyn Sosa 0-2, K
- Michael A Taylor 2-5, K
- Miguel Vargas 1-2, K
The Mets bats will get a look at rookie Shane Smith who is off to a fast start this year with a 2.36 ERA, 3.31 FIP, 1.106 WHIP and a 171 ERA+. He looked more average in his last start, allowing three runs over five innings from two hits and two walks. In his start before that he allowed six runs but only one earned over five innings – which is a way to beat the White Sox!
Three Things To Watch For:
- Pete Alonso. Alonso has gone 5-for-15 over his last three games with two home runs. He had a 16 game home run drought that he broke on Sunday night and he homered again Tuesday night, evaporating a first inning White Sox lead. Alonso now has 11 home runs on the season and 237 for his career as he chases Strawberry’s franchise leading 252 homers. Is this another Pete Alonso hot streak loading?
- Hit By Pitches. Jonathan Cannon hit Francisco Alvarez with a pitch Tuesday night, which was a league leading 34th time this season the Mets have been hit by a pitch. Shane Smith leads the league with six hit batters in 2025. This feels like a recipe for someone getting hit, which isn’t great.
- Getting hits in bunches. Sunday night the Mets had six hits, with no one collecting more than one hit. Monday nigh the Mets had seven hits, with only Brandon Nimmo collecting more than one hit. This matches the general feeling of the Mets offense for the last couple of weeks. Tuesday night was a completely different story. The Mets had 12 hits with Lindor, Baty, Young and McNeil all collecting more than one hit. Hopefully this is a sign that multiple members of the Mets lineup are starting to get it going again.
Let’s Go Mets!
