The Mets look to start a new winning streak this afternoon at Citi Field. The Mets were cruising Friday night until a disastrous sixth inning. The Rays were able to score six runs, making the game go from a 5-1 Mets lead to a 7-5 Rays lead. The Mets were able to create multiple chances after that but couldn’t get any runs to score and ultimately lost. Today they have a much tougher challenge as they face Drew Rasmussen in the midst of a career year.
Tylor Megill has pitched 64 2/3 innings with a 3.76 ERA, 3.15 FIP, 1.299 WHIP and a 101 ERA+. He’s coming off of a solid start against the Rockies, where he was able to hold them to two runs from three hits over five innings. In the last six weeks Megill has either allowed four runs (four times) or two runs (or less) (three times). The Rays have the following career numbers against him:
- Brandon Lowe 0-2
- Josh Lowe 2-3, 2B, HR
- Christopher Morel 2-3, HR, BB
- Taylor Walls 0-2, K
Drew Rasmussen has pitched 69 innings with a 2.22 ERA, 3.24 FIP, 0.899 WHIP and a 176 ERA+. After today’s start, he will have thrown more innings in 2025 than in 2024 and 2023 combined. The Marlins were able to score two runs against him on June 8th which broke his four start streak of allowing no runs. Homeruns seem to be his only weakness, allowing six of them over a four game stretch from mid-April to mid-May, but he hasn’t allowed one since. Lindor and Soto are the only two players on the Mets who have seen him before in a major league game. They each have one plate appearance with a walk.
Three Things To Watch For:
- Strikeouts. Strikeouts crushed the Mets Friday night. As a team they had 13 of them, with Brandon Nimmo and Ronny Mauricio each striking out three times. The strikeouts definitely contributed to the Mets going an absurd 2-for-16 with RISP and leaving 12 runners on base. Rasmussen is not necessarily a strikeout pitcher (7.7 K/9), so hopefully today is a good reset for an unusually free swinging Mets team.
- Stolen Bases. The Rays currently lead the league with 97 stolen bases (10 more than the second best team and 19 more than the fourth best team). They tried to run on the Mets early last night but Alvarez threw Caminero out at second. The Rays would get a stolen base later in the game. If the Mets let the Rays get any momentum with stolen bases, they’ll run right over the Mets today and tomorrow.
- How deep does Megill go? Megill has seemed to fall off this year the second time he has to face an opponent in the lineup (.274 OBP first time through, .345, .347 OBP the second and third time through). The Mets burned through three pitchers last night in the bullpen that can put up multiple innings. Buttó and Garrett both haven’t pitched since Tuesday, so its safe to assume we’ll see them at some point today.
Let’s Go Mets!
