The Mets are sliding right now, and not in the fun, playground type of way. The Braves handed the Mets their fourth consecutive loss, this time in extra-innings as the Mets couldn’t hold onto their early lead and let it slip away in the 8th inning. The Mets have also been bitten by the injury bug this past week adding Tylor Megill to the injured list. This gives Paul Blackburn a chance to join the rotation today and play the role of stopper against Chris Sale.
Paul Blackburn has allowed seven runs over 9 1/3 innings from 14 hits and two walks since rejoining the Mets. He looked fantastic in his first start, allowing no runs from three hits over five innings against the high-powered Dodgers lineup. He allowed three runs in relief in his next start, and then added another four runs in relief last Friday. Atlanta has the following career numbers against Blackburn:
- Ronald Acuña Jr. 0-2
- Ozzie Albies 1-2, 2B
- Michael Harris II 0-2
- Sean Murphy 1-1, BB
- Matt Olson 0-1, BB, K
- Marcell Ozuna 0-2, K
- Austin Riley 2-2
- Alex Verdugo 3-10, 2 2B
The Mets bats will try to get back on the right track tonight against Chris Sale. Over 80 2/3 innings, Sale has a 2.79 ERA, 2.74 FIP, 1.215 WHIP and a 146 ERA+. He’s been on a roll over his last five starts allowing only four runs from 19 hits over 33 innings (1.09 ERA, 2.52 FIP). He had one start against the Mets in 2024 where he allowed two runs from two hits over 7 1/3 innings. The Mets have the following career stats against Sale:
- Pete Alonso 0-5, 3 K
- Francisco Alvarez 0-2
- Francisco Lindor 14-34, 2 2B, 2 HR, BB, 7 K
- Starling Marte 0-3, 2 K
- Jeff McNeil 3-6, 2B
- Brandon Nimmo 1-4, K
- Juan Soto 1-7, HR, 6 K
- Tyrone Taylor 0-1, BB
Three Things To Watch For:
- Jeff McNeil. McNeil has gone 20-for-67 with six walks over his 19 games with an insane (for him) nine extra-base hits. If McNeil gets on base tonight he will extend his on-base streak to 20 games. Jeff McNeil was a question mark going into this season with Brett Baty, Luisangel Acuña, Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio all ready to join the team. McNeil has shown the best version of himself for about a month now and may be the x-factor the team needs in the long run.
- The Mets are hitting bombs! Juan Soto and Tyrone Taylor each hit home runs Tuesday night. That was enough for the Mets to leapfrog the Athletics on the home run leaderboard. The Mets are sitting in sixth with 93 home runs this season, behind the Cubs (99) and ahead of the Athletics (92). The Mets finished last season 6th in home runs as well. Similar to last season, the Mets are accomplishing this with a balanced lineup, with four hitters already at double digit blasts for the season (Alonso, Lindor, Soto, and Nimmo). Brett Baty (8) is one terrific day at the plate away from joining them.
- Blackburn’s small sample sizes. Blackburn has only tossed 9 1/3 innings, and the majority of his work came in one great start against the Dodgers. In his small body of work, he’s been having success a lot of success limiting getting hit hard. The league wide average for hard-hit% is 40.9%, with an 8.5 Barrel%. Blackburn has a 28.6% hard-hit% and hitters barreled the ball against him only 5.7% of the time.
Let’s Go Mets!
