The Mets go for the sweep this afternoon in Atlanta! On Friday night the Mets scored 12 runs on 21 hits. Saturday night the Mets scored nine runs on six home runs. For the second straight game the Mets had a pitcher go at least six innings. On top of all of this positive Mets news, the Reds lost! The Mets enter play today 2.5 games of breathing room in the wild card race and real opportunity to build on their current momentum.
David Peterson has pitched 144 1/3 innings this season with a 3.18 ERA, 3.35 FIP, 1.240 WHIP and a 127 ERA+. He’s coming off of a tremendous start where he held the Nationals to only one run over eight innings while striking out 10 batters. Peterson had a terrible start against the Braves on 8/13 where he allowed six runs from five hits and and tied a season-high with five walks. The Braves have the following career numbers against Peterson:
- Ronald Acuña Jr. 6-20, 2B, HR, 7 BB, 6 K
- Ozzie Albies 3-17, K
- Nick Allen 1-3, 2 BB
- Nacho Alvarez Jr. 1-3, BB, K
- Vidal Brujan 1-1, 2B, BB
- Michael Harris II 2-15, 2B, 7 K
- Sean Murphy 0-8, BB, K
- Matt Olson 5-21, 4 HR, 4 BB, 9 K
- Marcell Ozuna 4-21, 2 HR, 2 BB, 6 K
- Jurickson Profar 5-8, 2 2B
- Eli White 1-5, 2 K
Bryce Elder has pitched 111 2/3 innings over 21 starts with a 6.29 ERA, 5.00 FIP, 1.558 WHIP and a 67 ERA+. He’s coming off of a terrible start against the White Sox where he allowed eight runs from nine hits over 4 2/3 innings. Before that start though he was pretty effective against the Mets, holding them to three runs, two earned, over seven innings. The Mets look to figure out a way to hit Elder like many other teams have this afternoon. The Mets have the following career stats against Elder:
- Pete Alonso 4-11, 2B, HR, K
- Brett Baty 1-6, BB, 3 K
- Francisco Lindor 6-10, 2 2B, 2 HR, 2 BB
- Starling Marte 1-6, 4 K
- Ronny Mauricio 0-3, 2 K
- Jeff McNeil 1-12, BB, K
- Cedric Mullins 1-5, 2B, BB, K
- Brandon Nimmo 2-9, 4 K
- Juan Soto 3-5, HR, BB
- Luis Torrens 0-2
Three Things To Watch For:
- Jeff McNeil. McNeil got the offense started Saturday night with a three-run homer and hit the Mets last home run of the night. McNeil now has a 131 OPS+, his first time since 2022 that his OPS+ has been over 100. In his last seven games he has gone 11-for-27 at the plate with three doubles and three home runs, slashing an absurd .407/.429/.852. There has been a bit of an offensive revival up and down the Mets lineup over the last two weeks, and Jeff McNeil is a big part of it.
- Homers. One of the confusing things about the Mets this season is how good the offense looks on paper vs what we were seeing in games. The Mets lineup has a lot of sneaky power in it, and we are starting to see that come to fruition this week. The Mets hit six home runs as players like Brett Baty and Mark Vientos are heating up. The Mets now have 174 home runs on the season, good for 8th in the league and only four behind the Chicago Cubs. The Mets finished last season sixth in the league.
- Big games. The Mets have scored 21 runs over the first two games of this series and that only happens when multiple players have big games. We already highlight Jeff McNeil who had two home runs on Saturday. Starling Marte and Mark Vientos both had three hits on Saturday. On Friday night Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, Tyrone Taylor and Cedric Mullins each had three hits. Big games can feel contagious, can someone on the Mets keep the three-hit performances going?
Let’s Go Mets!
