The Mets look to shake off a rough weekend against the Marlins against the Detroit Tigers. The Mets comeback on Saturday fell short and on Sunday they couldn’t get anything going against the Marlins, erasing some of the momentum they built against the Phillies earlier in the week. Like everything we’ve seen with the Mets recently, winning changes everything and a couple of wins against a good Detroit Tigers team can swing that pendulum again.
Sean Manaea has pitched 41 1/3 innings for the Mets this season with a 5.01 ERA, 3.46 FIP, 1.137 WHIP and a 80 ERA+. He’s coming off of a short start, 4 2/3 innings, where he allowed only two runs from six hits while striking out eight. While the results haven’t been great recently for Manaea over his last three starts (6.28 ERA over 14 1/3 innings) his strikeouts have been up (23). Can he strikeout at least seven batters for a fourth consecutive start? The Tigers have the following career numbers against Manaea:
- Javier Báez 2-7, 2B, BB, 4 K
- Riley Greene 2-6, 3B, BB, 2 K
- Andy Ibanez 2-8, 2 K
- Jake Rogers 0-3, 2 K
- Spencer Torkelson 0-3, K
- Gleyber Torres 1-7, HR, 3 K
Charlie Morton is a Tiger! And he’s facing the Mets today. After several years with Atlanta, Morton signed a deal with the Orioles in the off-season and was traded to the Tigers at the deadline. Overall this season he has pitched 128 2/3 innings with a 5.25 ERA, 4.65 FIP, 1.484 WHIP and a 78 ERA+. He’s been better with the Tigers over 27 1/3 innings with a 4.61 ERA, 3.82 FIP, 1.207 WHIP and a 92 ERA+. Morton is coming off of a rough start where he allowed five runs over five innings against the Athletics. The Mets have the following career numbers against Morton:
- Pete Alonso 7-35, 2 2B, 4 BB, 8 K
- Brett Baty 3-10, 2B, 2 BB, 5 K
- Francisco Lindor 8-50, 3 2B, 2 HR, 3 BB, 13 K
- Starling Marte 5-27, 2 BB, 9 K
- Ronny Mauricio 0-3, K
- Jeff McNeil 7-30, 2B, 2 HR< 4 BB, 7 K
- Cedric Mullins 1-5
- Brandon Nimmo 8-33, HR, 6 BB, 13 K
- Juan Soto 8-14, 3 HR, 8 BB, 3 K
- Tyrone Taylor 2-7, 2B, BB, K
- Luis Torrens 0-3
- Mark Vientos 5-7, 2B, HR
Three Things To Watch For:
- Sean Manaea. Manaea has been a lot better than his numbers suggest. He’s in the 89th percentile for strikeouts and the 75th percentile for chase percentage (60th for Whiff’s). He’s also in the 96th percentile for walk percentage. He has an xERA of 3.76 which is much closer to his FIP (3.46 FIP) than his actual ERA (5.01). At some point, the results are going to start to match what he’s actually doing, right?
- It’s September, time to scoreboard watch. This is the final push! The Reds send Hunter Greene, who is having a fantastic season, against Chris Bassitt and the Jays. The Jays have faltered lately and are trying to hold onto their division lead. The Reds need to win every game to set up a critical series with the Mets at the end of the week. The Phillies have to deal with rookie Misiorowski this afternoon in Milwaukee. The Phillies and the Brewers each have 6(ish) game leads in their divisions and are looking to lock down titles.
- Stat Watch. Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto both stole bases in Sunday’s game and now are both sitting at 26 stolen bases for the season. Lindor is now five home runs and four stolen bases away from his second 30-30 season. Juan Soto is now five home runs away and four stolen bases from a 40-30 season. There are also two Mets franchise records that could fall this month. Soto is at 111 walks, trying to beat John Olerud’s 1999 record 125 walks. Pete Alonso needs a monster month to go from 110 RBI’s to 132 in order to break his franchise record 131 RBI’s set in 2022.
Let’s Go Mets!
