The Mets go for a sweep against one of the best teams in baseball this afternoon!
Tuesday night the Mets and Tigers traded shots early before the Mets offense took off in the middle third of the game. Juan Soto hit his fifth home run in five days! Pete Alonso had a two-homer night! Nolan McLean allowed two runs in the first inning and then allowed nothing else for the next five innings!
The Mets will finally have a day off tomorrow as they head to Cincinnati on Friday for a series that will determine if the wild card race will be a real race or not. But first, the Mets need to get by the Tigers one more time!
Clay Holmes has made 27 starts totaling 142 1/3 innings this season with a 3.60 ERA, 4.08 FIP, 1.314 WHIP and a 111 ERA+. Holmes was betrayed by the defense last week, allowing four runs but only two earned over five innings. It was his third consecutive start (sixth start in his last seventh) allowing two earned runs or fewer. He has a 2.76 ERA, 3.01 ERA over his last three starts. The Tigers have the following career numbers against Holmes:
- Javier Báez 4-10, 4 K
- Kerry Carpenter 0-4, 3 K
- Andy Ibanez 2-4
- Colt Keith 1-1, 2B
- Justyn-Henry Malloy 0-1, K
- Zach McKinstry 1-3, 2B, K
- Chris Paddack 0-1
- Jake Rogers 0-1
- Trey Sweeney 0-1, K
- Spencer Torkelson 1-7, BB, 4 K
The Mets bats will close out the series against Casey Mize who is having a bounce-back season. The 2025 All-Star has made 23 starts totaling 120 2/3 innings with a 3.95 ERA, 4.06 FIP, 1.309 WHIP and a 106 ERA+. Mize is coming off of a tough start where he allowed five runs over 3 1/3 innings. Overall August was difficult for Mize who had a 5.81 ERA, 4.77 FIP over five starts (26 1/3 innings). The Mets have the following career stats against Mize:
- Pete Alonso 2-3, K
- Brett Baty 0-1, BB
- Francisco Lindor 0-4, BB
- Starling Marte 0-2
- Jeff McNeil 0-2
- Cedric Mullins 3-10, 2 2B, 3B, BB, 3 K
- Brandon Nimmo 0-2, BB, K
- Juan Soto 1-3
Three Things To Watch For:
- Juan Soto. What else is there to say about Juan Soto? He’s pulling 2024 Francisco Lindor numbers for the Mets coming down the stretch. Tuesday was his fourth game in his last five games with two hits and at least one walk. He has five home runs in that stretch and four stolen bases. Soto now leads the league in offense bWAR (6.1) and has a 5.5 bWAR, his third best total in his career. His OPS+ is 161. It feels like he’s doing something incredible every night right now.
- Pete Alonso. Alonso started the year with an incredibly hot April, and now he’s ending the year incredibly hot. Over his last five games he has gone 7-for-24 with three home runs. This includes two games where he went 0-for-8. He now has 33 homers on the season, just one behind last year. If this hot streak takes off, he could push towards 40 before the end of the season.
- Scoreboard watching. The Mets gained half a game on the Phillies Tuesday and are now only 5.5 games back. The Phillies continue their series with the Brewers today after the rare mid-series day off, with Aaron Nola taking on an old friend in Jose Quintana. On the Mets off day Ranger Suárez takes on Freddy Peralta. The Reds are chasing the Mets and they send Littell against Shane Bieber tonight. The Reds are five games behind the Mets heading into play today. Finally, the Orioles are making things interesting for everyone, beating the Padres in the first two games of their series. The Padres have now lost three games in a row and only have a one game lead on the second wild card spot against the Mets. Both starting pitchers in the Orioles vs Padres series this afternoon have a 5+ ERA.
Let’s Go Mets!
