The Mets outhit the Reds on Saturday 9 to 6 but couldn’t get it done yesterday as the Reds ultimately won 6-3. The Reds now have a chance to win the tiebreaker today if they beat the Mets. If the Mets win, they will not only make more difficult for the Reds to eventually catch up to them (currently five games back), but would open up the more complicated intra-division record as a tiebreaker.
But that’s not the main story today! Brandon Sproat, the final major Mets pitching prospect makes his major league debut! Who would have thought a month or so ago that Jonah Tong, Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean would all be pitching in the major league rotation on consecutive days!
Brandon Sproat has pitched 121 innings over 26 games this season for Syracuse with a 4.24 ERA, 1.240 WHIP. Sproat is coming off a very strong start where he held the Rail Riders scoreless over seven innings, scattering three hits and two walks while striking out nine. Sproat can dial up his fastball to triple-digits and sits int he upper 90’s. He mixes in a sinker, changeup, sweeper, slider and curveball. We’ll be watching today to see what his pitch mix looks like, and which pitches fool hitters.
Hunter Greene has pitched 83 1/3 innings this season over 15 games with a 2.70 ERA, 3.27 FIP, 0.972 WHIP and a 171 ERA+. He’s coming off of a strong start against Toronto where he allowed one run over 6 1/3 innings while striking out seven. In his two starts before that he allowed eight runs, six earned, over 11 1/3 innings while striking out 15 batters. The Mets have the following stats against Hunter Greene:
- Pete Alonso 2-9, 2 HR, 3 BB, 2 K
- Francisco Alvarez 0-4, BB, 2 K
- Brett Baty 2-5
- Francisco Lindor 1-9, HR, 2 K
- Starling Marte 0-9, 2 K
- Ronny Mauricio 0-2
- Jeff McNeil 4-10, 2B, 2 K
- Cedric Mullins 1-6, HR, 3 K
- Brandon Nimmo 5-9, HR, 2 K
- Mark Vientos 0-2
Three Things To Watch For:
- Juan Soto 30-30? Juan Soto is on track to have his first ever 40-30 season. He has 37 home runs and on Saturday he stole his 29th stolen base of the season. While hitting three home runs is unlikely today (but not impossible! It is Juan Soto and it is Great American Ball Park), he is only one stolen base away from his first ever 30-30 season.
- Keep the Reds in the Ball Park. Great American Ball Park is a home run hitting park. It is the third friendliest park for hitters with a 103 Park Factor according to StatCast over the last three years and it is almost entirely due to home runs having a 123 factor (singles, doubles and triples are all below 100, park factors are weighted averages). We saw this impact Tong directly Saturday allowing three home runs. Sproat is going to have to keep the Reds sluggers in the ballpark to have a successful afternoon.
- Playoff Picture. The playoff picture got a little tougher for the Mets yesterday with the Padres and Phillies winning. The Mets now trail the Phillies by seven games in the division, and the Padres by one game for the final wild card spot. It’s all the other teams involved that made things interesting. There are now four teams trying to close a 5.5 game wild card gap in the final weeks of the season: Giants (4), Diamondbacks (4.5), Reds (5), Cardinals (5.5). Meanwhile the Orioles beat the Dodgers again, so the Dodgers have lost five straight collapsing their division lead to one game. The Mets can close the narrow window all of the wild card chasers have with each additional win.
Let’s Go Mets!
