The Mets and I have something in common – we both went to sleep last night around 10 PM EST. The Mets opened up the night scoring a run in the first but then immediately allowed three runs in the next frame. Mark Vientos hit a solo home run at the top of the second and I went to sleep thinking this was going to be a back and forth affair.
Nope. The Giants took over from that point. Luckily for the Mets Sean Manaea was able to pitch over three innings in relief and gave the rest of the bullpen a night off to reset. The Mets will try to bounce back tonight and snap their three game losing streak behind Nolan McLean!
Tonight is Nolan McLean’s 10th major league start! In his first nine career starts he has a pitched 53 innings with a 2.21 ERA, 3.10 FIO, 1.057 WHIP and a 183 ERA+. Nolan McLean allowed two runs from four hits and two walks in his first start of the season while striking out eight batters. This will be his first major league start against the Giants and the only hitter on the Giants who has faced McLean before is Harrison Bader (3-for-6, K).
Tyler Mahle signed a one-year contract with the Giants this off-season after a couple of years in Texas. In his first start with the Giants he allowed two runs from five hits over four innings while striking out five. Last season he made 16 start with the Rangers totaling 86 2/3 innings with a 2.18 ERA, 3.37 FIP, 1.131 WHIP and a 168 ERA+. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:
- Bo Bichette 0-2, K
- Francisco Lindor 1-7, 3 K
- Jorge Polanco 1-6, 2 K
- Luis Robert Jr. 1-4, K
- Mrcus Semien 0-2, BB
- Juan Soto 4-11, 2B, 2 HR, 2 BB, 2 K
Three Things To Watch For:
- Set the tone. The Mets have struggled the last several days to get hits, get hits with runners in scoring position, or both. In their last five games they have gone a combined 3-for-42 with runners in scoring position. They did score two runs in the first two innings last night, but the Giants scored three. Let’s get off to a good start tonight and shift the pressure off of the Mets hitters.
- Francisco Lindor’s weird start. Lindor is off to a weird start this season. He only has three hits, but two of them are triples, which translates into a .130 batting average. Lindor has also worked nine walks, which means his OBP is a .394. He’s not going to walk at that pace the entire year but a .390 OBP is 50 points higher than his career number. He’s getting on base, at some point between how often Lindor and Soto are both getting on base, the runs are going to happen.
- Devin Williams. Williams has pitched in three games so far this season and has looked real good. His Baseball Savant page looks good too! It’s way too early to make complete sense of it, as individual outings are still weighing heavily, but he’s getting hitters to Whiff, his xBA is a paltry .060 and his hard-hit percentage is low. The only flag so far is hitters are chasing his pitches only 29.6% of the time, down from 34.9%.
Let’s Go Mets!
