The Mets still control their own destiny!
The Mets bats are slugging the ball again as they come off a series win against the Padres thanks to a home run barrage. At the start of 2025 the Mets feasted on poorly performing teams, we are going to need that version of the Mets again as they take on a Nationals team that is hungry to play spoiler. Tonight will be a battle of the rookies as Brandon Sproat on the Mets takes on Andrew Alvarez.
Brandon Sproat has allowed three runs from nine hits over his first 12 innings (two starts) while striking out 10 batters. He’s coming off of a tremendous start against the Rangers where he shut them out over six innings, allowing six hits and walking no one. Walks caused him headaches in his first major league start (four over six innings), so it was nice to see him move beyond that. He’s going to face the Nationals a lot of his career, tonight is a great time to make a first impression.
Andrew Alvarez has a 1.15 ERA, 3.72 FIP, 0.830 WHIP and a 368 ERA+ over three starts and 15 2/3 innings. He’s coming off of his best start in his major league career where he shutout the Pirates over six innings, scattering three hits. In the start before that the Cubs scored two runs over 4 2/3 innings from three hits and three walks. Over his first three starts he has used a low-90’s fastball about a third of time mixing in a low-80’s curve and low-80’s slider. He has also sprinkled in a mid-80’s changeup and low-90’s sinker.
Three Things To Watch For:
- Pete Alonso. Alonso has been on fire this week. Thursday was his fourth consecutive game with a home run. In his last five games he has gone 8-for-19 with four home runs and seven RBI’s (.421/.455/1.053). In his last 15 games he has slashed .305/.338/.661. Pete carried the team at the start of the 2025 and is looking to push the Mets over the finish line at the end.
- Is Juan Soto walking here? Juan Soto is prolific and working walks. He’s lead the league in walks in four of the last five season and is currently leading the league with 119 walks, only six walks away from Jon Olerud’s 1999 Mets single season record of 125 walks. In his last nine games though he has walked only once. He has a season OBP of around .400 and his OBP over the last nine games is .300. Obviously this is just one part of his game (he has five extra-base hits over the last nine games with a .579 SLG, or 50 points higher than his season average).
- Wild Card race. The Mets enter play today with a two game lead over the Diamondbacks and Reds for the last Wild Card Spot, and a three game lead over the Giants. By the time you read this, the Reds and the Cubs will have already wrapped up their early afternoon game. The Diamondbacks are hosting Taijuan Walker and Phillies tonight at 9:40. The Giants and Robbie Ray face Clayton Kershaw and his last home, regular season start of his career.
Let’s Go Mets!
