The Mets face their old friends the Cardinals tonight in St. Louis. The Cardinals and Mets are two of the five teams on the east coast of Florida, and have already played each other a whole bunch over the last month. This will be the Mets second consecutive season against an NL Central team, and the Mets look to build off of what was a mostly successful opening series against the Pirates.
The Mets converted Clay Holmes to a starter last season and he delivered over 33 games (31 starts) pitching 165 2/3 innings with a 3.53 ERA, 4.11 FIP, 1.304 WHIP and a 114 ERA+. Like many pitchers on the Mets he was more effective in the first half of the season, posting a 3.31 ERA over his first 19 games compared a 3.90 in his last 14. Holmes faced the Cardinals twice last season holding them to one run over six innings the first time and then three runs over six the second time a couple weeks later. The Cardinals have the following career numbers against Holmes:
- Alec Burleson 2-6, K
- Nolan Gorman 0-6, K
- Pedro Pages 0-3, BB
- Thomas Saggese 0-3
- Victor Scott II 1-4, 2 K
- Ramón Urías 3-12, 2B, 5 K
- Jordan Walker 0-4, 2 K
- Masyn Winn 2-3
The Cardinals are hoping Kyle Leahy can make the same journey that Clay Holmes has. Last season he pitched in 62 games totaling 88 innings with a 3.07 ERA, 3.04 FIP, 1.227 WHIP and a 134 ERA+. The Cardinals have stretched him out over spring training, with him tossing over 70 pitches in each of his last two starts. Spring starts don’t mean anything, but he did have a start against the Mets where he allowed no runs and no hits against the Mets over four innings back on March 7th. He pitched against the Mets in two games last season totaling 3 1/3 innings allowing only one run on one hit. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:
- Brett Baty 0-2
- Francisco Lindor 0-2
- Jorge Polanco 0-1
- Luis Robert Jr. 1-3, HR, K
- Marcus Semien 0-2, BB
- Juan Soto 0-1, K
- Tyrone Taylor 0-1
- Luis Torrens 0-1
- Mark Vientos 1-2, HR
Three Things To Watch For:
- Top Outfield Prospects. Both the Cardinals and the Mets broke camp with top outfield prospects. Carson Benge’s first hit on Opening Day was a home run. Besides that he has been pretty quite with two walks, a stolen base and five strikeouts. JJ Weatherholt already has four hits including an Opening Day home run of his own.
- Brett Baty. What a start to the season for Brett Baty. He got the Mets on the scoreboard on Opening Day with a bases clearing triple. He already has four hits, two runs scored and a stolen base while splitting time at DH and first base. Carlos Mendoza said before yesterday’s game that Baty could see time in right field on days when Luis Robert Jr. gets the day off (Benge would slide into center). It’s only been a few games, but Baty looks way more confident this season as he steps into the super-utility role.
- Cardinals are hitting. All rate stats are a little silly after three games, because it’s been only three games. Now that we got that out of the way, the Cardinals are fourth in the majors with a .813 OPS (Brewers, Angels and Nationals have the lead). Last year the Yankees led the league with a .787 OPS and the Cardinals were 24th with a .693 OPS.
Let’s Go Mets!
