The Mets and Diamondbacks play the rubber game this evening in Queens! The Mets had a comeback win on Tuesday to stretch their winning streak to four games but just couldn’t put anything together in yesterday in a 7-2 loss. David Peterson allowed five runs in the first two innings and the Mets batters struggled early to get a runner to second base. Eventually the Mets would score a couple of runs but at that point the game felt too far out of reach.
There’s nothing like a Nolan McLean day to get back on track! Tonight is a rematch of the WBC Finale with McLean facing off against Eduardo Rodríguez. Should be a fun one tonight!
Over two starts this season Nolan McLean has allowed four runs, three earned over 10 1/3 innings from five hits and four walks while striking out 12 batters. In his last start he took a perfect game into the sixth inning, allowing two runs, one earned, over 5 1/3 innings. This will be his first major league start against the Diamondbacks and no one on the Diamondbacks roster have faced him in a major league game previously.
Eduardo Rodríguez is off to a hot start this season allowing one unearned run and nothing else from eight hits and three walks over 12 innings. Last season he pitched 154 1/3 innings over 29 starts with a 5.02 ERA, 4.57 FIP, 1.542 WHIP and an 86 ERA+. The Mets really hit him hard last April, scoring eight runs off of nine hits in four innings. The Mets have the following career numbers against Rodríguez:
- Francisco Alvarez 1-6, K
- Bo Bichette 5-13, 2B, 2 HR, BB, 4 K
- Francisco Lindor 5-22, 2B, HR, BB, 2 K
- Jorge Polanco 4-17, 2 2B, BB, 3 K
- Luis Robert Jr. 2-11, 2B, 2 BB, 4 K
- Marcus Semien 6=25, 2B, 3 BB, 9 K
- Tyrone Taylor 2-2, 2B
- Luis Torrens 1-3, K
- Mark Vientos 0-5, K
Three Things To Watch For:
- Rodríguez has made adjustments. From 2015 to 2025, Rodríguez primarily tossed fastballs. From 2023 to 2025 over 40% of his pitches were fastball. Least season he threw them 46.6% of the time, the highest amount since 2017. He’s been different this year. Over two starts this season he is primarily using his change up (34.9% usage) and it has a .177 xBA. Let’s see if that trend continues this afternoon and if the Mets attack him differently than they did last season.
- Bo Bichette, at bat leader? Heading into games today Bo Bichette (2-for-4 yesterday) is currently leading the league in at bats (54). This is more of a reflection of how infrequently he walks (only twice so far this season, which isn’t that far off of his normal pace). If you cut out the first three games of the season, Bichette is hitting .275/.310/.325 going 11-for-40 with two doubles. We are starting to see normal Bichette, and as he starts to hit for more power, we’ll see his OPS+ go from 47 to where it normally is (120’s).
- Contain Corbin Carroll please. Carroll had a great day at the plate yesterday going 3-for-5 with two doubles, a triple, two RBI’s and a run scored. He was the engine of the Diamondbacks offense either driving players home or getting in a position to score himself.
Let’s Go Mets!
