Stop me if you have heard this one before. The Mets went out to the West Coast without an off-day before travel and left their bats in New York. The pitching was strong and was able to send the Mets into extra-innings before losing. The Mets are going to be extremely happy after this road trip when almost all of their remaining games are in the same time zone.
Hopefully the Mets were able to rest up today, ready to reset the series against the Mariners tonight.
Jonah Tong will be getting the bulk work tonight. He’s pitched two games in the majors this season totaling 6 2/3 innings allowing one unearned run off three hits and five walks while striking out three. Tong was striking out the world in the minors before getting called up, posting a 13.0 K/9 rate. Let’s see if that part of his game comes back tonight. This will be his first time facing the Mariners and no one on the Mariners has faced Tong in a major league game before.
Logan Gilbert has pitched 68 1/3 innings over 12 starts this season with a 3.69 ERA, 3.98 FIP, 1.112 WHIP and a 106 ERA+. In the month of May Gilbert was either terrific, allowing no runs in three starts, or rough to watch, allowing 11 runs in his other two starts. In his last two starts he has allowed no runs on seven hits over 11 2/3 innings while striking out 12 batters. The Mets have the following career numbers against Gilbert:
- Brett Baty 1-3, 2 K
- Bo Bichette 4-18, BB, 6 K
- Vidal Bruján 0-4, K
- MJ Melenedez 0-7, 4 K
- Marcus Semien 5-38, 2 2B, HR, 8 K
- Juan Soto 1-13, 2 BB, 6 K
- Mark Vientos 0-3
- Eric Wagaman 0-1, K
Three Things To Watch For:
- Huascar Brazobán: For the fifth time this season Brazobán will open things up for the Mets tonight. Over 25 games pitched, Brazobán has tossed 29 innings with a 1.86 ERA, 3.21 FIP, 0.966 WHIP and a 215 ERA+. In his last outing he struck out the side in his one inning of work. He’s making a strong case to be an All-Star this season.
- Marcus Semien. The Mets struggled to hit yesterday, but not Marcus Semien! Semien went 1-for-3 with a home run. Over his last three games he has gone 5-for-9 with a double, two walks and two home runs. It feels like Semien has started to turn a corner. Tonight he’s going to face a pitcher who has seen a lot and has struggled a lot against. Hot streak vs career data, who wins?
- Walks and Strikeouts. The Mets are at their absolute worst when they strikeout and fail to work walks. Last night the Mets had 12 strikeouts and worked zero walks. We’ve seen this multiple times throughout the season where they just don’t look competitive, and then that listless look compounds. We’ll be looking to see if that feeling from yesterday spills over into tonight’s game.
Let’s Go Mets!
