If the Mets win today, they will have a .500 road trip where they played a surging Mariners team and sinking Padres team (that still had a winning record). The Mets had a shot to win the series yesterday but the Mets bats couldn’t get much going against the Padres who slipped by the Mets with a 3-1 victory. Today the Mets are back on their opener-bulk set up with Brazobán starting the game.
Huascar Brazobán worked the Mets out of a jam Friday night, recording 1 1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts. The Mariners hit him around the last time he opened a game, allowing two runs from three hits and a walk over 1 2/3 innings. Overall this season Brazobán has pitched 32 innings over 27 games with a 2.25 ERA, 3.60 FIP, 1.000 WHIP and a 182 ERA+. The Padres have the following career stats against him:
- Miguel Andujar 0-1
- Xander Bogaerts 0-2, K
- Ty France 0-4, 2 K
- Bryce Johnson 1-2
- Manny Machado 0-1, BB
- Jackson Merrill 0-2
- Gavin Sheets 0-2, K
- Fernando Tatís Jr. 0-1, BB
Randy Vásquez has made 12 starts this season totaling 65 1/3 innings with a 3.31 ERA, 4.33 FIP, 1.224 WHIP and a 123 ERA+. Vásquez ended May with a rough stretch allowing seven runs over 10 innings from 14 hits and four walks. In his last start he allowed two runs over five innings. The Mets knocked him out early last season, tagging him for four runs on four hits including a home run over 2 1/3 innings. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:
- Brett Baty 0-1, K
- Bo Bichette 1-6, 2 K
- MJ Melendez 0-2, K
- Marcus Semien 1-3
- Juan Soto 1-5, HR, K
- Luis Torrens 0-1, K
- Mark Vientos 1-1
- Eric Wagaman 0-3, K
Three Things to Watch For:
- Sean Manaea. Manaea is lined up for a bulk game this afternoon. In his last outing he allowed only one run from a solo homer over five innings of work while striking out four batters. More importantly, his fastball sat at 91 mph last time out, hitting 92 a few times. Manaea seems to be turning a corner in whatever was keeping his fastball slow in spring training. Over 39 innings and 13 games this season, Manaea has a 5.08 ERA, 3.82 FIP, 1.462 WHIP and an 80 ERA+.
- The Mets are moving up to “below-average”. For most of the season the Mets offense has been terrible. It’s still pretty bad, but there are signs of improvement. In the last few days Bo Bichette and Marcus Semien have finally crossed over to a .600 OPS. That’s still pretty bad, but an OPS below .600 was just torrid. In Yesterday’s lineup the Mets had only only two batters with an OPS .800 and above. Everyone else was below .600. Next milestone – get a few players to get up to a .700 OPS.
- A Well-Rested bullpen. With Warren closing out yesterday’s game, Raley, Perez and Gerber haven’t pitched since Wednesday. Devin Williams hasn’t pitched since last Monday. Everyone else hasn’t pitched since Friday. With an off-day tomorrow, the Mets will probably try to get everyone some reps in, especially if Manaea’s bulk performance doesn’t go so well.
Let’s Go Mets!
