The Mets schedule doesn’t get any easier. They opened the second half of the season against the Phillies and Brewers on the road. Now they welcome the Dodgers and Braves at home. The Mets went 3-3 against the Brewers and Phillies and just dropped the series against the Brewers. They had a real shot at beating the Brewers in rubber game, but they couldn’t get beyond a key error by Brett Baty in the outfield. The Mets will try to shake if off against the Dodgers tonight.
We are now 10 days away from the MLB trade deadline. As of writing, the Mets haven’t dismantled the team yet. The hug-watch isn’t fully on yet, but it’s starting to creep in.
Sean Manaea has pitched in 21 games making seven starts totaling 79 2/3 innings. He has a 4.74 ERA, 4.35 FIP, 1.356 WHIP and an 88 ERA+. July hasn’t been the best for Manaea allowing 13 runs, 9 earned, over 16 2/3 innings (4.86 ERA, 7.01 FIP). This month he has struggled to keep the ball in the park, allowing six home runs. Specifically he’s allowed two in each start. This was after three consecutive starts to end June allowing no home runs. The Dodgers have the following career numbers against Manaea:
- Mookie Betts 10-36, 2 2B, 2 3B, 3 HR, 3 BB, 5 K
- Alex Call 0-6, 2 BB, 2 K
- Tommy Edman 4-5, 2B, 2 HR
- Freddie Freeman 5-20, HR, BB, 4 K
- Teoscar Hernández 5-18, HR, 2 BB, 4 K
- Max Muncy 2-9, 2 HR, 2 BB, 2 K
- Shohei Ohtani 3-12, 2 BB, 5 K
- Andy Pages 1-5, 2B, 3 K
- Miguel Rojas 3-10, 2B, BB, 2 K
- Kyle Tuker 8-22, 2B, 4 HR, 4 K
Roki Sasaki has made 17 starts totaling 86 2/3 innings with a 4.98 ERA, 5.35 FIP, 1.338 WHIP and an 83 ERA+. He’s coming off of a solid start against the Yankees in New York where he allowed one unearned run over 5 2/3 innings. In his five starts before that he allowed 22 earned runs over 23 innings from 25 hits including nine home runs (8.61 ERA, 8.15 FIP). The only two players on the Mets to face Sasaki previously are Bo Bichette (0-for-1) and Marcus Semien (0-for-3).
Three Things To Watch For:
- RISP. Until the Mets have a breakout day at the plate with runners in scoring position, we have to talk about it. The Mets have been putrid with RISP over their last nine games, going 1-for-68. Wednesday they went 1-for-7. Against the Brewers the Mets went a combined 3-for-21. Just absolutely brutal.
- Marcus Semien. Semien went 0-for-9 in his first two games back from the injured list. Since then he has gone 2-for-7 with a HR and a walk. Not lighting the world on fire, but so much better than his first two games back. In those first two games back he had five strikeouts, since then one strikeout.
- A.J. Ewing. Ewing went 2-for-5 with a double on Wednesday, his second game with two hits in his last four. Ewing has a 2.2 bWAR slashing .274/.345/.426 with a 114 OPS+. His 2.2 bWAR is second on the team, behind Juan Soto (2.6) and ahead of Carson Benge (1.8). Over on Statcast, Ewing is not lighting up any of the batting stats, but outside of striking out he’s not bombing either. He is dominating in other ways though. His arm strength is in the 91st percentile, range in the 83rd and spring speed is in the 95th.
Let’s Go Mets!
