The Mets head down the St. Petersburg today to face a first place team again! In their last series the Mets have had to play the first place White Sox, then the first place Brewers and yesterday they wrapped up a series against the first place Astros.
The AL East has been fascinating this year with the Red Sox surging since mid-May. The top three teams in the AL East are each, at least, 12 games above .500, which explains some of the other lackluster records of AL first place teams we’ve seen this month. The Rays are trying to continue their reign as the top American League team. The Mets are trying to climb out of the cellar. It’s baseball, back at the Trop!
Robert Stock has made five starts for the Mets this season totaling 20 2/3 innings with a 7.40 ERA, 4.63 FIP, 1.935 WHIP and a 56 ERA+. His season stat line doesn’t tell the whole story. Stock has had two awful starts where he has allowed a combined 15 runs from 19 hits over seven innings. This includes his last start where he allowed seven runs over four innings. In his other three starts Stock has allowed three runs, only two earned over 13 2/3 innings. The only hitters on the Rays who have seen Stock in an official game before are Yandy Diaz (0-for-0, BB) and Liam Hicks (1-for-2).
Ian Seymour has pitched in 41 games this season making 11 starts totaling 107 innings of work. He has a 4.21 ERA, 4.01 FIP, 1.150 WHIP and a 101 ERA+. In his last three outings he has pitched 16 2/3 innings with a 4.86 ERA, 5.48 FIP. In those 16 2/3 innings he struck out 22 batters and allowed six home runs. The only Mets who have seen Seymour in a Major League game are Christopher Morel (0-for-1) and Luis Robert Jr. (0-for-1).
Three Things To Watch For:
- What Could Have Been. This weekend Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Bo Bichette played two games together, making 28 on the season where all three were in the lineup at the same time. In the first inning Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto hit back-to-back solo shots. It’s hard to not wonder what could have been for the 2026 Mets if their two superstars were healthy the entire season.
- A.J. Ewing. You know Ewing is on fire because he’s collecting multiple hits in a game. Ewing hasn’t had multi-hit game in his last 20 games played where he’s slashing .118/.212/.145. Sunday was just the fourth game in that 20 game stretch where Ewing was on base twice and he had his first extra-base hit since August 10th. Hopefully he can put together another good game tonight and start to break out of this slump he’s in.
- Tropicana Rules. Earlier this week Xander Bogaerts hit a ball that left his bat at 108 mph with a 46 degree angle of elevation. This would have been a home run in 29 of 30 parks. It would have been a home run at Tropicana too if it wasn’t for the roof. Tropicana Field has four rings of catwalks, and this ball hit off of one of the two inner rings, because it went so high. Balls off the inner rings can be caught for an out, which is exactly what happened. You’ll never know what will happen in domed environment like the Trop!
Let’s Go Mets!
