Sunday, 1:00 PM
Citi Field• Flushing, NY
RHP Luke Weaver vs. LHP Steven Matz
SNY• ESPN Deportes 1050• WOR
Bring your brooms to Citi Field as the Mets go for a sweep to close out their first series of 2018! Yesterday the Mets fired on all cylinders for the second day in a row winning 6-2 behind a strong performance by Jacob deGrom, three hits from Cabrera, a homer from Cespedes, 3 RBI’s from the Todd Father and a homer from d’Arnaud. In order to get the sweep Mets must do two things that were elusive in 2017: win on a Sunday and get a reliable start from Steven Matz.
Mets Lineup
- Asdrubal Cabrera – 2B
- Y0enis Cespedes – LF
- Jay Bruce – RF
- Todd Frazier – 3B
- Wilmer Flores – 1B
- Kevin Plawecki – C
- Juan Lagares – CF
- Steven Matz – P
- Amed Rosario – SS
Cardinals Lineup
- Dexter Fowler – RF
- Tommy Pham – CF
- Matt Carpenter – 2B
- Marcell Ozuna – LF
- Jose Martinez – 1B
- Yadier Molina – C
- Paul DeJong – SS
- Jedd Gyorko – 3B
- Luke Weaver – P
Matz was 2-7 over 13 games and 66.2 innings with a 6.08 ERA, 5.05 FIP, 1.530 WHIP and 70 ERA+. When he came back from injury last year in June, he had a fantastic start in Atlanta but then had two torrid starts. Through July 3rd he pretty much was either great or terrible but starting with a game against the Cardinals on July 9th until he got injured again, he was pretty much just terrible. Against the Cardinals, he allowed five runs off seven hits and a walk in 4 1/3 innings. The Cardinals have the following numbers against him:
- Ozuna 3-11
- Fowler 2-6
- Carpenter 1-32, 2B
- Pham 3-3, HR
- DeJong 2-2, HR
- Gyorko 0-2
- Molina 0-2
For the first time in two days, the Mets bats will not face a former All-Star (same can be said for the Cardinals) in Luke Weaver. In his sophomore season, Weaver went 7-2 over 60.1 innings posting a 3.88 ERA, 3.17 FIP, 1.260 WHIP, 110 ERA+. Luke will be looking to rebound from the end of his season where he allowed 14 runs over 7.2 innings in two starts from 16 hits and 6 walks. His ERA for last year drops to 2.05 if you ignore those last two starts. This will be Luke’s first start against the Mets in his career and he has not faced any Mets while they were members of other clubs.
Who’s Hotter Than Take By A Relative At A Holiday* Dinner?
In his first two games this year, Cespedes has been on base 6 times in 10 plate appearances. Small sample size but he has a 1.457 OPS which is a fun start of the season scoreboard number.
Who’s Colder Than A Turkey* Someone forgot to defrost properly?
All of us in the NYC metro area. It may snow tonight.
Notes
Mickey Callaway has won each of his first two games as the Mets manager. The last Mets manager to win his first two
contests was Joe Torre, who won his first three games in 1977.
Yoenis Cespedes hit his first home run of the season with a solo shot in the fifth inning yesterday. Cespedes has 31 home runs in his career during March/April, most of any month in his career…Céspedes has four RBI in his first two games.
Travis d’Arnaud slugged the Mets’ first home run of the season with a solo homer in the fourth inning yesterday.The last Mets catcher to hit the team’s first home run of the season was Mike Piazza, who hit his off Tom Glavine on April 3, 2001, in Atlanta.
From Elias Sports, Asdrubal Cabrera is the first player since 1915 to bat fourth in their team’s opener and leadoff in their second game. The last person to do it was Joe Schultz, who did so for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Jeurys Familia converted a four-out save yesterday, his 107th of his Mets career, tying him with Jesse Orosco for third on the Mets all-time save list. Armando Benitez is second on the list with 160 saves while John Franco is first with 276.
*Happy Passover and Easter to those who celebrate! The turkey may have been my situation yesterday. Oops.
Check out 213 Miles From Shea for 2018 Projections of Players!
