Sunday, September 23, 2018 • 1:35 p.m.
Nationals Park • Washington, D.C.
LHP Steven Matz (5-11, 4.03) vs. RHP Erick Fedde (2-3, 5.02)
PIX11 • WOR 710 AM • 104.3 WAXQ-FM HD 2 • ESPN 1050 AM

The Mets were one hit yesterday. Voth, the Nationals starter, who gave up seven runs from nine hits in his only other major league start, also against the Mets, only allowed one hit over five innings and then the Nationals bullpen took care of the rest. Hopefully, the bats will be fully rested for this afternoon’s game.

Mets Lineup

  1. Amed Rosario  SS
  2. Jeff McNeil  2B
  3. Michael Conforto  LF
  4. Jay Bruce  RF
  5. Brandon Nimmo  CF
  6. Dominic Smith  1B
  7. Todd Frazier  3B
  8. Kevin Plawecki  C
  9. Steven Matz  P

Nationals Lineup

  1. Victor Robles  LF
  2. Trea Turner  SS
  3. Bryce Harper  RF
  4. Anthony Rendon  3B
  5. Mark Reynolds  1B
  6. Adrian Sanchez  2B
  7. Spencer Kieboom  C
  8. Erick Fedde  P
  9. Michael A. Taylor  CF

Steven Matz is on the mound today. He’s 5-11 over 28 games and 145 innings with a 4.03 ERA, 4.68 FIP, 1.241 WHIP, and 91 ERA+. He’s coming off a strong start against the Phillies where he allowed no runs over 5.0 innings. In his last six starts and 35.1 innings, he has allowed nine runs which is a 2.29 ERA while striking out 39. His starts against the Nationals have been interesting this year. He started off in April allowing an unearned run over 5, then later in the same month he allowed three runs over four innings. In July, he allowed three runs over 6.1 innings and then at the end of the month, he allowed seven runs over 0.2 innings. His last start against the Nationals in August he held them to one run over seven innings. The Nationals have the following numbers against him:

  • Taylor 4-for-21, HR, 2 BB, 11 K
  • Rendon 7-for-22, 3 HR, 9 K
  • Turner 6-for-21, 2 2B, BB
  • Harper 3-for-16, 2B, 2 BB
  • Zimmerman 3-for-16, 2B, HR, BB
  • Reynolds 4-for-11, 3 2B
  • Wieters 2-for-8, HR
  • Soto 3-for-8

The Mets bats draw 25-year-old Erick Fedde who is 2-3 over nine games and 43 innings posting a 5.03 ERA, 4.25 FIP, 1.442 WHIP, and 85 ERA+. Since being called up in September he’s been quite good compared to his other numbers allowing six runs over 15 innings (3.60 ERA) while striking out 22 over three starts. His last start of 2017 was against the Mets where he allowed five runs over six innings. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

  • Nimmo 1-for-4, 2 K
  • Flores 1-f0r-3, HR
  • Rosario 1-f0r-3
  • Smith 0-for-3
  • Reyes 0-for-0, BB

Game Notes

Steven Matz has homered in back-to-back starts. No Mets pitcher has ever gone deep in three straight games. The last MLB pitcher to hit a homer in three consecutive games was Ken Brett, who went deep in four straight games in
1973 for the Phillies. Ron Darling (1989) and Tom Seaver (1972) are the only other Mets pitchers who have hit homers in back-to-back games.

Over his last six starts, Matz has posted a 2.29 ERA (nine earned runs/35.1 innings) with 39 strikeouts, but is 0-1 during that span.

New York is 39-41 on the road this year. Today is the Mets final road game of the year. The Mets rank sixth in the majors with 394 runs scored on the road.

The Mets have won 10 games vs. Washington this year. New York won six games all of last year vs. the Nats and had seven wins in 2016. The Mets have won the season series twice vs. Washington since 2010 (this year and 2015). The
Mets are 18-17 at Nationals Park since 2015. The Mets have hit 44 home runs in their last 29 games at Nationals Park.

Michael Conforto leads all major leaguers with 24 RBI and 14 extra-base hits this month and is tied for the major league lead with eight homers.

Let’s Go Mets!