Tuesday, April 14, 2026 • 10:10 PM
UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium • Los Angeles, CA
RHP Nolan McLean (1-1, 2.70) vs. RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2-1, 2.50)
SNY

If the Mets are falling apart in the middle of the night, and no one is around to see it, are they really falling apart?

The Mets’ offense continued its lackluster stretch on Monday, losing to the Dodgers 4-0 and mustering only three hits. This is on the heels of Sunday’s 1-0 loss, where the Mets recorded only four hits. The Mets are practically free-falling right now. They are still one good game at the plate from snapping out of it, though. Things don’t get any easier for the Mets tonight as they take on one of the aces of the Dodgers’ staff.

Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images

Mets Lineup

  1. Francisco Lindor – SS
  2. Luis Robert Jr. – CF
  3. Jorge Polanco – DH
  4. Bo Bichette – 3B
  5. Francisco Alvarez – C
  6. Brett Baty – RF
  7. Mark Vientos – 1B
  8. Marcus Semien – 2B
  9. Carson Benge – RF

Starting Pitcher: Nolan McLean

The Mets need their rising ace now more than ever! Nolan McLean has a 2.70 ERA, 2.83 FIP, 0.840 WHIP and a 148 ERA+ over three starts and 16 2/3 innings this season. He’s coming off his longest start of the season, where he pitched 6 1/3 innings against the Diamondbacks, allowing two runs from three hits (with both runs scoring after he left the game).

This will be McLean’s first start against the Dodgers, and no one on the Dodgers has faced McLean in aan MLB game before.

Opposing Lineup

  1. Shohei Ohtani – DH
  2. Kyle Tucker – RF
  3. Will Smith – C
  4. Freddie Freeman – 1B
  5. Teoscar Hernandez – LF
  6. Max Muncy – 3B
  7. Andy Pages – CF
  8. Hyeseong Kim – 2B
  9. Alex Freeland – SS

Yoshinobu Yamamoto has made three starts this season with a 2.50 ERA, 3.58 FIP, 0.889 WHIP and a 159 ERA+. He is currently leading the league with a 1.0 BB/9, which is way below his career average of 2.7 BB/9. He is coming off his best start of the season, where he allowed one run from five hits over six innings.

The Mets have the following career stats against him:

  • Francisco Alvarez 1-2
  • Bo Bichette 1-3, BB, K
  • Francisco Lindor 1-6, 2 K
  • Tommy Pham 0-3, K
  • Marcus Semien 1-3, K
  • Mark Vientos 1-3, HR, K

Game Notes

Joey Gerber, who pitched two scoreless innings on Monday, was placed on the injured list with a blister issue. Austin Warren was called up in his stead.

Three Things To Watch For

  1. Flipped fWAR. Going into the season, the Mets were projected to be 7th in the league in fWAR with 28.6 from batting and 14.8 from pitching. Currently, they are 17th in the league with 0.8 batting fWAR and 2.5 pitching fWAR. This matches what we’ve seen on the field. With a few notable exceptions, the pitching has pretty much done its job, keeping the Mets in every game. The hitting has just vanished. A team that is projected to have a 28.6 batting fWAR will eventually regress to their projected mean at some point; hopefully, that starts tonight!
  2. Is it luck or skill? The Mets are slumping right now, which highlights the luck part of baseball. This is not an excuse for how the Mets have played over the last week or so. The Mets had three hits last night. Two of them had an xBA of above .880, and one of them had an xBA of .280. The Mets put four balls in play that turned into outs between an xBA of .530 and .620. The Mets had seven batted balls with an exit velocity of above 100 mph, and only one of them was a hit.
  3. Different Pitch Mix. Yamamoto throws six pitches, and early on this season, he seems to be utilizing them slightly differently. He’s effectively flipped his cutter and curveball usage, using his cutter 19.4% of the time and his curveball 13.6% this season. Last season, he used his curveball 17.6% of the time and his cutter 11.2%. He’s also changed his four-seamer usage. Last season, he was throwing it over a third of the time, and now it’s less than a quarter. Something to keep an eye on tonight!

Let’s go Mets!