Wednesday, August 9, 2023 • 7:10 PM
Citi Field • Flushing, New York
RHP Kyle Hendricks (4-6, 3.98) vs. LHP David Peterson (3-7, 5.65)
SNY

The Mets got a quick start last night thanks to a another home run by Pete Alonso. Then, the bats fell silent and the Cubs were able to claw back until they eventually beat the Mets 3-2. The Cubs win, along with the Brewers loss meant they were able to pull within 1.5 games of first place entering Wednesday. The Mets loss coupled with the Nationals win last night means there are only 1.5 games separating the bottom two teams in the NL East. You can look at this like a win-win for the Mets. Either they win the ball game today and win the series, or they lose and get closer to that protected draft pick.

Mets Lineup

David Peterson makes his second start since returning to the Mets rotation. He allowed only one hit and three walks in three innings of work with no runs against the mighty Orioles lineup last week. He still needs to stretch his arm out, and he made strides last Friday with that as well. Peterson tossed 52 pitches in his outing. As a reliever, he was mostly landing in the mid-20’s. Peterson has a 5.65 ERA, 4.37 FIP, 1.607 WHIP and a 73 ERA+ over 65 1/3 innings this season. However, since being called back to the majors at the end of June, he has pitched 26 1/3 innings over 10 games with a 2.05 ERA and 3.76 FIP. The Cubs have the following career numbers against him:

Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Cubs Lineup

The Mets’ bats will face off against the Professor tonight, Kyle Hendricks. Hendricks has a made 14 starts totaling 81 1/3 innings with a 3.98 ERA, 4.17 FIP, 1.107 WHIP and a 115 ERA+. Kendricks ended July with a three-game stretch where he allowed only six earned runs, seven total, over 19 1/3 innings (2.79 ERA, 2.60 FIP) before hitting a wall his last time out allowing seven runs over four innings. His first start of the season this year was against the Mets, and the Mets were able to tag him for five runs, three earned, over 4 1/3 innings. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:

Game Notes

The Mets are only 4-9 in rubber games this season entering Wednesday night, showing their inability to rack up series’ wins with any consistency.

While the Mets’ bats have largely been struggling with a makeshift lineup, Alonso and Francisco Lindor have been two bright spots. Lindor now owns a six-game hitting streak and is batting .455 with a .500 OPB during that span.

The Mets are in the middle of a stretch of 19 out of 25 games being played at Citi Field. That’s largely good news for the team’s pitching staff, as Mets pitchers own a 3.75 ERA at Citi this season, compared to a 4.93 mark on the road.

With things dreary on the major-league level, there is some promising prospect work going on in the minor leagues. SS/CF prospect Jett Williams, for example, (The Mets’ No. 4 prospect according to our own Mike Mayer) has raised his OPS for Brooklyn up to .1000 over eight games. RHP Blade Tidwell (No. 10 on MMO’s list) was also excellent last night, allowing only two runs in 7.2 innings for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. He now has 121 strikeouts in 99 1/3 innings this season.

Three Things To Watch For

  1. Pete Alonso. Alonso provided all of the Mets offense last night with a two-run homer, his 34th of the season. It was his third homer in his last two games and is now only 16 away from 50 homers on the season. At his current pace, he has a good chance to get to that magic number. If he gets hot though, he has a remote chance of breaking his single-season record of 53 (which is also the Mets record).
  2. The Bullpen. Drew Smith struggled yesterday and allowed the winning run. That being said, the bullpen only allowed one run. It’s the only run they’ve allowed in the last two games. The only members of the pen that weren’t used yesterday were Brooks Raley, Jimmy Yacabonis and Grant Hartwig. Raley tossed 28 pitches on Monday though (Yacabonis threw eight). Only Hartwig is completely rested for today’s game.
  3. Kyle Hendricks sneaky peripheral stats. Kyle Hendricks has a very interesting Baseball Savant percentile ranking page. He’s inducing a lot of weak contact this year despite a slow fastball and a low strikeout percentage. The Mets right now generate most of their runs from hitting the ball hard. Should be interesting to see how this plays out tonight.

Let’s go Mets!