Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
Monday, June 21, 2021 • 5:10 P.M.
Citi Field • Flushing, NY
GAME ONE: RHP Jacob deGrom (6-2, 0.54) vs. LHP Kyle Muller (0-0, 18.00)
GAME TWO: TBA vs. RHP Ian Anderson (4-3, 3.58)
SNY • WCBS 880 AM • WQBU 92.7 FM
The Mets come back to New York after a tough weekend where they lost three of four games to the Nationals. They still have a 4 game lead in the NL East though as they welcome the Braves to Queens for four games, including a double header today. With the exception of Saturday’s afternoon game, the Mets offense evaporated this weekend. Coupled with Kyle Schwarber going off, things were just bleak for the Mets.
The Mets are 20-7 at home and they welcome back Jeff McNeil today, hopefully they can get back on the winning track!
Mets Lineup
- Jonathan Villar – 3B
- Francisco Lindor – SS
- Dominic Smith – LF
- Pete Alonso – 1B
- Kevin Pillar – RF
- Jose Peraza – 2B
- Albert Almora – CF
- Tomas Nido – C
- Jacob deGrom – RHP
Braves Lineup
- Ronald Acuna Jr. – RF
- Freddie Freeman – 1B
- Ozzie Albies – 2B
- Abraham Almonte – LF
- Austin Riley – 3B
- Dansby Swanson – SS
- Guillermo Heredia – CF
- Kevan Smith – C
- Kyle Muller – LHP
Jacob deGrom makes the start in game 1, after leaving his last start before the 4th inning. He had suffered a shoulder injury on a swing that knocked him out, his second consecutive start that was injury shortened. Before he left though he had 3.0 perfect innings with eight strikeouts. Eight! That’s almost perfect-perfect.
On the season he has pitched 67.0 innings over 11 starts with a 0.54 ERA, 0.80 FIP, 0.507 WHIP and a 724 ERA+. He has a crazy 111 strikeouts over those 67.0 innings, 7 more than he had last year in 68 innings. In two starts against the Braves last year he allowed two runs from six hits and two walks in 11 innings while striking out an absurd 18 batters. The Braves have the following numbers against him:
- Austin Riley 2-7, HR, 4 K
- Freddie Freeman 15-58, 2 2B, 3 HR, 8 BB, 16 K
- Ronald Acuna Jr. 8-25, 2B, 2 BB, 7 K
- Pablo Sandoval 2-9, 2 2B, 4 K
- Dansby Swanson 4-20, 2 2B, 3 BB, 11 K
- Ender Inciarte 7-40, 2 2B, 3 BB, 9 K
- Ozzie Albies 5-37, 2B, BB, 9 K
Kyler Muller, who was designated as the 27th man today for the Braves, will get his first major league start. In his only major league game, back on June 16, he pitched one inning of relief against the Red Sox where he allowed two runs from four hits and no walks while striking out one. Baseball Prospectus listed him as the #60 prospect in baseball before the 2020 season and the #62 prospect before the 2021 season.
In Triple-A this year he has made seven starts and pitched 31 1/3 innings with a 4.60 ERA, 1.500 WHIP. Overall he has pitched 358.0 innings across five seasons in the minors with a 3.17 ERA and 1.217 WHIP.
Let’s Go Mets!
