Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

The Mets entered last night’s game trailing three games for the Wild Card and chasing the Cardinals.

After the storm and the loss, they are now 5.5 games out of first in the division and 3.5 games out of the Wild Card. The Mets season is starting to fully slip away making tonight’s game a must win.

Last night the Mets offense just fell silent, getting only six hits and scoring no runs. Rich Hill had an average start, allowing three runs over five innings, but later in the game Yennsy Díaz allowed four runs in his one inning of relief putting the game out of reach.

Mets Lineup

  1. Jonathan Villar – 3B
  2. Francisco Lindor – SS
  3. Michael Conforto – RF
  4. Pete Alonso – 1B
  5. Javier Baez – 2B
  6. Jeff McNeil – LF
  7. Kevin Pillar – CF
  8. Tomas Nido – C
  9. Marcus Stroman – RHP

Cardinals Lineup

  1. Tommy Edman – 2B
  2. Paul Goldschmidt – 1B
  3. Tyler O’Neill – LF
  4. Nolan Arenado – 3B
  5. Yadier Molina – C
  6. Dylan Carlson – RF
  7. Edmundo Sosa – SS
  8. Harrison Bader – CF
  9. Jake Woodford – RHP

Marcus Stroman looks to put the Mets back on track tonight. Over 30 starts and 163.0 innings this season, Stroman has a 2.87 ERA, 3.35 FIP, 1.129 WHIP and a 138 ERA+. He’s coming off of a strong start against the Marlins, allowing one run over 6 1/3 innings, from four hits and no walks. In his last four starts Stroman has a 3.09 ERA over 23 1/3 innings. Stroman faced the Cardinals back at the start of May and allowed four runs, only two earned, over five innings from seven hits and a walk. The Cardinals have the following career numbers against Stroman:

  • Paul DeJong 1-3, HR
  • Paul Goldschmidt 3-6, HR, K
  • Dylan Carlson 1-3, K
  • Nolan Arenado 3-9, K
  • Harrison Bader 1-3, SB
  • Tyler O’Neill 0-2, BB
  • Matt Carpenter 0-3, BB, K
  • Andrew Knizner 0-2, K
  • Yadier Molina 0-3, 2 K
  • Tommy Edman 0-3, 2 K

The Mets bats will get a look at Jake Woodford tonight. Woodford has pitched in 22 games and made four starts this season, pitching a total of 48 1/3 innings with a 4.28 ERA, 5.00 FIP, 1.386 WHIP and a 90 ERA+. Since returning to the Cardinals on September 4th he has pitched a total of 9 1/3 innings between two games, allowing only one run from five hits and two walks. In a relief outing against the Mets back in May he allowed no runs from two hits over two innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Jake:

  • Dominic Smith 1-1
  • Pete Alonso 0-0, BB
  • Francisco Lindor 1-3
  • Javier Báez 1-5, 2 K
  • Kevin Pillar 0-2
  • Jonathan Villar 0-1, K
  • Jeff McNeil 0-1, K
  • Michael Conforto 0-1
  • James McCann 0-2

Game Notes

Mets are celebrating Childhood Cancer Awareness Day tonight. Michael Conforto has invited 5 patients & their families from Cohen Children’s Medical Center to Citi Field. Javier Báez will meet with pediatric cancer patients who were flown in from Centro Médico in Puerto Rico.

Luis Rojas said there’s a chance that Brandon Nimmo could return this weekend.

Let’s Go Mets!