Saturday, July 8, 2023 • 10:10 PM
Petco Park • San Diego, California
LHP David Peterson (2-6, 6.61) vs. LHP Blake Snell (5-7, 3.03)
SNY

The Mets look to do a few different things tonight:

  1. Win their seventh game in a row.
  2. Match their win total for the entire month of June.
  3. Win their third consecutive series of the season.

The Mets and Padres played a back and forth game last night. The game was tied 3-3 entering extra innings when the Mets led by Francisco Lindor took a critical four run lead. The Mets would give back two runs in the bottom half of the frame, but were able to stop a full comeback. There are only two more games left before the All-Star break, can the Mets keep this pivotal streak going?

Mets Lineup

Every David Peterson start is an audition, while José Quintana is nearing his return. Joey Lucchesi could also make his major league return (he also had a rough night in the minors last night allowing six runs over four innings). The Mets could go to a six-man rotation. The Mets could trade a starter, which would make Peterson a regular in the rotation. There are a lot of different possibilities for the Mets after the All-Star break, Peterson’s performance factors into a whole bunch of them.

Over 10 games and 49 innings this season, Peterson has a 6.61 ERA, 4.60 FIP, 1.673 WHIP and a 63 ERA+. Since returning to the rotation Peterson has pitched 10 innings, allowing one rune on eight hits and six walks. He has dropped his ERA from 8.08 to 6.61. He faced the Padres earlier this season and it was one of his better starts, holding the Padres to two runs (six hits, two walks) over 5 2/3 innings. The Padres have the following career numbers against Peterson:

Opposing Lineup

Blake Snell has made 17 starts for the Padres and pitched 92 innings so far this season. He has a 3.03 ERA, 3.78 FIP, 1.261 WHIP and a 135 ERA+. He’s coming off of a great start where he silenced the Angels for five innings, allowing seven hits but no runs. Since May 25th Snell has allowed only four earned runs over 47 innings (0.77 ERA, 2.08 FIP). He had a season ERA of 5.40 before this streak. Against the Mets earlier this season he allowed four runs, three earned, over five innings. The Mets have the following career numbers against Snell:

Game Notes

Today, Major League Baseball announced that Kodai Senga was added to the National League All-Star team. He will join the NL All-Star squad as they square off against the AL All-Stars on July 11 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. Senga joins Alonso (2019), Dwight Gooden (1984), Jerry Koosman (1968) and Tom Seaver as the only Mets rookies selected to an All-Star Game. He is the eighth Japanese-Born rookie ever to be selected to an All-Star Game joining Masahiro Tanaka (2014), Yu Darvish (2012), Kosuke Fukudome (2008), Hideki Okajima (2007), Hideki Matsui (2003), Ichiro Suzuki (2001) and Hideo Nomo (1995).

The Mets have won their first six games in July for only the second time in club history, also going 6-0 to begin the month in 1991. New York ended up winning its first 10 games in July of 1991, its longest win streak ever to begin the month.

Quintana struggled for his second straight rehab start in Triple-A Syracuse. The left-hander allowed five earned runs and three walks in 4 1/3 innings, while averaging 89.6 miles per hour on his fastball – down from 91.2 last year.

Three Things To Watch For

  1. Francisco Lindor is doing everything he possibly can to carry the Mets. Lindor is the heart and soul of this team and has put up video game numbers recently. He went 3-for-5 last night hitting his 19th homer of the season, second in two days and third in the month of July. In his last two games he’s gone 8-for-10 with two triples, two homers and five runs scored. After being snubbed for the All-Star game a second time, he made comments after the game asking why Brandon Nimmo wasn’t an All-Star, rather than complaining about his own situation.
  2. Francisco Álvarez is lighting up box scores. Álvarez has had three consecutive multi-hit games. Last night he went 4-for-5 at the plate! Overall in his last four games he has gone 9-for-16 with three homers (.563/.588/1.125). Last night’s game pushed his season OPS over .800 for the first time since June 17th. His breakout right now is the x-factor for the Mets.
  3. Daniel Vogelbach has quietly had two nice days at the plate. On June 27th Vogelbach went 2-for-4 with a homer. Then over his next five games he went 0-for-10, drawing one walk. In his last two games he has gone 5-for-9 with a double and a walk. Obviously we want more power from our designated hitter, but its nice to see him get on base so much over the last couple of days.

Let’s go Mets!