Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports

Monday, June 27, 2023 • 2:10 PM
Minute Maid Park • Houston, Texas
RHP Tylor Megill (6-4, 4.83) vs. RHP Cristian Javier (7-1, 2.90)
SNY

The Mets and Astros play a rubber game this afternoon full of daytime baseball.  After taking the first game in the series, the Mets couldn’t complete the comeback last night, losing 4-2. Justin Verlander allowed four runs over seven innings and the Mets couldn’t break through the Astros pitching until the 8th inning. Now, the Mets will face a tough pitcher for a second straight day in Cristian Javier. Let’s get this series win!

Mets Lineup

Tylor Megill pitched in 15 games in all of 2022, and he will be pitching in his 15th game in 2023 this afternoon. So far, over 69 innings, Megill has a 4.83 ERA, 5.05 FIP, 1.609 WHIP and an 87 ERA+. Megill is coming off of a terrific start against the Cardinals where he held them to a solo homer and nothing else over six innings, while tying his season high for strikeouts at seven. He looks to make back-to-back quality starts for the first time this season. This afternoon is also an interesting question in familiarity. Megill has never faced anyone on the Astros roster in a major league game before, but with the proximity of Astros and Mets spring training camps, he’s likely faced them in Florida.

Astros Lineup

Cristian Javier had a tremendous 2022 that saw him go from the bullpen to becoming a mainstay in the rotation on a team that won the World Series. He’s off to another great start this year with a 2.90 ERA, 3.59 FIP, 1.041 WHIP and a 145 ERA+ over 80 2/3 innings. After four consecutive starts (starting on May 16th) of allowing exactly one run, he hit a bump on June 9th against Cleveland. Cleveland was able to tag him for four runs over five innings, probably his worst start of the season. He rebounded nicely his last time out against the Nationals, holding them scoreless over six innings. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:

Game Notes

The Mets finished off a sweep of the Phillies on June 1, but otherwise have still yet to win a series this month. If they fall today to the Astros, that Phillies series will remain their only series win in their last nine tries.

The Mets enter the day six games out of the final NL Wild Card at 34-39. Only the Cardinals, Rockies, and Nationals currently have worse records in the National League.

One thing the Mets have done incredible well this year is steal bases when they decided to go for them. The Mets have not had a runner get caught stealing since May 10 and lead baseball with an 89.7% success rate on the basepaths this season.

Three Things To Watch For

  1. Tommy Pham is having a month. Since June 4th, the first game in June when Tommy registered a plate appearance, Tommy has gone 17-for-53 with six doubles, four homers and 10 runs scored. That’s a .321/.330/.660 slash line. He is currently in a six game hitting streak where he has gone 9-for-24 with two doubles and homer (.375/.400/.583).
  2. The Mets bullpen is rested. Thanks to Max Scherzer going eight innings on Monday and Verlander going seven yesterday, the short-handed Mets bullpen has gotten a lot of rest. Grant Hartwig made his major league debut on Monday and Jeff Brigham was the only pitcher used last night. Hopefully this means that bullpen is ready to go this afternoon if needed.
  3. A series to forget so far for Brandon Nimmo. Brandon Nimmo has gone 0-for-9 at the plate in Houston with five strikeouts. The whole thing is very un-Nimmo like. The only series I can find that really compares this season in is Atlanta at the end of April he went 1-for-12 with six strikeouts. Can Nimmo get some hits today before this starts to turn into a slump?

Let’s go Mets!