Sunday, July 22, 2018 • 8:08 p.m.
Yankee Stadium • Bronx, N.Y.
RHP Jacob deGrom (5-4, 1.68) vs. RHP Masahiro Tanaka (7-2, 4.54)
ESPN • WOR 710 AM • 104.3 WAXQ-FM HD 2 • ESPN 1050

The Mets will try to distract the world from the embarrassing weekend they have had so far by playing the rubber game against the Yankees last night. Things for the Mets started to go downhill after they won Friday’s game. Cespedes revealed to reporters that he needs a surgery with 8-10 months of recovery time. The next day, the Mets front office and management were all on different pages with regards to the Cespedes injury. No one wanted to talk about the Syndergaard early exit outside of him having a dead arm. His early exit caused Lugo and Gsellman to both be unavailable which combined with the not yet final Familia trade left the Mets short-handed. (We won’t even get into the details of the trade).

The game went all right until the fourth inning that put den Dekker all over the field booting balls on difficult catches and leading to a massive Yankee lead. It looked like the Yankees were going to steamroll the Mets with a score of 7-3 but the Mets were able to make 7-6 in the ninth leaving the tying run on third base.

Mets Lineup

  1. Brandon Nimmo  RF
  2. Asdrubal Cabrera  DH
  3. Wilmer Flores  1B
  4. Michael Conforto  LF
  5. Jose Bautista  3B
  6. Devin Mesoraco  C
  7. Amed Rosario  SS
  8. Matt den Dekker  CF
  9. Jose Reyes  2B

Yankees Lineup

  1. Brett Gardner  LF
  2. Aaron Judge  RF
  3. Didi Gregorius  SS
  4. Giancarlo Stanton  DH
  5. Aaron Hicks  CF
  6. Gary Sanchez  C
  7. Greg Bird  1B
  8. Miguel Andujar  3B
  9. Neil Walker  2B

With all of this craziness, it is nice to get back to sense and sensibility with Jacob deGrom. Jacob is 5-4 over 19 games and 123.1 innings with a 1.68 ERA (league leading), 2.33 FIP (league leading), 230 ERA+ (league-leading) and 0.973 WHIP. In the month of July, he has allowed 1 run over 16 innings from nine hits, two walks and 15 K’s. In June, he allowed three runs, two earned, over eight innings from four hits, and two walks against the Yankees who have the following numbers against him:

  • Stanton 9-25, 2B, 4 HR, 3 BB
  • Gardner 4-14, HR, 2 BB
  • Gregorius 2-12
  • Hicks 2-8
  • Judge 1-5, 2B, 2 BB
  • Sanchez 2-6
  • Walker 2-6
  • Tanaka 0-4
  • Andujar 0-3
  • Bird 0-3

Masahiro Tanaka is 7-2 over 15 games and 83.1 innings with a 4.54 ERA, 4.91 FIP, 1.128 WHIP and 95 ERA+. Since coming off the DL in July, he has allowed five runs in 10.2 innings from 12 hits, and three walks. He pitched well against the Mets in June allowed one run over five innings from a homer but left the game due to an injury from running the bases. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

  • Bautista 10-39, 3 2B, 2 HR, 5 BB, 11 K
  • Cabrera 0-10, 5 K
  • Reyes 3-7, HR, BB
  • Conforto 1-7, 2B
  • Flores 1-5
  • deGrom 2-4
  • Mesoraco 1-3
  • Nimmo 1-2, HR

Game Notes

The Mets are 8-8 in July. New York is 15- 35 in its last 50 contests. The Mets have gone 16 straight series without a series victory dating to their sweep of Arizona from May 18-20 at Citi Field. The Mets are 2-6 in rubber games. The
Mets are 21-24 on the road. New York is 8-16 in its last 24 road games. New York has 11 wins in its last at-bat, tied for the sixth-most in the majors.

Brandon Nimmo was hit by a pitch twice yesterday and has been hit 15 times this year, establishing a single-season
franchise record. Lucas Duda held the old mark getting hit 14 in 2015. Nimmo is tied for first in the majors in HBP

Michael Conforto has driven in seven runs in his last four games. He is 3-7 (.429) with four RBI and three runs scored during this series. Conforto has a 15.2 % walk rate, the ninth-best in the majors.

During tonight’s game, the Empire State Building tower lights will be split, with the North/South sides of the building lit up in pinstripes in honor of the Yankees, and the East/West sides of the building lit up in orange and blue in honor of the Mets.

Jacob deGrom leads the majors with a 1.68 ERA, is tied for second in the NL and tied for seventh in the majors with 149 strikeouts and is second in the majors with a .291 slugging percentage against mark. DeGrom’s 1.68 ERA (actually 1.678) is the second-lowest ERA by a Mets pitcher before the AllStar break in team history. Dwight Gooden posted a 1.68 ERA (actually 1.677) before the All-Star break in 1985.

Let’s Go Mets!