Friday, August 24, 2018 • 7:10 p.m.
Citi Field • Flushing, N.Y.
LHP Gio Gonzalez (7-10, 4.51) vs. LHP Jason Vargas (3-8, 7.67)
PIX11 • WOR 710 AM • 104.3 WAXQ-FM HD 2 • ESPN 1050 AM
The Mets dropped the series finale with the Giants yesterday heading into their series with the Nationals. Yesterday deGrom was deGrom, allowing only 1 earned run (2 total) over 6 but the Mets bats remembered that they don’t hit against Bumgarner (and that historically in 2018, they don’t hit for deGrom) and fell silent.
Mets Lineup
- Amed Rosario – SS
- Jeff McNeil – 2B
- Wilmer Flores – 1B
- Todd Frazier – 3B
- Jay Bruce – RF
- Austin Jackson – CF
- Jose Bautista – LF
- Kevin Plawecki – C
- Jason Vargas – LHP
Nationals Lineup
- Trea Turner – SS
- Anthony Rendon – 3B
- Bryce Harper – RF
- Ryan Zimmerman – 1B
- Juan Soto – LF
- Matt Wieters – C
- Michael Taylor – CF
- Wilmer Difo – 2B
- Gio Gonzalez – LHP
The Nationals are a slightly different team heading into Queens as they sold off Daniel Murphy and Matt Adams earlier this week as they start to throw in the towel of the season. Change could still be on the way as Gio Gonzalez, Matt Wieters and Ryan Zimmerman all cleared waivers yesterday with the former making the start (and possibly an audition) tonight.
Before we get into that, lets break down the Mets starter Jason Vargas who made us all proud on a national broadcast last Sunday night. On the season he is 3-8 over 14 starts and 58.2 innings with a 7.67 ERA, 5.99 FIP, 1.722 WHIP and a 48 ERA+. In his last two starts he has allowed 4 runs over 11.1 innings with a 3.18 ERA (against the Orioles and Phillies). The Nationals have the following numbers against him:
- Wieters 5-19, 2B
- Reynolds 3-8, 2 2B
- Eaton 1-5
- Zimmerman 2-5, 2B
The Mets bats will get a look at Gio Gonzalez who is 7-10 over 133.2 innings in 25 games with a 4.51 ERA, 4.26 FIP, 1.548 WHUP and a 95 ERA+. He’s coming off back to back rough starts allowing a total of 13 runs over 8.2 innings (13.50 ERA). He hasn’t faced the Mets since April where he held the Mets to 1 run over 5.1 innings and then 2 runs over 5.1 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Gio:
- Bruce 6-29, 5 2B, 3 BB, 10 K
- Flores 6-28, HR, 3 BB
- Reyes 7-19, 2 2B, 2 HR
- Frazier 3-16, 2 2B, 2 BB, 8 K
- Jackson 3-15, 2 BB
- Mesoraco 2-8, 2B
- Rosario 1-7, 2B
- Conforto 0-2, BB
Game Notes
The Mets announced that Jay Bruce and Tomas Nido were added to the active roster. To make room for them, Dominic Smith and Jack Reinheimer were optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas.
Mets expect that catcher Kevin Plawecki could go on the paternity leave any day now and Devin Mesoraco is day-to-day with a stiff neck.
The Mets will welcome the Little League team from Catalunya, Spain, who reached Williamsport, to tonight’s game. Spain had not been represented at the Little League World Series in 32 years.
Major League players will wear custom nickname jerseys this weekend. The players also will be able to wear specially designed caps, socks and cleats…The right sleeve of each player’s jersey will feature a patch with a blank space for him to write the name of a person or organization that was instrumental to his development.
Let’s Go Mets!
