The New York Mets conclude their longest home stand of the year with a three-game set against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Mets are 5-2 so far on the stand after a convincing four-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Mets have defeated the D’backs seven consecutive times at home after sweeping them at Citi Field for the second year in a row. They outscored Arizona 26-4 in the four game sweep including a 20-1 pounding in the final two tilts.

Although the offense woke up in a big way (Juan Lagares and Todd Frazier leading the charge), it was the starting pitching that kept the D’Backs off-balance for the better part of the four games. Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz and even Marcus Stroman were excellent against a team who came into Flushing winners of 11 of 13 games. They now leave New York losers of five games in a row.

The Mets (76-70) are two games behind Milwaukee and Chicago for the second wild card spot. Milwaukee beat Miami, 3-2, on Thursday for their seventh straight win and the Cubs bounced back to topple San Diego, 4-1. Philadelphia beat Atlanta on Thursday night, 9-5 to tie the Mets in the wild card standings. Going forward, the Bucks will begin a series at St. Louis on Friday while the Cubs host the Pittsburgh Pirates to begin a 10-game home stand. The Phils are on idle on Friday before they start a short two game stint against Boston before embarking on a tough 11-game road trip. The D’Backs return home to open a series against Cincinnati. Arizona only has three road games remaining this year.

The Washington Nationals. who lead the first wild card spot by three games, open a series at home against the first-place Atlanta Braves. The Nationals and Phillies still have five games to play against each other (in Washington) before season’s end.

So the Mets find themselves in the middle of a multi-team chase for the second wild card. They’ll need some help to get to the Wild Card game, but the reality is the Mets are very much alive and playing meaningful September games. They have won nine of their last thirteen, caught Philadelphia and jumped Arizona, all within the last four days. Unfortunately, the task doesn’t get any easier as the Dodgers come to town on Friday.

The Los Angeles Dodgers (95-53) clinched their seventh straight National League West title on Tuesday with a victory over the Baltimore Orioles. They have been the class of the NL since Opening Day, and have as deep a team as anyone in baseball. Their +235 run differential leads the NL by over 100 runs, and is second in all of MLB behind the Houston Astros mark of +237. They’ll be attempting to reach the World Series for the third straight year, having lost to Houston (four games to three) in 2017 and Boston (4-1) last year.

Unsurprisingly with a run differential of +235, the Dodgers lead the NL in team batting having scored 806 runs in 148 games, an average of almost 5.5 runs per game. Their team BA is .258 and they lead the league in home runs with 259. MVP candidate Cody Bellinger leads Los Angeles in all major offensive categories. He is batting .303 which is tenth in the NL. He has scored 109 runs which is third in the league. Bellinger has 44 home runs (second in the NL) and 106 RBIs  (seventh best). He leads the league with an 8.1 WAR. He even leads the team in stolen bases with 11. Truly a remarkable season for the Dodger rightfielder.

Not to be outdone by their offense, Dodger pitching has been pretty formidable as well. They lead the NL with a 3.42 team ERA. Their BAA is a paltry .226. Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw both have 13 wins to lead L.A. Hyun-Jin Ryu leads the team (and the NL) with a 2.45 ERA. Buehler leads the team in strikeouts with 201. His WHIP is also a team best 1.02. Closer Kenley Jansen has 29 saves which is fourth best in the NL.

If there is a dark cloud among the silver lining, it is in team defense. The Dodgers rank 11th in the NL having committed 95 errors which is exactly the same as the Mets. The Dodgers fielding percentage is .982.

The Dodgers are managed by Dave Roberts who took over the reins of the team on November 23, 2015. He became the first minority manager in the storied history of the Dodgers. Despite 28 different players going on the DL in his first season, he still led Los Angeles to the NL West division crown. He won the 2016 NL Manager of the Year. He has led the Dodgers to division titles in each of  four years of managing. On December 3, 2018, Roberts and the Dodgers agreed to a four-year contract extension, running through the 2022 season.

Friday, September 13: RHP Noah Syndergaard vs LHP Clayton Kershaw  7:10 PM

2019 Stats: Syndergaard 10-7 record, 4.06 ERA (3.47 FIP), 1.189 WHIP, 9.1 Ks/9, 2.3 BB/9; Kershaw 13-5 record, 3.06 ERA (3.74 FIP), 1.050 WHIP, 9.7 Ks/9, 2.0 BB/9

Marquee match-up number one features two perennial NL pitching stars in Kershaw and Syndergaard.  Kershaw, though, has it a bit of a speed bump of late losing his last three starts. He’s given up 11 earned runs in his last 16 innings pitched (6.18 ERA) and his season’s ERA is above 3.00 for the first time since July 15.

Kershaw is coming off a loss to the San Francisco Giants where he pitched only four innings allowing three runs on seven hits. Like all the Dodger starters, it will be interesting to see how long Roberts goes with Kershaw in this spot.

As far as Syndergaard, the real question is who’s going to be the catcher? After the rigmarole earlier in the week on who is best suited to catch the tall righthander, things have settled down a bit. Two out his last three starts have been ordinary to say the least. His last out was against the Phillies on Sunday where he allowed four runs on six hits in only five innings of work. He threw only 78 pitches and was seen throwing his helmet in disgust in the dugout after being removed.

Noah will have to return to the form he showed on September 2nd against the Nationals where he allowed zero runs on only three hits in seven innings pitched to notch his tenth victory.

Saturday, September 14: RHP Jacob deGrom vs LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu  7:10 PM

2019 Stats: deGrom 9-8 record, 2.70 ERA (2.84 FIP), 1.027 WHIP, 11.4 Ks/9, 2.1 BB/9; Ryu 12-5 record, 2.45 ERA (3.18 FIP), 1.058 WHIP, 7.9 Ks/9, 1.3 BB/9

The second prime time match-up features two pitchers who will be in the thick of the 2019 Cy Young Award race. But like Kershaw, Ryu has had his troubles of late. The southpaw has a 9.95 ERA over his last four starts. He has lost three consecutive decisions and his ERA has gone up a full run from 1.45 to 2.45. Once the clear front runner for the Cy Young, his wobbly last few outings have made it a horse race.

Last out against the Colorado Rockies he was better, allowing three runs on six hits in only 4 1/3 innings. He threw 91 pitches in the game. Manager Dave Roberts skipped Ryu’s turn in the recently completed Baltimore series hoping the added rest will help the lefthander.

After two sub-par outings where he allowed four runs in each game, Jacob deGrom was back to his old dominant self Monday against the D’Backs. He went seven innings and allowed only one run on three hits striking out 11 in a vintage performance.

Jake has never beaten the Dodgers in the regular season, owning an 0-4 mark with a 3.23 ERA. He did of course beat them twice in the 2015 Division Series.

Corey Seager is hitting .364 against deGrom with two RBIs, while Chris Taylor is swatting .500 with one homer and three RBIs.

Sunday, September 15: RHP Zack Wheeler vs RHP Walker Buehler  7:10 PM

2019 Stats: Wheeler 11-7 record, 4.21 ERA, (3.61 FIP), 1.310 WHIP, 8.8 Ks/9, 2.5 BB/9; Buehler 13-3 record, 3.14 ERA (2.83 FIP), 1.016 WHIP, 10.9 Ks/9, 1.5 BB/9

In another terrific pitching match-up, third year man Walker Buehler takes on Zack Wheeler. Buehler is the Dodger’s hottest pitcher right now having won his last three starts and four of his last five. In his last outing, he pitched lights-out against the Orioles as he allowed zero runs and only four hits through seven innings. He struck out 11 to bring his season total in strikeouts to 201, the first time in his career he has exceeded 200 Ks. He was the winning pitcher in the division clinching game on Tuesday. He owns the best win-loss% in baseball at 13-3 and his K/BB ratio is nearly 10:1. Buehler has been excellent for Los Angeles.

Zack Wheeler has been very consistent of late. In his last three starts he as worked 18 total innings, while allowing only one run in each game. He has pitched to a 1.50 ERA during that span. Interestingly, opposing batters are hitting over .300 against Wheeler during the three games but he has been able to get in and then out of trouble in those starts.

Zack is 1-2 lifetime against L.A. with a 7.88 ERA.

Prediction: Three pretty good pitching match-ups make for an enticing series here. Of course, much of the drama can be rendered moot if Dave Roberts decides to limit the pitch count on his star pitchers as he prepares his team for the playoffs. And will there be any hangover from the division clinching party down in Baltimore?

Kershaw and Ryu have been pitching poorly as of late. If the Mets can get to these two, then the Buehler game will almost be a house money game. The Dodgers are impressive one through nine, but will some starting position players get a rest during the series? Lots of unknowns that only Mr. Roberts can unlock, but the Mets will certainly have their best on the mound and at the plate for all three games. So the pick here is for the Mets to snare two out of three from the Dodgers before they head off on a long flight to Denver to play the Colorado Rockies on Monday.