Series Preview #5: Mets @ Diamondbacks

The 10-4 New York Mets come into Chase Field this weekend to face the 5-8 Arizona Diamondacks. The two teams met last weekend with the Mets taking 2 of 3 and outscoring the D-backs 17-6. The Mets continued their hot play taking 3 of 4 from the Giants and are in first place in the NL East

Meanwhile the D-backs took 2 of 4 games from the Washington Nationals, winning the final two and salvaging the split.

The big news for the Diamondbacks this series is Nick Ahmed has been reinstated from the IL and is in the lineup for the series opener, batting 6th. Yonny Hernandez has been optioned to Reno AAA. Geraldo Perdomo remains on the roster

TEAM RANKS KEY METRICS

METS LAST SEVEN DAYS BATTING

Hottest hitters have been Francisco Lindor and Eduardo Escobar

METS LAST SEVEN DAYS BATTING AGAINST FOR PITCHERS

With the exception of Seth Lugo and Trevor Williams, every Mets reliever was lights out the past week.

DIAMONDBACKS LAST SEVEN DAYS BATTING

Only red hot Seth Beer, (1.111 OPS) and Daulton Varsho (.917) have OPS over .800 over the last week. The offense did show signs of life the last two games against the Nationals and will hope to carry that over at home.

DIAMONDBACKS LAST SEVEN DAYS BATTING AGAINST FOR PITCHERS

Overall the pitching has been very good, but several guys have struggled. Caleb Smith got sent down and Matt Peacock was DFA’d. Ian Kennedy had some rough outings as did Oliver Perez. The starters have been excellent and Sean Poppen is emerging in the pen as a legit late inning option for Torey Lovullo. Mark Melancon has been a bit of a roller coaster, but he’s been effective at protecting leads and that’s all that matters with him.

STARTING PITCHING MATCHUPS

David Peterson just faced the D-backs on April 17th and threw 4.1 scoreless innings in a game the Mets won 5-0. He was capped at 80 pitches for that outing.

Zac Gallen has just one start on the year so far, throwing 4 scoreless innings on April 16th. He threw just 66 pitches in the game

EDIT: Humberto Castellanos has been confirmed for the Dbacks. As of now the Mets are still showing TBA for Saturday game. Castellanos pitched in the game against Peterson and did well, throwing 4 scoreless innings himself. He has not pitched since that start and should be able to go a little longer than 4 IP if pitch count not too high, but Torey Lovullo said “Casty is a little behind the other starters” in getting stretched out.

I know little about Tylor MeGill, other than that his name is an invitation for spelling errors. Seriously, the 8th round pick for the Mets in the 2018 draft, is a big guy, 6’7”, 230 pounds. According to Statcast he throws a 96 MPH heater, and has a changeup and slider. He’s off to a great start as you can see above.

Madison Bumgarner has pitched into some bad luck with bad defense behind him. On the other hand, he’s walked 10 guys. We’re not used to seeing that many walks from him and that needs to stop or the ERA will go up. He’s been throwing harder than the last couple of years and appears quite healthy and motivated.

The Mets are a very good team and it will be hard to win a series against them. But the D-backs are coming off two wins and hope to keep the momentum going into the weekend.