Tag: MLB

Top Mets Starters Since 2020: Senga Rising

Posted on by metbaseball

Since 2020, only three Mets starters have recorded 20 or more starts in which they allowed two or fewer runs over six or more innings.

David Peterson leads the way with 93 starts since debuting in 2020. He remains with the team and has been a consistent presence in the rotation.

In second is Max Scherzer, who made 42 starts for the Mets across the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

Third is Jacob deGrom, whose nine-year Mets career (2014–2022) included 38 starts from 2020 to 2022.

Now sitting just behind deGrom in fourth is Kodai Senga, who debuted in 2023 and has also made 38 starts over his first three seasons. As of the third month of his third season, he needs just three more starts of six-plus innings with two or fewer runs allowed to pass deGrom on this list.

Nine Has Not Been the Mets Lucky Number in 2025

Posted on by metbaseball

It appears that the Mets have been struggling when facing the other team’s ninth-inning pitcher, often likely their closer, so far in 2025. As a group, they are batting just .176 in that situation with Mark Vientos having the most trouble getting on base.

Juan Soto has a .600 OBP despite not getting a single hit. Tyrone Taylor is their hits’ leader in the table with three though he’s hitting just .239 overall.

Despite the ninth-inning struggles, the Mets are tied with the Dodgers for the most wins, 27.

In the same ninth-inning scenario, the Dodgers are hitting .216 with eight hits in 37 at-bats. While better than the Mets, it is not close to the Diamondbacks’ average of .344.

Overall, the MLB average is .125.

The Mets were much better in 2024.

The Wildest Way to Win

Posted on by metbaseball

I didn’t intend on starting the Wild Pitches section with a headline-deserving event, but when it comes to baseball, sometimes the wildest moments—literally—are the most memorable.

You don’t often see a game end like the Phillies-Nationals matchup did on April 29, 2025. One moment it’s a nail-biter, fans holding their breath—and the next, without a bat touching the ball, it’s over. A wild pitch, a mad dash for home, and chaos. It’s not the cleanest way to win, but that’s baseball: unpredictable, sometimes messy, and occasionally, downright wild.

Here’s how one such game ended.

It was the bottom of the ninth at Citizens Bank Park, tied 6–6, with Bryson Stott standing on third, the potential winning run. Two outs, with a 2-0 count. Nationals reliever Kyle Finnegan delivered a low, outside pitch that bounced away from the catcher. In a flash, Stott broke for home. He slid head-first into the plate, and just like that, the Phillies walked it off on a wild pitch. The dugout poured onto the field, the fans erupted, and the Nationals stood stunned.

Want to dig deeper into what happened?

You can watch the game-ending play and read the story about it in Paul Casella’s piece, “That was a crazy game’: Anatomy of a bonkers Phillies win.”

My favorite part of Casella’s article: “Stott came sprinting down the line and dived for home. His hand touched the plate, just as Nats reliever Kyle Finnegan’s foot came down directly on top of it, leading to a brief injury scare amid the jubilation.”

Stott was wearing gloves, but the one on his left hand came off during the slide.

Superstitious about 13? The Phillies won 7-6.

Idea generator: screwball.ai

Mets Pitching Will Be Tested Against Top-Hitting Cardinals

Posted on by metbaseball

After dropping two of three to the Twins—despite both teams scoring 11 runs in the series—the Mets now face the Cardinals. That near sweep got me wondering: how have the Mets fared against St. Louis lately?

Since 2020, the Mets are 15–12 against the Cardinals, including just 5–8 at home. And the last time the Mets swept the Cardinals at home was all the way back in 1988. It’s the only time it’s ever happened. That was before Citi Field, before Mike Piazza, and before most of today’s roster was even born.

That 1988 Mets team won 100 games. Darryl Strawberry led the league with 39 home runs, and Dwight Gooden went 18–9 with a 3.19 ERA. It’s been a while.

This season, the Cardinals are sitting at 9–9, right in the middle of the NL Central, while the Mets lead the NL East at 11–7. But here’s the twist: the Cardinals lead the majors with a team batting average of .280. The Mets? They rank 22nd at .219—a 61-point gap.

So how are the Mets winning? Pitching. Until the Twins series, their staff had been in lockdown mode, keeping runs off the board and covering for an offense that acted like it had to pay a silent penalty every time it reached base.

Seven Mets batters are barely treading water at the plate. Four haven’t even cracked .200—and one is barely visible:

  • José Siti: .050 (That’s not a typo.)
  • Mark Vientos: .145
  • Tyrone Taylor: .163
  • Starling Marte: .167
  • Brett Baty: .175
  • Jesse Winker: .200
  • Brandon Nimmo: .203

If I hit like that in Little League, I never would’ve made it off the bench.

And while batting average isn’t the most fashionable stat these days—on-base percentage is the current darling—it’s still hard for me, as an old-school fan, to ignore how poor these numbers are.

Where does that leave us for tonight’s game? Griffin Canning is starting for the Queens men. He faced the Cardinals once last season, throwing six innings for San Diego and notching the win. Before that, in two other starts—one in 2023 and one in 2019—he split the results, with one win and one loss. Given his win against the Cardinals last year as a Padre and the Mets’ adjustments to his pitching, I’m hoping Canning can keep them from outscoring the Mets tonight during his time on the mound.