Kallet: Mets Face Tall Order Against Scherzer, Gonzalez And Strasburg
By Brad Kallet
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The Mets can't be feeling very inspired as they get set for the most important series of their young season, against the Nationals at Citi Field from Tuesday to Thursday.
New York is coming off an uninspired road trip through San Diego, Los Angeles and Denver in which it went 4-7, including a three-game sweep by far inferior Colorado. The Mets were rather lucky to come away with splits against the Padres and Dodgers, but against the Rockies they weren't as fortunate. They looked exhausted, flat and badly in need of a spark.
The boom-or-bust offense came back to bite manager Terry Collins' club last week. When the Mets are not hitting home runs, they're not scoring -- and if that continues all season, this team is not going to return to the playoffs. During the trip the Mets struggled mightily with their situational hitting, getting runners in from third with less than two outs, and putting the ball in play on a consistent basis.
MORE: Palladino: Mets Need A Citi Field Reboot When They Meet Nationals
It's nice that the Mets are second in the National League with 52 home runs, but it's awfully alarming that they rank 11th in batting average (.239), 10th in on-base percentage (.318), fourth in strikeouts (312) and dead last in hitting with runners in scoring position (.207).
Teams that live and die by the long ball don't win divisions, much less World Series.
What's more troubling than the offense, though, is the current state of the Mets' starting pitching. Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom haven't looked like their dominant selves, with the former resembling a mere mortal for the first time in his career. Though he's pitched very effectively since getting lit up in his first start, left-hander Steven Matz is in a state of limbo as the club awaits test results on this forearm.
A rotation that many pegged as potentially historic before the season hasn't been all that at all.
The bright side? With the long trip in their rearview, the Mets will return Tuesday to the friendly confines of Citi Field, where they've played very well. After playing 17 games in 17 days, this club will hopefully be rejuvenated following an off-day and appropriately amped to take on the Nationals, who are playing with the hunger of a determined challenger that has something to prove.
Led by Bryce Harper, arguably the best player in the sport, and the .400-hitting Daniel Murphy, the first-place Nationals will come into the series with a 1.5-game lead over the Mets, with the surprising Phillies (22-16) sandwiched in between. (The Marlins, meanwhile, are 20-17 and 2.5 games out of first. Maybe the NL East isn't as futile as the prognosticators originally believed it to be.)
The Mets will play the Nationals 19 times this season, and the defending division champions need to make a statement in their first meeting. Anything less than two of three for New York, especially considering the games are in Queens, will be a disappointment.
The opener on Tuesday night has all the makings of a classic pitchers' duel. Noah Syndergaard, New York's most dominant starter, will take the ball against Max Scherzer, who is coming off a 20-strikeout, no-walk performance against the Detroit Tigers.
Gio Gonzalez will start for Washington on Wednesday, and that game will be especially difficult for the Mets to win considering their ineptitude against left-handed pitching. New York is hitting just .232 against southpaws, tied for 12th in the NL, and you can expect Curtis Granderson, Michael Conforto and Lucas Duda to have trouble seeing the ball against Gonzalez, assuming Collins leaves them in the lineup. The skipper might opt to start Eric Campbell and/or Juan Lagares on Wednesday night to give his lineup some punch from the right side.
Stephen Strasburg, who has been utterly brilliant with a 6-0 record and 2.95 ERA, will start the final game of the series on Thursday. If Matz is medically cleared to pitch in this series, he'll get the start and either Harvey or Bartolo Colon will start on Wednesday. If Matz can't go, Colon will oppose Gonzalez on Wednesday and Harvey will take the mound in the finale on Thursday.
The pitching matchups in this series favor the Nationals, and it won't be easy for the Mets to win one game, let alone two.
The Mets went backwards last week, and as they return home for critical games against their bitter rivals, there's no better time than now to right the ship and get back on track. The Amazins' need to remind the Nats -- and themselves -- that they're still the team to beat in the division.
Brad Kallet is the managing editor of TENNIS.com and a frequent contributor to WFAN.com. Follow him on Twitter @brad_kallet
