News Every Day | 27 April 2024, 00:30

Game Chat: Cardinals vs. Mets, 7:10 p.m.

Friday, April 26, 2024 • 7:10 PM
Citi Field • Flushing, NY
RHP Miles Mikolas (1-3, 6.49) vs. RHP José Butto (0-0, 1.65)
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The Mets return home after a week spent on the West Coast. They ended up splitting the road trip 3-3 after a series win over the Los Angeles Dodgers and a subsequent series loss to the San Francisco Giants. New York now opens up a homestand tonight with a winning record as they welcome the St. Louis Cardinals, a team they played approximately 34 times in spring training, to Citi Field.

The big news of the night is the arrival of J.D. Martinez. Martinez signed with the Mets at the end of spring training and needed time to ramp up (as well as work through a back injury). Last season, Martinez hit .271/.321/.572 with a 134 OPS+ over 113 games. He’s been an All-Star five of the last six seasons, and considering Starling Marte’s resurgence, Martinez makes the top of the Mets’ lineup more than formidable.

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Mets Lineup

Brandon Nimmo – LF
Starling Marte – RF
Francisco Lindor – SS
Pete Alonso – 1B
J.D. Martinez – DH
Jeff McNeil – 2B
Harrison Bader– CF
Brett Baty – 3B
Tomás Nido – C

José Butto makes his fourth start of the season tonight. Over his first three outings, he’s thrown 16 1/3 innings while recording a 1.65 ERA, 2.59 FIP, 1.041 WHIP and a 241 ERA+. Butto is coming off of his worst start of the season in Los Angeles where he allowed three runs on three hits and a whopping five walks over 4 1/3 innings. It was a departure from his previous appearance, where he held the Kansas City Royals to two hits, a walk and nothing else over six innings. Despite the command issues, Butto kept his strikeout numbers up with six his last time out, bringing his season total to 21. No one on the Cardinals roster has faced Butto in a major league game.

Opposing Lineup

The Mets’ bats will look to keep the vibes from Wednesday going as they take on Miles Mikolas. Mikolas has made five starts this season, pitching 26 1/3 innings with a 6.49 ERA, 5.00 FIP, 1.519 WHIP and a 64 ERA+. It is the third time in the last four seasons where his ERA+ has sunk below 100. He’s coming off a workhorse-type campaign in 2023 where he made a league-leading 35 starts, totaling 201 1/3 innings while allowing a league-leading 226 hits and 107 earned runs.

Looking more recently, Mikolas has allowed ten runs in his last two starts, five in each, on a combined 13 hits and three home runs given up. In his two starts against the Mets last year, he allowed 13 runs over 10 2/3 innings on 15 hits. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:

Pete Alonso 2-12, BB, 2 K
Brett Baty 1-3, 2B
Francisco Lindor 4-11, 2B, K
Starling Marte 7-38, 2B, 2 BB, 6 K
Jeff McNeil 8-14, 3 2B, BB, K
Omar Narváez 4-17, 2 2B, 3B, BB, 3 K
Tomás Nido 0-3, 3 K
Brandon Nimmo 0-13, 3 BB, 3 K
DJ Stewart 1-2, HR, K
Tyrone Taylor 3-10, 2B, HR, 3 BB
Joey Wendle 1-7, K
J.D. Martinez 1-3, HR

Game Notes

Manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters that DJ Stewart will receive playing time both in the outfield and at first base upon the arrival of Martinez, whose tentative workload is not yet well-defined.

Zack Short was designated for assignment to make room for Martinez on the 26-man roster.

Kodai Senga is set to face live hitters on Monday while Tylor Megill is scheduled to go on a rehab assignment and throw two innings for High-A Brooklyn on Saturday as both pitchers continue to recover from injury.

Three Things To Watch For

The new Mets lineup! The Mets’ bats are the main story tonight. A top of the lineup consisting of Nimmo-Marte-Lindor-Alonso-Martinez is as good as it’s been for the Mets in a while. There are other questions the Mets will need to figure out, including how they choose to incorporate Tyrone Taylor and Stewart moving forward. This is a good problem to have!
Lindor is coming in hot! Lindor returns home after a 4-for-5 afternoon on Wednesday against the Giants where he smacked two homeruns to go with 4 RBIs. Over his last six games, Lindor has gone 9-for-24 at the plate with a double and three home runs.
Length from a starting pitcher. The Mets’ starting rotation has largely failed to go deep into games so far this season. On Wednesday, Sean Manaea kept the Giants off the scoreboard through 4 2/3 innings but had to leave the game before he even qualified for a win due to his pitch count. Butto walked five batters his last time out, though he has also gone six innings twice this season.

Let’s go Mets!