The San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets meet again on Tuesday, August 21, 2018 in Game 2 of their four game series at the Citi Field in New York.
San Francisco is coming off a thrilling 2-1 13 inning victory over the Mets on Monday in the first game between these two teams this season. The Mets botched a potential inning-ending pop up by Brandon Crawford, allowing Andrew McCutchen to score the winning run.
Mets left fielder Dominic Smith ran into shortstop Amed Rosario with runners in first and third. Rosario had waved off Smith and looked in position to make the routine catch. But Smith plowed into his teammate and gave the Giants a gift of a victory on Monday. The play was ruled an error charged to Smith.
San Francisco Giants vs New York Mets 8/21/18
Odds: Mets -106, Giants -104
Odds from SportsBetting.ag as of 8/21/18
For the New York Mets, they’d want nothing more than to take that game back. Steven Matz who will get the start for New York in Game 2. The 27 year old left hander has started a total of 22 games this season and has a record of 5-10 with an ERA of 4.60 and a WHIP of 1.37.
In his last start, his first in the month of August following a forearm strain, Matz was quickly relieved after throwing 58 ineffective pitches (including 31 strikes) while yielding 6 runs (including four earned) on five hits and one walk while striking out two during the Mets’ 6-9 loss to the Phillies on 8/15/18.
Matz got the loss in that start, his second consecutive loss and his fifth loss in is last six starts. He’s pitched 10 games at home and has a record of 1-5 with an ERA of 4.18 at Citi Field while allowing opposing batters a .235 batting average.
Right hander Chris Stratton will start for the Giants in this Tuesday encounter. The soon to be 28 year old Tupelo, Mississippi native has started 19 games this season and has a record of 8-7 with an ERA of 5.52 and WHIP of 1.55..
In his most recent start, Stratton earned the loss during a 3-6 loss to Arizona on August 3, 2018. Stratton allowed 6 runs on 10 hits and 4 walks with 4 strikeouts in just 3 innings pitched. He’s started just three games in the months of July and August combined and has a record of 0-2 over that period while giving up 17 runs on 24 hits and 23 walks with 9 strikeouts.
On offense for San Francisco, Brandon Pelt (1-2), Brandon Crawford (2-3), Buster Posey (1-2) and Nick Hundley (1-3) have fared well against Steven Matz. However, Hunter Pence is 0-2 in his last two at bats against the right hander while Chase D’Arnaud only has a .167 batting average against Matz.
The New York Mets are 9-26 in their last 35 games played on a Tuesday and are 12-26 in their last 38 games at home. They are also just 1-8 in Matz’s last 9 starts on a Tuesday.
Props to the Mets for tying their most recent series against the Phillies after falling behind 0-2 in the win count. The Giants are also struggling at this point of the season, losing four straight games prior to the start of this series.
The San Francisco pitching staff has allowed their opponents to score 6 runs per game in their last 4 games played. On the other hand, the Mets averaged over 5 runs per game in Games 3 and 4 of the previous series they played in. Having said that, the San Francisco Giants pitching staff and bullpen have their hands full in this contest.
But between these two stumbling squads, we’re leaning towards the Giants because Matz has been atrocious as of late. While Stratton has yielded 9 runs on 13 hits in his last two appearances, Matz has given up a total of 13 runs on 13 hits and 2 walks with only four strikeouts in a total of 2.2 innings pitched during his last two starts. We think the Giants’ offense is going to take advantage of Matz’s woes and pick up an all-important win in this contest.
We’re picking the San Francisco Giants to beat the New York Mets.
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