Struggling Mets Can Avoid Sweep

Braves vs. Mets, 7:00 ET

When this game was scheduled at the beginning of the year for ESPN, I'm sure that a lot of people thought it could be an important game. They were half correct, at least. The Braves have been the best team in baseball basically all year. The Mets came in with two Hall of Fame pitchers, and the largest ever payroll. Those pitchers are gone and so is the season for the Mets, but we can still bet on this game with the Braves.

Looking for some one-sided statistics for this game? There have been three games so far in this series between the two NL East clubs. In those three games, the Braves have two shutouts and allowed a total of three runs. The pitching clearly getting the job done against a defeated Mets lineup. How have they fared offensively? Well, through three games of the series, they Braves have put up 34 runs. You read that correctly, 34 runs over three games. Look, the 21 runs in Game 2 of the series was somewhat of an anomaly. It happens that a team gets really hot for a game and just destroys the other club. Even the worst teams in baseball have games where they score a ton. But, I don't want to undersell this Braves offense, they are the real deal. Today they have Yonny Chirinos pitching for them. He was a pickup after his release from Tampa Bay. I've kind of thought he wouldn't be good for the Braves, and in reality he hasn't. He's allowed 13 earned runs over 13.2 innings since joining the club. It is a small sample size, but he has allowed just three hits in 17 at-bats against Mets hitters.

I could probably make a very lengthy post about what went wrong for the Mets this season. I'm not going to do that, because it really doesn't help anyone. The much quicker version is that the hitting never really got going, and once the pitching staff started to provide valuable performances, it was basically too late and they shipped out the pitchers. I suppose it was the smart move to recognize that they probably weren't going anywhere, but when all of this happened, they were at least within striking distance of a potential Wild Card run. They went the different direction and that's fine too. They are sending out Kodai Senga to try and salvage a bit of respectability at the end of this series. Senga has been pretty solid for the Mets and carries a 3.24 ERA into the game. He has been very reliable at home as well with an almost 2-run lower ERA at home than on the road. He had a great July going 23.1 innings over four starts and allowing just five earned runs. He's even been pretty solid in August going 11.2 innings and allowing five runs so far. He somehow has avoided pitching against the Braves this season. That has to be a bonus for his ERA thus far.

I've faded a couple of Chirinos starts already with the Braves and it has backfired on me. The offense is just too good and they end up winning in spite of what Chirinos does for their chances. But, I once again can't back the Braves with him on the mound. Senga is either going to be absolutely annihilated by the Braves on national television, or he is going to be very dominant as they try to figure out his stuff the first time seeing him live. Let me, gulp, take the Mets through five innings at -115.

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