The Miami Marlins and New York Mets will square off in a late-season matchup where the Marlins’ season is all but over while the Mets look to keep their faint Wild Card hopes alive. These two teams went the distance on Tuesday night, as the Mets took a 5-4 victory in 11 innings. The Mets posted two runs in the ninth inning to force extra innings and ended up taking a walk to bring in the winning run.
Ready For The End
After Tuesday’s loss, the Marlins are sitting at 55-102 this season. They will continue to test out young players to prepare for their future and hopefully move the team in the right direction. While this season will mostly be scrapped, if they can use it to build up some of their young talent, it could all be for a better cause in the long run.
As a team, the Marlins are batting just .241 with 137 home runs. They carry a team ERA of 4.75. Miami needs to improve just about everywhere across the board. They sit near the bottom of the league in almost every statistic from the plate.
One bright spot for the Marlins has been their young third baseman, Brian Anderson. The 26-year-old is currently sitting on the IL, but he did post a .261 batting average with 20 home runs. While his stats may not jump off the page, he showed a lot of bright spots this year that would suggest he could be a great building block for this team.
Leading the Marlins from the plate has primarily been former Cub Starlin Castro. Castro has posted a .268 batting average with 21 home runs and 83 runs batted in. Most of the Marlins’ offense has revolved around him this season; if they are going to get a win here, they will need him to be at his best.
Getting the start for the Marlins in this outing will be Robert Dugger. Dugger will be looking to pick up his first win of the season as he currently sits at 0-3 with a 4.45 ERA and 22 strikeouts. As we near the end of the season, the 24-year-old would love to post a good outing here and show the team that he deserves a spot on the roster as they move on to next season.
Must Be Perfect
The Mets enter this game with an 82-75 record after claiming the late win Tuesday night. They are looking to stay alive in the NL Wild Card race as they sit five games back from the Brewers with five games to play.
The Mets are batting .256 at a team with 234 home runs. They carry a team ERA of 4.30. They are 44-32 at home this season and 41-54 as the favorites.
Jake deGrom will get the start on the bump in this game for the Mets. deGrom has put together another solid season with a 10-8 record and a 2.58 ERA.
In his last outing, deGrom picked up the win after throwing seven scoreless innings while giving up just four hits against the Cincinnati Reds.
What To Expect
This game should be under control start to finish for the New York Mets. The Marlins have shown so far that they could hang with this team, splitting the first two games of the series, but overall, the Mets have every advantage. They have a better overall roster, and with deGrom on the mound at home, I don’t think the Marlins stand a real chance in this one. Take the Mets.
