The New York Mets will have their hands full against the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight and this weekend.
The New York Mets will be facing the Los Angeles Dodgers this weekend, which means one of the biggest mismatches in baseball is on tap. The Mets were expected to become contenders and make the playoffs, but the results have been very different and these two teams been going in opposite directions for some time.
That’s especially the case with the Mets now “open for business” with the trade deadline approaching, so the Mets situation for individual games is about to be in flux on a near-daily basis.
This will be the third brutal series in a row for the Mets, who just got done with a six-game road trip that included the Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers. The Mets managed to go 3-3 on the trip, which is a resounding success for New York given the way the rest of the season has gone.
The Mets are slowly shifting to young starters, but tonight’s matchup will be a significant exception. New York will send Sean Manaea to the hill against the Dodgers, which could make the opening game of this series especially problematic.
Manaea’s starts remain an ongoing guessing game. He gave up four runs in 4-2/3 innings in his last outing against the Philadelphia Phillies, but before that he had what was probably his best start of the season against the Kansas City Royals as he went seven inningsand gave up just two earned runs.
There are two patterns contained in those results. One is Manaea’s inconsistency, and the other is that he usually gets pounded against better-hitting teams. That description fits the Dodgers to a T, and they could tee off on Manaea in this one.
Manaea’s mound opponent will be Roki Sasaki, who hasn’t exactly been a model of consistency, either. Sasaki comes into this one with a 4.93 ERA, but he’s given up just three earned runs in his last two starts.
But the Dodgers rarely falter, and they’re coming off back-to-back series wins against the Philles and the New York Yankees. The Dodgers are mostly competing against themselves these days, although they are engaged in a battle of sorts against the Milwaukee Brewers to get the best record in baseball.
Expect much of the focus to be on the trade deadline, which could be a much more interesting story this weekend. The Dodgers are always adding and the Mets are in sell mode, so it wouldn’t be surprising if an unexpected deal between the two teams happened with LA in town.
