Giants vs. Mets, 9/1: Going for a series win

Okay, today is New Format Day. We’re going to make the Game Discussion Threads a bit more informative right up front in case people feel like they want to be able to look at some other numbers before or during the game. As always, follow the game and comment below.

In the meantime, here are the lineups:

Matz pitched five innings last Tuesday the 21st against the Giants, contributing to the Mets’ first win of that 4-game series. He struck out 5, walked 1, and gave up a 2-run home run to Evan Longoria in the first inning. He’s coming off a 7-inning, 7-strikeout, 1-earned run game against the Nationals (a 15-0 loss thanks to the Mets’ bullpen, which gave up 14 runs in the final two innings of the game).

In 2 career starts against the Giants, Matz has a 1.64 ERA in 11 innings. 9 strikeouts against 4 walks with 9 hits allowed (the aforementioned home run being both the only home run and pair of runs he’s allowed). This will be his first career start at AT&T Park.

Derek Holland started that weird/miserable (meird? weirdserable?) game against the Mets on Monday, August 20th where the Giants pulled out an extra innings victory when shortstop Amed Rosario and left fielder Dominic Smith collided while trying to field a Brandon Crawford pop up. He struck out 5 in 5 innings, walking only 1 and allowing only 1 run in the no-decision.

That game was representative of every start this month, where he’s been done-in by pitch counts early in the games. The Mets are 10th in MLB with a 9.0% team walk rate and 12th in MLB with a 30.1% O-Swing rate (meaning the percentage of swings outside the strike zone), so he could find himself in early pitch count troubles once again.

Last night’s game was just the 24th time the Giants scored 7 runs or more and the 50th time they scored more than 4 runs in a game. It was also the Giants’ 327th win against the Mets in the series history (327-282).