Just Mets

The Mets will look to take the rubber game of their three-game series against the Nationals this afternoon at Nationals Park in Washington DC at 12:35 PM.

Here is today’s starting lineup for New York:

Curtis Granderson – RF
Ruben Tejada – SS
Daniel Murphy – 3B
Lucas Duda – 1B
Wilmer Flores – 2B
Kirk Nieuwenhuis – LF
Kevin Plawecki – C
Noah Syndergaard – RHP
Juan Lagares – CF

Here is today’s pitching matchup:

Noah Syndergaard (4-5, 3.05 ERA) will start for the Mets.

Jordan Zimmermann (8-5, 3.27 ERA) will start for the Nationals.

Here’s what I’m looking for from the Mets today:

A huge #ThorsDay.

It’s the biggest game of Syndergaard’s very young career today, as he’s tasked with delivering a series win in a must-win game for the Mets on Wednesday against the division-leading Nationals. A win today is the difference between being a game out and three games out, a 2-4 road trip and a 3-3 road trip, and most likely there will be implications in the wild card race as well.

Syndergaard has shown he is up to the task as of late, coming up aces against the class of the National League last Friday against the Cardinals in St. Louis despite suffering the loss, delivering a lights out performance against the Diamondbacks the previous Friday against the Diamondbacks, and also shutting down the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium 19 days ago. He’s 2-1 with a 1.55 ERA with only five walks and 30 strikeouts in his last four starts – he should be ready for this big game against the Nationals today.

Will the bats show up?

They did for an evening last night, although it took half the game for it to happen.

The task may be a little taller today as they will be facing one of the Nationals elite starting pitchers in Zimmermann. But he’s had somewhat of a down season by his standards, as his walks and home runs allowed are slightly up, and his strikeout rate is down. Still, he always seems to be a rock against the Mets, so when the Mets do have opportunities with runners on base, they’re going to have to get creative and take advantage of whatever cracks they find. Change it up, do something unexpected, just like last night.

If Syndergaard is on, they may only need two or three runs to win this game. Of course, if they can get to the magic four, the Mets will be in pretty good shape.

Make a statement.

It’s important the Mets show they can play on the same ball field as the Nationals, as they have mostly struggled to do so in recent years. But the Mets claim they’re for real and their overall record shows it as they approach the end of the second third of the season.

Even in their depleted form, the Nationals are still a tough customer. But they’re vulnerable, the Mets pitching is aligned to win this game, and the Mets need to take advantage during this round against Washington.