Jeff McNeil’s resurgence, Trevor Williams’ scoreless streak and how Mets fare against starters they’ve seen the most

The Mets have seen five starting pitchers at least four times this year thru 121 games. With the schedule’s current heavy emphasis on divisional games, that doesn’t feel too unusual. Regardless, four of the five starters they’ve faced this often are really good pitchers. And the Nationals certainly hoped that Patrick Corbin would be better than he’s been. The good ones are: Sandy Alcantara, Max Fried, Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler, with Nola being the one they’ve faced five times.

It hasn’t been a great go for our quintet, who have a combined 3-13 record versus the Mets. If you take those starts away from their ledger, they are 42-29, with 13 of those 29 losses from Corbin. And in games where the starting pitcher got a no-decision, his team wound up going 1-4. The Mets are a combined 9-0 this year in games started by Nola and Wheeler. It’s a far cry from 2018, when the Mets faced Nola six times, he was 4-0 and the Phillies were 5-1 in the games he started.

Meanwhile, the Braves haven’t faced any pitcher yet four times this season. They’ve faced nine pitchers three times each, with three of those being pitchers on the Mets. Carlos Carrasco, David Peterson and Max Scherzer are a combined 7-2 against the Braves. The other six pitchers are a combined 4-11. Corbin, Nola and Wheeler each have faced the Braves three times. The others are Elieser Hernandez (0-3), Trevor Rogers (0-2) and Ranger Suarez (0-2). Let’s hope the Braves face a few more aces multiple times down the stretch.

McNEIL FLIES TO NEW HEIGHTS – After a 1-5 game on 7/29, Jeff McNeil’s OPS sat at a season-low .745 and his .287 AVG was the lowest it had been since April 22. But McNeil has been on a great surge ever since. In his last 22 games and 90 PA, McNeil has a .429/.456/.679 line. And while the hits are falling in for him, he also has 15 XBH in this span, which is terrific. Yet it hasn’t been all offense, either. McNeil is making all of the plays at second base and the diving catch he made yesterday with the bases loaded is one that few thought was in his repertoire. And McNeil has been doing this with an injured finger, one that he frequently re-hurts on swings and one that gave him some troubles initially on throws to first base.

A LOOK AT THE METS’ DEPTH STARTERS – Yesterday’s doubleheader, combined with two injured starters, necessitated the Mets to use two of their depth starters. Trevor Williams pitched four scoreless innings in the opener, while David Peterson gave up 3 ER in 4.2 IP in the nightcap. Most people view Peterson as higher on the depth chart than Williams. But in their last six starts, their numbers are almost identical. Peterson has 11 ER in 30 IP for a 3.30 ERA while Williams has 10 ER in 28.2 IP for a 3.14 ERA.

And while Williams has done good work as a starter, he’s been nearly unhittable out of the pen. For the year, he has a 1.16 ERA and has limited opponents to a .584 OPS in 31 IP as a reliever. Combining his numbers as both a starter and a reliever, Williams has 24 scoreless innings since throwing seven scoreless frames against the Marlins on July 7. It’s no slam dunk that Peterson should get the rotation spot while Carrasco is sidelined.

VETERAN ACQUISITIONS HIT A SPEED BUMP – Tyler Naquin, Darin Ruf and Daniel Vogelbach all got off to quick starts in their tenure with the Mets. But Vogelbach has a .634 OPS in his last nine games and the other two have been worse. Ruf hasn’t played as much but is currently hitless in his last 10 PA. And Naquin has a .056 OPS in his last 18 PA, a stretch that included eight straight strikeouts. Their overall numbers still look good on the Mets because of the great start. Which is more than you can say for Josh Bell, a player many wish the Mets had acquired at the deadline. Since joining the Padres, Bell has a .131/.264/.213 slash line in 72 PA and he has just two hits in his last 35 ABs.

OFFENSE GOES JEKYL AND HYDE IN AUGUST – The Mets are 14-7 in the month of August, which has been great to see, especially considering 15 of those games have come against teams with a winning record. But it’s been with a feast or famine offense. The Mets have scored five or more runs 14 times and they’ve scored 0 or 1 run six times. Only once have they scored between 2-4 runs and that was when they put up two runs in Jacob deGrom’s last start. And if you look at the last week in July, the Mets had four more games where they scored at least six runs, although the other two games were in the 2-4 runs range that’s been mostly missing in August.