Each of the games will air on a different network.
Having completed a 3-3 road trip that saw them take a series from the Dodgers but drop one to the Giants, the Mets (13-11) return to Citi Field this weekend for a three-game series against the struggling Cardinals (11-14). While the Mets sit in third place in the National League East, the Cardinals enter the series as the National League Central’s cellar dwellers, a-game-and-a-half behind the Pirates for fourth place.
All things considered, the Mets are in a pretty good position right now, especially considering the 0-5 start to the season that now feels like a distant memory. Yes, the team lost three straight games during its road trip, but a .500 west coast trip should be considered a good outcome, especially with two of those three wins coming against one of baseball’s elite teams.
The biggest Mets story entering this series with the Cardinals involves J.D. Martinez, who spent last season with the Dodgers and hit very well before signing with the Mets just a week before Opening Day. The 36-year-old dealt with some back issues as he worked on ramping up for the season, but fresh off a minor league assignment that saw him play in St. Lucie and Syracuse, the veteran slugger is slated to be in the Mets’ lineup tonight.
Believe it or not, the Mets’ average of 4.71 runs scored per game ranks 10th in baseball this year a few tenths of a run above the league average of 4.35. Mets hitters rank eighth in on-base percentage at .325 and fourteenth in slugging at .385. Martinez should help them significantly with the latter, as he slugged .572 last year with a .301 isolated slugging that was one of the highest single-season marks of his career. And while he’s never been quite as prolific a home run hitter as Pete Alonso, he should still be the Mets’ second-biggest home run threat immediately upon joining the lineup—especially with Francisco Alvarez out for a couple of months following thumb surgery.
The Mets’ bullpen continues to look great, but if there’s a significant concern heading into this weekend, it’s the team’s rotation. Adrian Houser starts the second game and has looked awful in a couple of his starts, while Jose Quintana gets the start in the finale and hasn’t really gotten into a groove of any kind. Mets starters have generally struggled to even get through the fifth or sixth inning this year.
As for the Cardinals, they’ve scored just 3.48 runs per game this year, making them one of the worst offenses in baseball. Only the lowly Marlins, Athletics, and White Sox have scored fewer runs per game. And run prevention has been an issue for them, too, as the team has given up 4.52 runs per game, the ninth-highest total in all of baseball.
Willson Contreras has gotten off to a red-hot start for St. Louis—he’s hitting .294/.422/.529 with a 167 wRC+—but he’s the only Cardinals hitter who’s been significantly above league average to start the year. Masyn Winn (117 wRC+), Nolan Arenado (108 wRC+), and Lars Nootbar (103 wRC+) are the only other Cardinals hitters who are above league average at all. Paul Goldschmidt has gotten off to an awful start, as he’s hit .200/.294/.278 with a pair of home runs and a 67 wRC+.
On the mound, Cardinals starters have a 4.47 ERA that ranks 23rd in baseball, while their bullpen has been a bit more solid with a 3.77 ERA that ranks 14th.
As for former Mets, Steven Matz is still with the Cardinals but will miss his former team this weekend. The 32-year-old lefty has a 5.55 ERA through five starts this year and a 4.17 ERA since the Mets traded him to the Blue Jays ahead of the 2021 season.
Friday, April 26: José Buttó vs. Miles Mikolas, 7:10 PM EDT on Apple TV+
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Buttó (2024): 16.1 IP, 21 K, 9 BB, 0 HR, 1.65 ERA, 2.59 FIP, 42 ERA-
With the Mets out of the playoff race last year, having sold a couple of future Hall of Fame starting pitchers at the deadline, Buttó’s arrival in the big leagues was neither heralded nor taken all that seriously at the time. But the work he did as a major league pitcher late last season is looking like he was for real, as he’s been very, very good in three starts at the major league level this year. It’s far too soon to say just how good Buttó is, or even that he’ll stick as a major league starting pitcher in the long run. But given the team’s options right now with Kodai Senga out and a couple of his rotation-mates struggling, he shouldn’t be getting bumped from his rotation spot anytime soon.
Mikolas (2024): 26.1 IP, 20 K, 7 BB, 5 HR, 6.49 ERA, 5.00 FIP, 163 ERA-
In the time he’s spent with St. Louis, which dates back to the start of the 2018 season, Mikolas has notched three 200-inning seasons, two of which came in 2022 and 2023. That feat has become more and more of a rarity throughout the sport, but his 2022 season was far better than his 2023 in terms of results. He saw his ERA jump from 3.28 in the former to 4.78 in the latter. This year, Mikolas has a home run problem, and that’s never good for a pitcher who doesn’t strike out many opposing hitters. His walk rate remains very good, which means the Mets will have to go into this game looking to hit him hard.
Saturday, April 27: Adrian Houser vs. Sonny Gray, 4:05 PM EDT on FOX
Houser (2024): 19.1 IP, 12 K, 14 BB, 1 HR, 7.45 ERA, 5.05 FIP, 191 ERA-
When the Mets picked up Houser and Tyrone Taylor in a trade with the Brewers over the offseason, Houser seemed like the headliner. He’s been anything but, as Taylor has excelled at the plate in a part-time role, while Houser has been downright awful. It’s been just four starts, probably not enough to argue that he needs to be removed from the rotation immediately but enough to start wondering when that might be the case. The fact that he’s kept the ball in the ballpark has saved him from an even worse stat line, and he needs to fix his issue with walks—whether he continues to prevent home runs or not.
Gray (2024): 17.1 IP, 23 K, 1 BB, 0 HR, 1.04 ERA, 0.66 FIP, 26 ERA-
He might have flown under the radar a bit last year with the Twins, but Gray was very much an American League Cy Young contender and would’ve been deserving of winning the award if not for Gerrit Cole’s excellent work over the final month of that season. The 34-year-old saw his Cardinals debut delayed by a hamstring injury, but he looks even better through his first three starts with the Cardinals than he did with the Twins last year. His brief stint with the Yankees several years ago didn’t go well, but since he joined the Reds for the 2019 season, Gray has a 3.17 ERA that ranks 13th in baseball among pitchers who have thrown at least 400 innings over that span.
Sunday, April 28: Jose Quintana vs. Lance Lynn, 1:40 PM EDT on SNY
Quintana (2024): 25.2 IP, 20 K, 14 BB, 3 HR, 4.21 ERA, 4.74 FIP, 108 ERA-
Like Houser, Quintana has had an issue with walks in the early going this year. He’s been roughly a league average pitcher as a result, and he’s averaged just over five innings per start thus far. Fittingly, Quintana really resurrected his career with the Cardinals in 2022, as he had gotten off to a good start with the PIrates that year before being traded to St. Louis. He had a 2.01 ERA in 12 starts with the team before hitting free agency and signing a two-year deal with the Mets that started last year.
Lynn (2024): 25.2 IP, 26 K, 10 BB, 4 HR, 2.81 ERA, 4.43 FIP, 70 ERA-
The 36-year-old Lynn had a pretty bad 2023 season, splitting his time between the White Sox and Dodgers, but he’s fared better in his first five starts with the Cardinals this year. St. Louis is, of course, where Lynn got his career started, as he spent the 2011 through 2017 seasons there before playing for the Twins, Yankees, Rangers, and the aforementioned White Sox and Dodgers.