Can Mets find production against lefty pitching?

MIAMI — Last season, the Mets hit .246 against left-handed pitching. It was neither good nor bad, it was exactly in the middle, foed for the 15th-best mark in the league. Or the 15th-worst mark, if you’re more of a glass-half-empty type of person. The .717 OPS was also toward the bottom half of the league.

The struggle against southpaw pitching was well-documented last season and alarm bells sounded all over again this weekend after the Mets managed only two hits off Miami Marlins left-hander Jesus Luzardo on Friday night in a 2-1 loss to the Miami Marlins at LoanDeport Park. They answered some questions Saturday when they took four runs off of two left-handed relievers in a 6-2 win, but this particular storyline might be one that follows the Mets through the early part of the season if the trend continues.

The Mets offense is balanced across both sides of the plate, but the 2023 lineup is almost identical to 2022′s. The club made a few tweaks to try and combat this problem. Right-handed DH Darin Ruf is no longer on the Major League roster and the club signed Tommy Pham in January to hit lefties. It’s going to be a test for the Mets in the coming days. The Mets faced lefty Trevor Rogers on Sunday, Wade Miley is slated to start for the Brewers in Milwaukee on Tuesday and Luzardo again at Citi Field next weekend.

Plus, they have to contend with some top left-handers in the division. They’ll see Luzardo and Rogers plenty of times this season. The Atlanta Braves have Max Fried and Jared Shuster and the Philadelphia Phillies have Ranger Suarez, Matt Strahm and Bailey Falter in the rotation and Gregory Soto and Jose Alvarado in the bullpen.

There will be a lot of focus on Pham, who is hitting leadoff Sunday against Rogers. He went 0-for-2 against Luzardo on Friday and 0-for-4 to start the series before getting a base hit off of lefty Braxton Garrett on Saturday. He did not have impressive numbers at the plate during spring training, but the Mets hope the hit against Garrett will jumpstart him at the plate.

“He’s had a high on-base percentage against left-handed pitching and he’s been pretty aggressive so far,” manager Buck Showalter said. “I’m hoping the base hit he threw in there last night will kind of get him back into what Tommy can do.”

Pham is expected to bat leadoff when Brandon Nimmo gets days off. Nimmo was not in the lineup Sunday, which was planned beforehand.

Sensational Senga

Kodai Senga joined Masato Yoshii as the only other Japanese-born pitcher to make his MLB debut in his Mets debut. Yoshii earned the win April 5, 1998, against the Pittsburgh Pirates with seven shutout innings.

()

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/zL9Ktd6