Mother Nature’s inability to cooperate means the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants get to participate Tuesday in a very early contender for the season’s most enticing doubleheader matchup.
The Mets and Giants are slated to begin their season series Tuesday afternoon, when New York hosts San Francisco in a twin bill necessitated by the rainout of Monday’s scheduled series opener. The game was postponed several hours before first pitch due to heavy rain in the forecast.
The listed starters for Monday’s game — Tylor Megill (2-0, 0.00 ERA) for the Mets and Alex Cobb (1-0, 3.60 ERA) for the Giants — will now start Tuesday’s opener. The scheduled starters for Tuesday night, right-handers Max Scherzer (2-0, 3.27 ERA) for the hosts and Logan Webb (1-0, 1.29 ERA) for the visitors, will start the nightcap.
Both teams continued their hot starts fueled by impressive starting pitching Sunday afternoon. The host Mets beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 in the rubber game of a three-game set and the visiting Giants completed a three-game sweep of the Cleveland Guardians with an 8-1 victory.
David Peterson tossed 4 2/3 scoreless innings in his first start of the season for the Mets.
New York starters have compiled a 1.07 ERA — the lowest for a team through its first 10 games since the earned run became a statistic in 1912 in the NL — despite the absence of two-time National League Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom.
Scherzer’s three runs allowed account for half the runs surrendered by Mets starters. Megill, Peterson and Carlos Carrasco have combined to give up just one run in 27 2/3 innings over five starts after posting a 5.23 ERA over 45 starts last season.
“For us, it’s always been kind of that next man up mentality,” Peterson said. “Obviously, we’d love to have Jake in the rotation. He’s one of the best in the game. But like I said, it’s (the) next man up. He’s going to try and get himself right and when he’s ready to rejoin us, even better.”
The Giants’ rotation has a tidy 2.22 ERA as it pursues another bit of history. San Francisco starters have surrendered two runs or fewer in each of the first nine games — the second-longest streak to open a season since 1901 behind only the 1966 Chicago White Sox, who had an 11-game streak.
A Giants starter has lasted at least five innings six times — including Sunday, when Wood earned the win by tossing five scoreless frames.
“Just gotta keep rolling,” Wood said. “Everybody is really happy with this start we’ve had as a staff and I think we’ve got some competitive juices flowing and guys want to back up what the guy does the day before.”
Megill extended his season-opening scoreless streak to 10 1/3 innings when he gave up three hits over 5 1/3 innings and recorded the win against the Philadelphia Phillies last Tuesday.
Cobb won his season debut last Tuesday when he surrendered two runs and struck out 10 over five innings as the Giants beat the San Diego Padres 13-2.
Scherzer earned the win last Wednesday, when he allowed one run over five innings as the Mets beat the Phillies 9-6.
Webb became the first big league pitcher this season to complete eight innings last Wednesday, when he gave up one run and earned the win as the Giants edged the Padres, 2-1.
Megill is 0-1 with a 7.45 ERA in two career starts against the Giants. Cobb is 1-1 with a 4.26 ERA in two starts against the Mets.
Scherzer is 4-5 with a 3.84 ERA in 11 starts against the Giants. Webb won his lone appearance against the Mets last Aug. 17, when he gave up two runs over 7 1/3 innings in San Francisco’s 3-2 victory.
–Field Level Media