The Cincinnati Reds took the opening series against the Washington Nationals two games to one to open the season. Then they took two of three from the Philadelphia Phillies to kickoff this week leaving them with a 4-2 record to start the season. They will now host the New York Mets for a three-game series. The Mets won their first game of the year yesterday against the Detroit Tigers after being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers to start the season.
Probable Starting Pitchers:
Game One: Hunter Greene (0-0, 3.86 ERA) vs Jose Quintana (0-1, 3.86 ERA)
Start time 6:40 PM
Hunter Greene will look to earn his first victory of the season during game one of the series when he takes on the one-win Mets. So far this season the Mets have only scored 13 runs, on 34 hits, five home runs, and slugging .173/.269/.269 on the year. In Greene’s first start of the year, he went 4.2 innings giving up five hits, four walks and struck out seven. He will face a Mets team that has struggled out the gates but will have to deal with Pete Alonso’s two home runs, .292 AVE, and two RBIs. While Alonso is the known big bat along with superstar shortstop Fransico Lindor, it’s going to be Fransico Alvarez he needs to watch out for. Alvarez currently has one home run, and four RBIs, and is slugging .400/.429/.700 on the young season. While Greene will have to manage those bats, Jose Quintana will have his own issues with Reds right-handed bats in the lineup. Spencer Steer is currently slugging .435/.480. Jonathan India, Christian Encarnacion Strand, and Tyler Stephenson are all right-handed bats the lefty will have to manage if he intends to earn his first win of the season.
Game Two: Nick Martinez (0-0, 5.40 ERA) vs Luis Severino (0-1, 5.40 ERA)
Start Time 4:10 PM
Martinez was a free agent acquisition for the Reds this offseason and has experience starting as well as working in relief. To start the year he is a part of the Reds rotation. In his first start of the year, he allowed six hits, one walk, one home run, and struck out three. Martinez will look to keep the Mets bats quiet, but like Greene will have to deal with Alonzo, Alvarez, Lindor, and Jeff McNeil. Severino is looking to get back to his spring training form where he was lights out for the Mets and was a pleasant surprise for the team. He pitched 14 innings this spring with a 1.29 ERA, a WHIP of 0.71, walked one and struck out 12. Unfortunately, that success didn’t carry over to his first start of the year against the Brewers. He had up 11 hits, zero walks, one home run, struck out six, and had a 2.20 WHIP. If he intends on righting the ship he’s going to have to do it against a Reds team that is currently slashing .265/.316/.474 on the season. The team has seven home runs while scoring 34 runs on the year. Just to put that into perspective the Reds have outscored the Mets 34-13 on the season. So it’ll be a tall task for their pitching staff to keep the Reds off the board. Elly De La Cruz is a bat I’m interested in watching face Severino in the righty vs lefty matchup.
Game Three: Andrew Abbott (0-0, 3.38 ERA) vs Sean Manaea (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
The series finale will be a good matchup between two lefties. Manaea pitched a fantastic game his last time out going six innings, allowing only one hit, walking two, and striking out eight. The Mets ended up losing this game against the Tigers 5-0 in 10 innings. As we’ve mentioned the Mets have struggled to score early this season and it was a shame to waste an outing like that from Manaea. He will look to string back-to-back solid outings together against this very tough Reds lineup. They have struck out 36 times this season an average of six times a game so it’ll be interesting to see if he can reach the eight K’s again this time around. Andrew Abbot went 5.1 innings in his first outing this year allowing three hits, two walks, struck out four hitters, and finishing with a 0.94 WHIP. This might be the best pitching matchup of the series and I’ll be interested to see if the Mets continue to struggle at the plate this weekend or if they use the momentum from their first win into this new series vs the Reds.
Wrap Up:
Unless the Mets can start putting up some crooked numbers on the scoreboard they’ll find it hard to keep up with this Reds team that doesn’t give up. I think this matchup is a better fit for the Reds starting pitching and a series for them to get on the right track. Few things I want to see, I want to see if Severino can find his spring form or was a fluke. I want to see De La Cruz end the series with a .300 or better average. Lastly, I want to see if Sean Manaea is for real, can he string together back-to-back strong starts? Or will this Reds lineup be too much to handle for the left-hander?
My prediction:
Game One Reds win 8-3
Game Two Mets Win 3-2
Game Three Reds win 4-2 but win late after another strong outing from Manaea.
