We’re gonna see a whole lot of orange on the field this week with the New York Mets rolling into town to face the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. Coming off a four-game series with the division rival Arizona Diamondbacks, the Giants take on the Mets, who are playing ball well at the moment. The Mets have won 11 of their last 14 games coming into this series, which includes a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates, taking two of three against the Kansas City Royals, winning two of three against their N.L. East rivals, the Atlanta Braves, and two of three against the Cincinnati Reds. The Giants, on the other side of the spectrum, have been trending downward of late. Losing two of three to the Miami Marlins, losing two of three to the Tampa Bay Rays, losing two of three to the Washington Nationals, and dropping three of four in the most recent series with division rival Arizona.
Game One brings us a matchup between Giants rookie Keaton Winn and Mets veteran Jose Quintana. Winn enters the game carrying a record of 1-3 with a 4.09 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP. Winn is coming off his best outing of the season where he went 6 innings against the Marlins, allowing only 1 earned run on just 4 hits and one walk while striking out four and getting a no-decision. Mets journeyman Jose Quintana brings in some respectable numbers to his outing. Quintana is 1-1 through four starts so far with a 3.05 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP in through 20 innings pitched, with 16 strikeouts. Quintana, in his second season with the Mets, has bounced around the league over his career. He has pitched for both Chicago teams, including starting his career in the South Side with the White Sox, he played for both the Angels (24 games) and Giants (five games)in 2021 and split 2022 with the Pirates (20 games) and Cardinals (12 games) before signing a contract with the Mets in 2023. First pitch for Game One is at 6:45 PT.
We get to see two veterans face off in Game Two on Tuesday where newly-acquired Luis Severino goes toe-to-toe with Giants ace Logan Webb. Severino brings in a respectable 2-1 record to go along with a 2.14 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP, going along with a 21:9 K/BB ratio in 21 innings so far in 2024. Severino, the long-time Yankee, is in his first year with his new Mets and looks to continue his hot start to the season. He looks to put together his first fully healthy season since 2018, as he has been marred by injuries since then, including Tommy John surgery that forced him to miss the entire covid-shortened 2020 season, and nearly all of the 2021 season, where he only pitched in 4 games,
Logan Webb, the Giants veteran taking the ball in Game Two, isn’t quite as tenured as Severino but doesn’t have the injury history either. Webb carries in a 2-1 record with a 2.93 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP with a 22:6 K/BB ratio through 32 innings pitched so far. Webb really has been the man the Giants look to when they need a strong outing. A 1-2 punch of Webb and Snell will do wonders for the team once Snell gets stretched out. Snell is a notoriously slow starter when it comes to performance. Webb is coming off of his best outing of the season so far, going seven shutout innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks, giving up only two hits and walking just one while striking out five. Webb has now gotten a W in two outings in a row and looks to make it three in a row with this upcoming start.
The Series finale brings us yet another matchup of veterans. The Mets’ veteran starter Sean Manaea goes up against Giants’ veteran Blake Snell. Manaea, in his first year with the Mets, comes into this outing with a 1-1 record, bringing with it a 4.12 ERA, a 1.373 WHIP, and a 21:10 K/BB ratio in 19 innings pitched so far, and is coming off a decent outing in which he threw the ball well against the stout Los Angeles Dodgers. Manaea is back in the Bay Area where he not only pitched for the Giants last season but started his career across the bay at the Coliseum with the Oakland A’s where he spent the first six seasons of his career. Most notably, Manaea threw a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox on April 21st, 2018 at The Coliseum.
Manaea’s counterpart will be his former teammate when the two played for the San Diego Padres, Blake Snell. Snell, coming off a very impressive 2023 campaign that earned him his second Cy Young Award of his career, has struggled out of the gate in 2024, perhaps due to the late signing with the team. Snell didn’t sign with the Giants until March 18th, when spring training was nearly complete. Since the hurler signed so late, he was not able to ramp up to full capacity before the season, delaying his debut with the team. However, Snell is notoriously slow to begin seasons, so his sluggish start out of the gate isn’t unsurprising. Snell carries with him a 0-3 record with an 11.57 ERA, a 1.97 WHIP, and a 12:5 K/BB ratio through only 11.2 innings so far.
