Here are five things to watch for as the Mets begin a four-game series in Pittsburgh against the Pirates, starting Friday night. By losing the last two games of the series in Washington D.C, the Mets have slipped under .500 again at 42-43.
PREVIEW
Edwin Diaz returns from suspension
Diaz completes his 10-game sticky-stuff suspension Friday and is eligible to return Saturday for the second game of this four-game set.
Presumably, he will reclaim his role as the closer and perhaps give the bullpen a much-needed lift. The Mets are 5-4 without Diaz so far during his suspension and his absence may well have cost them multiple wins considering that all four of the losses were decided in the late innings as manager Carlos Mendoza was forced to juggle a makeshift bullpen while playing a man short.
With their lack of proven relievers, the Mets desperately need Diaz to return to his dominant form of 2022. His meltdowns in May sent the Mets into a tailspin but after he returned from his IL stint he put up scoreless innings in three appearances before being ejected for sticky stuff in Chicago on June 23.
New York will get the Paul Skenes experience
The series opens Friday night with a sparkling pitching matchup, as the Pirates rookie sensation opposes Luis Severino.
Skenes has lived up to the hype as last year’s No. 1 pick out of the country, going 4-0 with a 2.06 ERA in the nine starts since his call-up, while routinely hitting 100 mph on the radar gun with his fastball and averaging 12 strikeouts per nine innings.
Severino, meanwhile, has been the Mets’ best starter pitching to a 3.42 ERA over 16 starts, holding the opponent to one or zero runs in eight of those starts.
The Mets will miss the Pirates’ other rookie star, Jared Jones, who would have been on turn to pitch the Monday finale but was placed on the IL with a strained lat muscle after his start on Wednesday against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Will the bats bounce back?
Before being one-hit in Thursday’ 1-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, the Mets’ offense had been putting up big numbers, scoring 65 runs in its previous nine games. They scored at least five runs in each of those nine games.
Beyond that streak, the offense was primarily responsible for the Mets’ 16-8 record in June that turned around their season. For the month, they led the majors in batting average (.283) and OPS (.863) while scoring the second-most runs (153).
The Mets have gotten production up and down the lineup, but lately they’ve…