Via Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer
It’s time for two of the best words in sports: Game 3.
On Sunday, at the Queens baseball cauldron, Mets and Padres will face Firstly Contest takes all winners of the Wild-Card Series. New York will send Chris Bassitt up the hill. San Diego will deal with Joe Musgrove. If you’ve ever wanted to watch 40,000 New Yorkers vomit out of fear simultaneously, make sure you tune in.
And because the other three Wild-Card Series ended up in the sweep – no Is a two-win streak really considered a sweep? – The Mets-Pads are the only post-season baseball team on docket Sunday. It also feels fitting: Two teams with legitimate World Series aspirations in spring training spent an extraordinary season head-butting each other in a new play-in for the honor of receiving victory by Dodgers next week. So fatalist! Very happy!
MLB knockout: Jacob deGrom & Co. tie match 3
Ben Verlander and Alex Curry break down the Mets-Padres series. The Padres beat Max Scherzer in Game 1, but Jacob deGrom and the Mets were able to win Game 2. Do you have a team that won this series?
Anyway, here are the four key entry questions for Sunday Game 3.
We will see a Juan Soto interval?
In 2019, the 20-year-old assassin has a bright October-fixed baby face with a sunny smile and many great moments. Eighth go-to single in the Wild-Card Game against Milwaukee. The explosion silenced the crowd, bound Clayton Kershaw in Game 5 of the NLDS. A great pair of World Series flying at the right time Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlandertwo of the greatest pitchers of all time.
Like Soto and his National citizen teammates waded through the streets of DC in their ensuing championship parade, it looks like the pompous slugger will call the nation’s capital home for years to come.
But that was a pandemic before. Times change, and so does the roster. Now Soto finds himself in the middle of another order, in the middle of another postseason. The Padres gave up their entire farm system for a reason. They know Soto has the ability to single-handedly change a game, a series of movies, or a part. He’s done that before.
And the Sunday before Bassitt, San Diego hopes he can do it again.
Can Chris Bassitt Control Padres’ Offense?
Soto has only faced Bassitt three times (2-3 with two singles), which isn’t nearly enough to glean anything. But throughout his career, Bassitt has repeatedly struggled with left-handed people who are patient with the power of the light tower. Sound familiar?
Yordan Alvarez was 4 to 10 with three hosts against Bassitt. Joey Gallo, Daniel Vogelbach and Carlos Santana is a 9-for-26 combo with five homers. Most notably, Padres slugger Josh Bell is 2 to 5 with a handful of long balls compared to Bassitt. Between Soto, Bell, the second warrior Jake Cronenworth and center operator Trent Grisham (two hosts already have the series), the Padres has plenty of lefties (or, in Bell’s case, conversions) who are more than happy to wait for Bassitt to hit the field so they can drive.
Last Sunday, in the final opening game of the Mets department’s hopeful regular season on the road in Atlanta, Bassitt beat under pressure, allowing four runs on three walks in just 2⅔ innings. . In hindsight, he admits he tried to overdo it and pushed himself out of his comfort zone.
Next Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom It’s not a simple job, but Bassitt has done it admirably in the final few months of the regular season. The Mets will hope he learns from his failures in Atlanta; Their season depends on it. With Scherzer and deGrom unavailable and no other traditional warm-ups even on the Wild-card roster, the Mets can’t afford to buy another early shower for Bassitt.
How much can Edwin Diaz give?
The Mets have relied on their ability to throw their fire closer throughout the season, relying on Díaz’s utter excellence at the end of games to record what was once a … enough… On Saturday , while the Mets were running, captain Buck Showalter made the unorthodox decision to drop his ninth inning guy down to the end of the seventh inning.
Now, using one’s best potion against an opponent’s commanding heart, no matter the round, is a sensible and carefully supported strategy. But against Padres in Game 2Showalter brought Díaz in to face San Diego’s 8-9-1.
So when the Citi Field scoreboard went off and the first notes of “Narco” were played as part of Díaz’s now iconic stage, the sold-out Mets crowd looked a bit confused, almost stunned. . Timmy trumpet? In Saturday? That’s not all that Australian house music is about!
Even so, besides a single single from the San Diego catcher Austin Nola, Díaz flips through the Padres in season seven. The Mets then burst into four runs at the end of the inning, taking a whopping 45 minutes to complete. Despite prolonged layoffs, Díaz re-emerged from the elimination line to throw eighth, retiring Manny Machado and Bell before giving way to Adam Ottavino.
In total, Díaz threw 28 pitches in the evening, many of which were relatively unnecessary. After the game, Showalter confirmed that Díaz would be ready for Game 3, but it’s entirely reasonable to question whether the Mets need their best bullpen arm to go back and squander precious bullets with their position. top five runs or not.
If Díaz’s odd Saturday outing limits him to Sunday – in any way – Showalter’s use of his closer would be a huge storyline if Padres moves forward.
How will Padres be used? Josh Hader?
Like a great white shark with long, golden hair, Hader had been quietly lurking in the Citi Field stables for the past two nights, patiently waiting to strike. Thanks to a pair of blow-out games, the Padres haven’t had to deploy their best bullpen arm in the series.
Get a day before the August deadline for leftist relievers Taylor Rogers, Hader struggled a lot in his first few games for San Diego. Actually, “struggle strong” doesn’t exactly describe it. We’re talking about the level of disaster of the bride-fainting-altar, the level of bribery of the waiter-jump-in-soup. In the first seven outings, Hader allowed 12 runs in 4⅔ rounds. That’s an ERA 23.14 for those of you counting at home.
But since a disaster lasted six times against Royal on August 28, Hader seemed to have figured things out, allowing only one run in his previous 12 outings for the Pads. Presumably, captain Bob Melvin could use Hader for more than three innings, even though the last inning was inactive for more than one inning all season.
However, desperate times call for desperate measures, and if Melvin thinks pushing Hader past his comfort zone is his team’s best shot to end things, he won’t blink. eye.
Jake Mintz, the bigger half of @CespedesBBQ is a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and as such, he leads a lonely existence most of October. If he doesn’t watch baseball, he’s almost certain. cycling. Follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.
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