The San Diego Padres and New York Mets meet Friday in game 1 of the MLB NL Wild Card at Citi Field. The San Diego Padres are in the postseason for the second time since the 2007 season. The New York Mets are enjoying their first postseason trip since 2016.
The San Diego Padres have scored 14 runs in their last 3 games and 4 or more runs in 5 of their last 10 games. The Padres have won 6 straight games when scoring 4 or more runs. Manny Machado leads the Padres with 172 hits and 102 RBI, while Jake Cronenworth and Jurickson Profar have combined for 281 hits and 146 RBI. Yu Darvish gets the ball, and he was 16-8 with a 3.10 ERA and 197 strikeouts this season. Darvish is 2-5 with a 5.18 ERA and 31 strikeouts in his postseason career.
The New York Mets have scored 21 runs in their last 3 games and 4 or more runs in 7 of their last 10 games. The Mets have won 12 of their last 14 games when scoring 4 or more runs. Jeff McNeil leads the Mets with 174 hits and 62 RBI, while Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso have combined for 332 hits and 238 RBI. Max Scherzer gets the ball, and he was 11-5 with a 2.29 ERA and 174 strikeouts this season. Scherzer is 7-6 with a 3.22 ERA and 160 strikeouts in his postseason career.
The Padres are 5-1 in their last 6 road games and 3-10 in their last 13 playoff games. The Mets are 43-19 in their last 62 home games and 1-5 in their last 6 playoff games. The over is 3-1-1 in Padres last 5 overall. The over is 9-2 in Mets last 11 overall. The Padres are 4-1 in the last 5 meetings.
Yu Darvish hasn’t had much postseason success through 7 games, and I’m a bit concerned for him here on the road. Yes, none of those games were with the Padres, but Darvish has a history of folding in pressure situations. Max Scherzer is about as solid as they come, he’s won a world series, has a title under his belt and has a 3.22 ERA with 1.10 WHIP. At home this season, Scherzer has a 1.67 ERA and .200 allowed batting average. You can’t name 5 pitchers you’d rather have on the mound in the postseason over Scherzer. You also don’t get him at prices this cheap very often. I have to side with the Mets to draw first blood.