Washington Nationals: 5 to watch as surging Mets come to D.C.
By Ricky Keeler
Steven Matz
Tonight, Matz will be making just his fifth start of the season after missing the first two months of the year due to an elbow injury. Sure, Matz has had his fair share of ups and downs, but he is coming off of his best outing of the year against the Marlins.
Back on June 28, Matz went seven shutout innings, gave up six hits, struck out four, and walked one on 110 pitches in the victory. It was a good bounce back outing for the 26-year-old left-hander after he walked five against the Dodgers in the start before that.
Since Matz has come back, the Mets have let him throw over 100 pitches in each of his last three starts. After being cautious with some of their pitchers at the beginning of the season, Matz has been allowed to get his pitch count up.
When you watch Matz pitch since coming off the disabled list, he hasn’t used his slider much, but his sinking fastball has been tough to hit this year. According to Brooks Baseball, opposing hitters do have four home runs against that pitch, but they have a batting average against of .180.
Matz faced the Washington Nationals on June 16 and took the loss. He went seven innings, gave up four runs (three home runs) on eight hits and struck out four. Daniel Murphy is 3-for-9 against him with a home run and two RBI’s.
As for Matz’s opponent, Strasburg has gone 2-0 in his last four starts and is coming off of an outing against the Cubs where he struck out 13 hitters over seven innings. But, it will be interesting to watch if the back spasm he had during that start flares up.
Plus, the Mets have done a good job against Strasburg this year. On April 29, he gave up three runs over seven innings in a loss. Then, on June 17, Strasburg got some key double play outs as he gave up two runs over 5.1 innings in a win. Yoenis Cespedes and Jay Bruce each had three hits in that game.
This Matz-Strasburg matchup looks like the best pitching matchup of the three on paper this week. If Matz avoids giving up the long ball this time, it could be a pitcher’s duel.