Scott Starts Mets Vs Angels Series In Los Angeles
The Mets vs Angels series opened with Christian Scott set to start for New York in Los Angeles, a trip that comes with the Mets sitting at 10-21. The Angels entered at 12-20, and both teams arrived with enough recent problems to make the first game more about survival than momentum.
Christian Scott Gets The Ball
Scott will start the opener after a first outing of the season in which he walked five batters in one and one-third innings. That outing came after a strong stretch in Triple-A, which gave the Mets a reason to put him back in a big-league role despite the rough early-season numbers.
New York needs that kind of stability badly. Kodai Senga is on the Injured List, David Peterson had a truly dreadful start in his first appearance in weeks, and the rotation has been part of a larger collapse that has put the club in one of the three worst starts in franchise history.
Mets Rotation Problems
The Mets have not only been losing; they have looked broken in multiple areas at once. The club was described as more inept at baseball than the 1962 Mets, and that comparison comes on top of rotation trouble, bullpen issues, and an offense that has not produced consistently.
There have been some arms keeping the damage from becoming even worse. Brooks Raely, Huascar Brazobán, and Tobias Myers were among the few bullpen pitchers described as not being a mess, while Sean Manaea and Craig Kimbrel were called shells of their former selves and Luke Weaver and Devin Williams had looked shaky at best since coming over from the Yankees.
Angels Without Soriano
Los Angeles comes into the series in a slump of its own, having lost six straight and 10 of its last 11. José Soriano was identified as the Angels' best pitcher, but he is missing from this series, which leaves the home club trying to lean on less certainty while New York tries to stop its slide.
At the plate, the Mets still need more from several regulars if they want this trip to change anything. Bo Bichette and Francisco Alvarez need to drive the ball consistently, while Brett Baty and Mark Vientos have to start producing on either side of the ball. MJ Melendez had a big day on Thursday, but one hit day does not fix a lineup that has been too quiet for too long.
For New York, the series opener is about seeing whether Scott can keep the game from turning into another long night on the road. If he cannot, the Mets will keep carrying the same problems west with them: a thin rotation, a shaky bullpen and an offense that has yet to do enough to support either.
