After finding out their improved level of play does indeed travel well, the visiting New York Mets will take a five-game winning streak into a Saturday afternoon game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Mets went 5-1 on their recent homestand, then took down the Dodgers 9-4 in the Friday opener of a three-game series for a fourth victory in their past five road contests.
In a wider view, New York is now 11-3 since opening the season on a five-game losing streak, with the pitching staff currently leading the charge. After struggling in his previous start, Mets left-hander Sean Manaea gave up two runs in five innings on Friday.
The New York pitching staff has allowed 10 runs in the past five games, while the offense has scored 29 in the same span.
Francisco Lindor broke a 4-4 tie in the seventh inning of the series opener with a two-run homer, and Harrison Bader had his second career four-hit game.
Mets right-hander Jose Butto (0-0, 0.75 ERA), who has taken advantage of a pair of fill-in starts, will get the call again on Saturday. Butto struck out a career-best nine batters over six scoreless innings and gave up two hits in New York’s 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.
A rotation spot is now his moving forward.
“He’s not going anywhere,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He can pitch. He attacked hitters (Sunday), but when he got behind in counts, he was able to pitch backwards. He found pitches to get back into counts. I told him, ‘What a great outing.'”
In his two 2024 starts, Butto has allowed just one run total, and he has delivered a 2.52 ERA over his past seven starts going back to last season. Butto, who began his major league career with one start in 2022, has never faced the Dodgers.
Los Angeles will counter with right-hander Gavin Stone (1-1, 6.14 ERA), who is also coming off one of the best outings of his young career. Stone was perfect through five innings in a 5-2 victory over the San Diego Padres on April 13 and ended his outing having allowed two runs on five hits over 6 2/3 innings.
“He was fantastic all night,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “This is what can happen when you pitch with conviction, and he was on the attack from pitch one — attacking the zone, making those guys uncomfortable and using his entire pitch mix.”
Stone has not faced the Mets in his young career, which began last season.
The Dodgers received a solid outing from Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Friday, as the right-hander gave up four runs (three earned) over six innings. However, the Los Angeles offense continues to underachieve.
Even so, there were a some of positive signs. Shohei Ohtani collected his second hit in 20 at-bats with a runner in scoring position, and Chris Taylor had a two-run single to tie the game in the sixth inning after entering the at-bat in an 0-for-31 slide.
“There were a couple of run-scoring situational at-bats where we let them off the hook,” Roberts said. “We did a nice job fighting back and then the (bullpen) wasn’t very good tonight.”
All three Dodgers relievers gave up a run as they combined to surrender five runs total, including two by Joe Kelly, whose ERA rose to 7.27.
–Field Level Media