Emotions are high, nails are just about gone. The first pitch is only hours away in Los Angeles for game five. Mets fans can analyze this game every which way, but we can only wait and see the outcome. I have swayed back and forth from confident to extremely worrisome. I have a few, short thoughts going into this pivotal game five.
Scoring runs early in any game is important, but tonight could determine the winner of the series. Greinke is an excellent pitcher, but does lack the strikeout ability of his fellow Cy Young Award candidates. Greinke will work around the strike zone and count on the hitter to chase. In all scenarios, the Mets should be able to put the ball in play much more than against Kershaw. This does not take anything away from the pitcher and the year that Greinke achieved. As many fans have witnessed, anything can happen in October when the ball is in play. If the Mets can get to Greinke early before he can work his way into a groove, the pressure will fall heavily onto the home club. It is unrealistic to think that Greinke will not find his groove, but better to make him work earlier than later.
The Mets hitting approach will need to adjust tonight. Greinke can throw hard but not the way Kershaw can overpower a hitter. The approach will be staying back and driving the off speed pitches to the opposite field and reacting to the fastball. David Wright has always been at his best when he is looking to drive the ball to the right center gap. Lately he appears to be waving at the outside pitch and looking to do too much with the inside pitch. The captain and his teammates need to flood the base paths and capitalize on these solo homeruns.
Finally….. Jacob DeGrom. There is not much to say when it comes to the ace of the staff. When DeGrom doesn’t have his stuff, he will leave fastballs up in the zone. When he is behind in the count, the fastballs will touch too much of the plate. When he is ahead in the count, the rising fastball is a great out pitch. He will need to work ahead in the counts and quickly. It is tough to expect an identical performance to game one, but he can go seven innings with minimal damage. Just like the Mets will need to score early, I think we will know early if DeGrom has his game. DeGrom has handled the pressure of winning on the road, and is the one pitcher that all Mets fans want on the bump for the deciding game five.
