Wednesday August 18th Preview|NY Mets at San Francisco

NY Mets at San Francisco

When: 3:45 PM ET, Wednesday, August 18, 2021
Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

The San Francisco Giants go for a sweep of the visiting New York Mets when the National League West leaders and the NL East’s third-place club complete a three-game series on Wednesday afternoon.

The Giants have used five home runs, sharp starting pitching and clutch relief performances to overcome a pair of Pete Alonso power displays for 7-5 and 3-2 victories.

Seeking an eighth win to complete a nine-game homestand, San Francisco will send right-hander Anthony DeSclafani (11-5, 3.29 ERA) in search of back-to-back wins when he’s opposed by Mets righty Tylor Megill (1-2, 3.42).

Both starters will have rested bullpens at their disposal as the Giants’ Logan Webb went into the eighth inning and the Mets’ Marcus Stroman completed seven in Tuesday’s nail-biter.

Webb’s performance was especially important because San Francisco had used its top two relievers — Tyler Rogers and Jake McGee — to lock down wins the previous two days, including Sunday’s series finale against Colorado.

On Tuesday, Tony Watson got the final two outs of the eighth inning after Alonso had ended Webb’s night with a two-run homer. Jarlin Garcia and Dominic Leone then combined on a scoreless ninth, with Leone recording his first save of the year.

“We knew that we were going to keep McGee down tonight, keep Roj (Rogers) down, and we were going to have to piece together some things,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler acknowledged after the win. “It worked out well that Jarlin and Dom were able to combine for the ninth.”

The Giants won despite sitting Kris Bryant, who had contributed two home runs to Monday’s win. Brandon Belt also homered in the series opener, while Tommy La Stella and Evan Longoria provided the long balls in the rematch.

The loss dropped the Mets under .500 for the first time since they were 12-13 on May 5. Third baseman J.D. Davis said the club had hoped to draw a line in the sand at .500 after Monday’s loss, but failed to do so.

“None of us are going in there thinking about our record,” Davis promised before Tuesday’s game, “but I will give you that, yeah, it is absolutely important (to avoid going under .500).”

Megill, a rookie, will be seeing the Giants for the first time in his 10-start career. His brother Trevor, also a rookie, was Bryant’s teammate with the Chicago Cubs this season before the Giants acquired the slugger at the trade deadline.

Megill is coming off a 6-5 home loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in which he allowed three runs in five innings. The Southern California native has made just four major league road starts, none farther west than Pittsburgh.

On the other hand, DeSclafani has plenty of experience going against the Mets. He has seen them on six occasions, five times as a starter, and gone 0-3 with a 5.65 ERA.

He has dominated his lifetime matchups with Alonso, striking him out twice in six at-bats and holding him to one hit, a single.

Alonso has just two hits in this series, but both have been impactful. He smacked a two-run triple in Monday’s game, then had his two-run homer off Webb.

DeSclafani had a win earlier on the homestand, limiting the Rockies to two runs in five innings in a 5-4 win on Friday.

–Field Level Media via scoresandstats