At present, the Mets have home field advantage over the Dodgers, meaning Game 3 will be in Los Angeles. However, rumors indicate it will consist of the club’s youngest arms. Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard all figure to start, but Collins is expected to wait until this weekend to announce the final spot. The slugging first baseman homered twice Tuesday, and it was his third consecutive game with a home run. “But we’ve still got to take into consideration we can’t pitch him six times”. That’s reason enough to move his scheduled start back to Thursday’s finale of this three-game set and advance Verrett forward one day. Game 3 is an important game, it doesn’t matter if you’re up 2-0 or down 0-2 or 1-1, and it’s a big game. There was also a few question as to how much, if at all, he’d be limited. But he won’t be ridden hard in terms of frequency of outings. “We haven’t picked the necessary game yet when he should start”.
Advertisement
As for Matz, he has yet to be named to the postseason rotation in favor of fellow starter Bartolo Colon, but that’s only because of his recent injury.
General manager Sandy Alderson said that the former All-Star will “probably” make just one start in the division series. But we certainly have to recognize where he is over the course of the season.
“Anything we decide now is tentative anyway based on what happens, and this is a good example on how something can happen”, Alderson said. But we don’t expect this to have an impact on Matz beyond the next two or three days.
Advertisement
On Tuesday night, the Mets began preparing lefty Jon Niese for a bullpen role in October. In 10 career playoff starts, the 2005 American League Cy Young Award victor has a 3.70 ERA in 58 1/3 innings. That would be nice, too. I know we’re pleased about that. Collins said there will be no restrictions during Harvey’s playoff starts, but management has not determined how often he can pitch in each series.
