Mets Face Left-Handed Starter, Mendoza Leans on Platoons

0:00On April 1st, the New York Mets are kicking off their first matchup against the left-handed starter this season, facing St. Louis Cardinal's pitcher, Matthew Libertori on Wednesday. Manager Carlos Mendoza stacked the line up with right-handed power, featuring guys like Boba Shet, Luis Robert Jr., Mark Vientos, Marcus Semyon, Francisco Alvarez, and Tyrone Taylor, getting the nod in right field for his first start of the year. Rich hitters Francisco Lindor and Jorge Palanco are in there, too, while lefties Brett Batty and rookie Carson Benj sit this one out. Baty's career numbers against South Paws are rough, sitting at just 199 batting average over 211 abats, so it's a smart. Platoon move early in the year. The Mets offense has cooled off big time since dropping 11 runs on opening day against the pirates. Over the last four games, they're hitting just 143 with runners in scoring position, stranding 34 on base, which has them. Scraping by with a 228 average and just three homers through five games.

1:02Newcomers Bishet and Semyon are at the heart of the slump. Bishet's two for 22 with a 216 OPS as the clean-up guy behind Lindor and Soto and Semyon's two for 16 with a 438. Mark after his World Series glow up a couple years back. Freddie Peralta toes the rubber for his second start, and with these platoons in play, expect Mendoza to keep leaning on matchups all season long to, spark this lineup back to life. That's the story for today. MLB News Today, driven by AI, I'm Corey with the story.