Two Struggling Offenses Square Off As Mize Returns To The Hill Against Mets

Tigers vs. Mets, 12:10 ET Game 1

All good things must come to an end. That can be said about my streak in plays for Outkick, but also the Pirates who ultimately caused my downfall. I took the Pirates, and their Ace, Mitch Keller, to be winning after five innings, and they were down 4-2 at the end of five. It was inevitable that I'd lose, but still hurts either way. I'll look to get right back on the winning ways as I'm taking on a game that they've been waiting to play for days. I'm taking another undefeated team as the Tigers take on the Mets in the first game of a doubleheader. 

The Tigers are off to a magical start and my buddy Geoff Clark has to be patting himself on the back early. He's been telling me for weeks that the Tigers would be good, and they would win the division. It is too early for that prediction to be true, obviously, but you can't ask for a better start than 4-0 through their first four games of the season. Their success can 100% be attributed to their pitching staff. Collectively, they have a 1.89 ERA and are allowing opponents to hit just .173 against them. Their WHIP has also been great at 0.82. The staff already has two shutouts and has allowed just eight runs over the four games. In this game they are sending out Casey Mize to the hill for his first start of the season. I believe Mize could be the best starter on this staff in the next couple of years as well. He didn't pitch last season due to injury and stopped pitching in 2022 when the injury happened. That season he made just two starts. He allowed six total earned runs in 10 innings over two starts. In 2021, his only full season he was able to go 7-9 with a 3.71 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. Mize now returns to the hill to face a struggling Mets offense. He has only faced four Mets hitters and they have a total of 10 at-bats against him with just two hits. 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK: Pete Alonso on second base during the first inning of the game against the Chicago Cubs. (Justin Satloff/Getty Images)

The Mets are off to an ugly start. Last season they were expected to be a powerhouse as they added a ton of money to the roster. Then they traded away a ton of their talent and could potentially trade away more this year. When you go into a season with rumors swirling about trading away one of your best players, you know it could be a long year. That's exactly what we have with the Mets this season as the rumors came out about Pete Alonso being traded by the deadline. The Mets haven't done much hitting this season as they have only scored eight runs this season and have a batting average of .188. Six of those runs came in one game. The only encouraging sign for them is that their pitching staff has done pretty well to this point, as they have a collective 3.16 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP. The concern for the pitching staff is that they have a .262 batting average. They are sending Adrian Houser to the hill for the first time this season. He went 8-5 last year with a 4.12 ERA for the Brewers in 21 starts (23 appearances). Javier Baez is the only player with a lot of experience against Houser and he is just 2-for-10. 

It would be fairly surprising to see either of the teams get off to a great start in this one. I suppose the idea is that Mize could struggle here in his return to the mound for the first time in almost two years. Houser isn't a great pitcher, but the Tigers offense isn't exactly good either. I think both teams struggle to score in this game and I'm going to take the under 7.5 for this game. I'd expect the teams to also do a bit of mixed rosters since it is a double-header and they won't have all players play both games. Back the under. 

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