Series Preview: San Diego Padres at New York Mets

Here are 3 things that you should know heading into the Wild Card Series between the San Diego Padres and New York Mets.

I originally planned on this post being a standard “series preview”, but let’s be honest….I will be writing Bandwagon Beach every morning until the San Diego Padres are done with the playoffs. Even if that means writing on Saturday or Sunday.

As such, we can make this more of a game-by-game preview. Tonight’s game will feature a pitching matchup of Yu Darvish vs. Max Scherzer. Both of them are great pitchers. Let’s do this game preview in a slightly different way…

Here are 3 things that you should know before the series begins:

Citi Field is basically “Petco Park East”

Offense was suppressed at Petco Park more than any other MLB ballpark this year, which is a fancy way of saying teams scored less runs at Petco Park than anywhere else. Would you like to know which stadium was 2nd in MLB in suppressing offense?

That’s right! It’s Citi Field, home of the New York Mets and home to the entire 3-game Wild Card Series between the Mets and Padres.

Not only are stats kept on which stadiums suppress the most runs, we also have them ranked on how many home runs, hits, doubles, triples and walks MLB players are able to get at those ballparks compared to others. So, here are the rankings…

Park Factors for Citi Field

• Runs: 29th

• Home Runs: 27th

• Hits: 29th

• Doubles: 29th

• Triples: 21st

• Walks: 3rd

No idea why players would walk more at Citi Field than other ballparks, but I imagine it has something to do with the level of talent on the Mets (and in the rest of the NL East) and pitchers knowing they can put men on base without much fear of them coming home to score.

Playoff baseball played in a pitcher’s park means there probably will not be a lot of runs scored. We’re probably looking at a 1-0 game result or something close to it. As such, the Padres should probably lean into their pitching and defense when building their lineup.

That means Trent Grisham, the Padres need you in center field for this one. It also means that Josh Bell, if he’s involved in any way, won’t be at first base.