Diamondbacks at Mets
Alex Young's best major league start to date sent the Arizona Diamondbacks to their 11th win in 12 contests before the formerly red-hot team went ice-cold in their next four outings. Young returns to the mound on Thursday afternoon as the visiting Diamondbacks aim to put a halt to their losing skid in the finale of their four-game series against the New York Mets.
Young would be wise to keep a keen eye on Todd Frazier, who drove in all three runs in New York's 3-2 victory on Tuesday before homering twice the following night as the Mets posted their eighth win in 12 outings with a 9-0 romp. The 33-year-old has four homers, 14 RBIs and seven runs scored in his last 10 games overall and is 7-for-15 with five extra-base hits (two doubles, three homers), nine RBIs and five runs scored in the season series against Arizona. A relative power outage at the plate (six runs in four contests) has sent the Diamondbacks a half-game behind the Mets in the congested race for the second wild card in the National League. Adam Jones is 2-for-16 with six strikeouts in his last five contests heading into Thursday's tilt versus right-hander Marcus Stroman, against whom he is 9-for-25.
TV: 1:10 p.m. ET, FS Arizona, SNY (New York)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Diamondbacks LH Alex Young (7-3, 3.38 ERA) vs. Mets RH Marcus Stroman (7-13, 3.42)
Young posted a franchise rookie record with 12 strikeouts while scattering two hits over eight innings in Saturday's 2-0 win versus Cincinnati. The 26-year-old Young has stepped up when on the road, sporting a 5-1 record with a 2.29 ERA while limiting the opposition to bat .194 against him. Young also has had his way versus left-handed batters, limiting them to just a .132 batting average.
Stroman fell to 0-2 in his last three starts on Saturday after yielding four earned runs for the second time in that stretch in a 5-0 setback against Philadelphia. The 28-year-old New York native surrendered a season-high 10 hits versus the Phillies, with one leaving the yard to boost his total to four homers in his last three outings. Stroman endured arguably his worst start in 2019 against Arizona on June 7, as he yielded a season high-tying six runs on eight hits -- including two homers -- in an 8-2 shellacking while pitching for Toronto.
WALK-OFFS
1. Arizona CF Ketel Marte has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games and 3B Eduardo Escobar has done the same in 11 of his last 13.
2. New York LF Jeff McNeil improved to 13-for-37 with 11 RBIs in September after highlighting his three-hit performance with his first multi-homer game of his career on Wednesday.
3. Diamondbacks 1B Christian Walker is 1-for-14 with five strikeouts in his last four games.