New York Mets vs. San Francisco Giants Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 5/24/2022

Time: 9:45 p.m. ET

Venue: Oracle Park, San Francisco, CA

Where to watch: SNY, NBC Sports Bay Area

DraftKings: Giants -120, Mets +100

BetMGM: NL

Caesars: NL

Mets: 28-15

Giants: 22-18

Max who? Jacob who? Who needs star pitchers when you have Taijuan Walker dominating with the ball? Walker threw seven scoreless innings, and the New York Mets held the Colorado Rockies to just six hits to complete a series victory, winning 2-0 in Denver and taking two of three in Coors Field.

The Mets are without their two aces, and will specifically be without Max Scherzer for 6-8 weeks after his latest injury, and are still a month away without Jacob deGrom. But when Walker goes out and throws that kind of gem, when the offense is having a tough time getting going until the sixth inning, you're doing something right.

Francisco Lindor opened the scoring with an RBI single, and Pete Alonso added a fielder's choice RBI later in the frame to take a 2-0 lead. And that's literally all they needed, as the Mets had just seven hits of their own.

"It's a pretty steady mental team," Mets manager Buck Showalter said. "They don't get into that sky's falling. ... They don't live in that world. I hope it continues."

That's the key to this whole thing. The Mets are showing some strong mental fortitude without their top pitchers. They've had to go through this season relying on the top part of that rotation, but they've gotten enough down the rotation and have gotten timely hitting. Right now, the Mets might be the best team in the National League, and that's not a farfetched thing to think of.

"I kind of just know what pitches work here," Walker said.

More importantly, the Mets are 15-7 away from Citi Field. It's one thing to be 13 games over .500. It's another thing entirely when the Mets are winning just as dominantly on the road than they are in Flushing. That's got to be great to see if you're a Mets fan.

Well, this was a bad weekend for the San Francisco Giants. And honestly, it's been a bad four-game losing streak for said Giants in general. By way of a three-game sweep at the hands of the San Diego Padres, the Giants lost 10-1 on Sunday.

The Giants scored a grand total of two runs combined after losing 8-7 in 10 innings on Friday. And more importantly, the Padres may have the NL MVP frontrunner right now with Manny Machado after he had *checks notes* three doubles and a triple? Sure, why not?

But all in all, it's been a challenging year for the Giants. Buster Posey is gone, there's been a COVID outbreak with some notable names sitting out. Nevertheless, they're four games above .500 and not completely out of it.

“It's nice to know that we're still in a good position, even though I think we’ve faced some significant challenges already this year with our COVID issues to some key players being out for long stretches and not having Brandon Belt available to us regularly,” manager Gabe Kapler said before his club played one of its worst games of the year.

Yeah, that was a bad game. The Giants had just one run on four hits, with Wilmer Flores driving in the lone run. That's been the story of the Giants for the most part; their collective batting average is sitting at .244, which seems like a lower number than usual.

But then you look at the pitching, with a rare horrible outing from Alex Wood going three innings and allowing five runs on just 73 pitches. His ERA has jumped to 4.82, which is just a bad year for him after a great season in 2021. You just had a fee

I can likely see the Giants winning the first game of the series if it comes to the bullpen. With Chris Bassitt getting the call on Tuesday, this is where I can see the Mets taking over and winning this one rather comfortably. Mets win 7-2

Mets are 23-7 this season against right-handed starters.

Mets are 9-4 against NL West this season.

Giants are 20-13 as a favorite this season.

Mets:
Brandon Nimmo (L) CF
Francisco Lindor (S) SS
Jeff McNeil (L) 2B
Pete Alonso (R) 1B
Mark Canha (R) LF
J.D. Davis (R) DH
Luis Guillorme (L) 3B
Tomas Nido (R) C
Travis Jankowski (L) RF
SP - Chris Bassitt

Giants:
Austin Slater (R) CF
Darin Ruf (R) LF
Mike Yastrzemski (L) DH
Wilmer Flores (R) 1B
Evan Longoria (R) 3B
Brandon Crawford (L) SS
Thairo Estrada (R) 2B
Joey Bart (R) C
Luis Gonzalez (L) RF
SP - Logan Webb

Batting average: Jeff McNeil -- .306

Hits: Jeff McNeil -- 45

Home runs: Pete Alonso -- 10

RBI: Pete Alonso -- 37

Wins: Max Scherzer -- 5

Saves: Edwin Diaz -- 10

ERA: Max Scherzer -- 2.54

Batting average: Thairo Estrada -- .269

Hits: Thairo Estrada -- 39

Home runs: Joc Pederson -- 7

RBI: Wilmer Flores -- 24

Wins: Logan Webb -- 5

Saves: Camilo Doval -- 7

ERA: Carlos Rodon -- 3.43