The second game of the series between the Mets and Guardians is at Citi Field on Tuesday night.
Clay Holmes is scheduled to pitch for New York, while Logan Allen will take the mound for Cleveland.
Mets vs. Guardians prediction, preview
Clay Holmes is taking the bump for the Mets tonight. It has been an up-and-down season for Holmes in his first season as a full-time starter. Holmes started four games in his rookie season in 2018, and didn’t start a single game after that before this season. He has made 22 starts for the Mets in 2025, has a 3.45 ERA to his name, and has largely done a good job of limiting runs. But like several other Mets starters this season, he has struggled to go deep into starts. The 32-year-old made it just 3.1 innings in his last outing and has not made it six innings in any of his past nine starts. The Mets made big upgrades to their bullpen before the trade deadline, and they will likely need a lot of bullpen usage to get through this game.
Logan Allen is having a bounce-back season for Cleveland. He had a promising rookie season for the Guardians in 2023 but had a disastrous sophomore campaign in 2024. Last season, Allen had a 5.73 ERA and a -1.1 WAR across 20 starts. So far this season, he has made 20 starts and carries a 4.06 ERA and a 0.7 WAR. He is by no means a high-end starter but remains a viable member of Cleveland’s rotation. The strikeout numbers are actually down from last year, but he fixed his massive problem of giving up the long ball. The 26-year-old surrendered 2.0 home runs per nine innings last season, compared to just 1.2 this year. If he can keep the ball in the park, he should have a solid outing against the Mets.
Mets vs. Guardians pick, best bet
Things are starting to get desperate for the Mets. They have been on a terrible run over the past few weeks and now sit 1.5 games behind the Phillies in the NL East. The Mets have some incredible bats and just made massive upgrades to their bullpen, but they aren’t getting the best out of any group on their team. The starting pitchers are struggling to go deep into games, the bullpen has really struggled and their big bats are not performing up to standard. After losing last night’s game in extra innings, they need to find a way to string some wins together.
Meanwhile, the Guardians are in an interesting spot. The Tigers have the best record in the American League, and the Guardians trail them by eight games in the division. However, they are just 2.5 games outside of the Wild Card race, with only one other team between them and a playoff spot. Cleveland also wasn’t quite sure what to do at the deadline. It sold Shane Bieber but held on to Steven Kwan, despite considerable speculation that he would be traded. The Guardians didn’t want to totally sell off their pieces, but they also didn’t make any additions for a potential playoff push. They are somewhat in purgatory at the moment, but if they can get on a good winning run, they could make the postseason.
My best bet for this game is for the Guardians to win and the game to go over 8.5 runs. These teams combined for 13 runs last night, and the Mets have now given up 25 runs in their past three games. The pitching in New York has been a disaster, and that could continue tonight. Despite their struggles as a whole, the Mets still have dangerous bats like Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto, who could give Allen some issues. The Mets have found ways to lose games over the last two months, so I will take the Guardians as underdogs, but both offenses should find some success tonight.
