In addition to having glorious, flowing hair, tonight's Mets starter, Jacob deGrom, has also struck out 152 batters in 146.2 innings. That includes nine strikeouts against the Orioles when he saw them back in May, though there are a fair few different Orioles in tonight's lineup compared to the one from that night. Three of that night's starting lineup have since been DFA'd and another couple of guys who appeared later in the game were also since DFA'd.
But deGrom is really good, like legitimately good, with a 2.03 ERA. Not that facing a pitcher with a near-2 ERA stopped the Orioles from winning last night's game. Sonny Gray's ERA was about that low. They were able to win that thanks to a terrible Athletics defense. By contrast, the Mets have been among the better defenses in MLB this season, so they won't be able to count on those kinds of mistakes. There's a big difference between a division leader and a bottom feeder.
The Orioles, though, are good against just about anybody when they are at home. Maybe they'll even be good against deGrom. The Mets offense has been one of the league's worst, too, so as long as Kevin Gausman pitches well, even a small cushion could prove to be enough. Never a guarantee of an Orioles starter pitching well, but hey, it's something.
At stake tonight is the Orioles' fifth win in a row, and quite possibly their continuing presence in the second AL Wild Card spot. If they lose, there will be time to make up the loss, but why worry about that if they don't have to?