Coming into the start of their series in San Diego, the Mets and Padres had a lot of similarities. Both teams had large payrolls and underwhelming results thus far. Both teams had just ripped off multi-game win streaks including a previous series sweep. Both teams were starting their highly-paid ace in the first game, with Justin Verlander getting the start for the Mets and Yu Darvish for the Padres. So it looked to be the start of an interesting and meaningful series for both teams.
The game started out right where the Mets left off on Thursday, with a Brandon Nimmo walk, Tommy Pham walk, and Pete Alonso being hit by a pitch loading the bases with a single out.