The Mets might have struck out a ton last night but it doesn’t matter too much as the Mets picked up the W. Now the Mets are in a position to end their gauntlet run to start the season with at worst a .500 record and at best, two games above .500. Today Lance Lynn looks to split the series for the Cards as Colon looks to win the series for the Mets.

Colon’s last start was on Saturday where he allowed 3 ER over 7 innings of work which was a nice bounce back from his 9 ER over 5 innings in his previous start. On the season he is 1-3 over 25.0 innings and 4 games with a 5.40 ERA while allowing 34 hits, walking only 3 batters and striking out 18. Last year he tossed a gem against the Cards allowing one earned run over 8 innings while walking one and striking out 5. The Cards have the following numbers against Colon:

• Ellis 3-15, 2B
• Peralta 2-11
• Bourjos 2-6
• Holliday 3-5, 2B
• Carpenter 2-4
• Molina 0-4

Lance Lynn is 4-0 over his four starts this year with a 3.42 ERA over 23.2 innings of work. In that space he has walked 7 batters, allowed 3 homers and struck out 27. He is in a strong stretch that has seen him pitch 12.2 innings in two starts allowing 1 run, walking 6 and striking out 16. Last year he picked up the win against the Mets allowing 3 ER over 7 innings while walking 5 and striking out 7. The Mets have the following numbers against Lynn:

• Murphy 4-9, 2B
• Wright 2-7, 2B
• Duda 0-5
• Abreu 0-2
• Tejada 0-3

Lets Go Mets!

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The Mets dropped the second game of the series last night, but to be fair Adam Wainwright was full-Wainwright last night. Anyway, the Mets get to put last night behind them as they take on Wacha tonight with an opportunity to guarantee a series split with a win. On the hill for the Mets will be Jon Niese.

Niese has not won a start this season but over his first three starts he has a 2.84 ERA over 19.0 innings while walking 5 and striking out 16. Last year he made one start against the Cards where he pitched 7.1 innings allowing 6 hits and 2 runs while walking 2 and striking out 3. The Cards have the following numbers against the Mets:

• Molina 3-11
• Holliday 2-10
• Jay 3-8, 2B
• Craig 1-5, 2B
• Ellis 4-6
• Carpenter 1-3, 2B

Wacha will be making start #5 tonight. On the season he is 2-1 with a 1.73 ERA over 4 starts and 26.0 innings with 3 walks and 25 strikeouts. His last two starts are a little more human as he has allowed 6 runs, 4 earned over 13.1 innings with a 2.71 ERA. Last year he picked up the win against the Mets pitching 6.0 innings, allowing 5 hits and 2 earned runs while walking 3 and striking out 4. The Mets have the following numbers against Wacha:

• Duda 0-2
• Murphy 1-3
• Quintanilla 1-3, HR
• Wright 0-2
• Nieuwenhuis 0-2

Lets Go Mets!

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The Mets have a winning record! Last night, the Mets beat the Cardinals in a shutout win as they moved one game above .500. Now the Mets will have to face the heart of the St. Louis starting rotation for the next three days, so the order is tougher, but the Mets will be up to the challenge. Today Dillon Gee gets the start as he matches up with Adam Wainwright.

Dillon Gee is 1-0 on the season over 4 starts with a 3.71 ERA and 26.2 innings of work. His FIP this season is 5.03 as he has walked 7 and struck out 17. His last start against the Diamondbacks was by far his best of the season as he shutout them out over 7.0 innings while allowing only 3 hits, no walks and 3 strikeouts. Last year he was 1-1 over 10.2 innings and two starts with a 5.06 ERA while allowing 15 hits, 7 runs, 6 earned, 5 walks and 12 strikeouts. The Cards have the following numbers against Gee:

• Holliday 2-12, 2 2B
• Molina 3-12, 2 2B
• Craig 4-8, HR
• Jay 2-7
• Carpenter 2-4, 3 BB
• Ellis 0-3

The Mets match up against their long time foe in Adam Wainwright who is off to another great start this year where he has gone 3-1 over 4 starts with a 1.80 ERA, 2.28 FIP and 30.0 innings of work allowing 9 walks and striking out 32. Two starts ago were rougher Adam as he allowed 4 ER over 7.0 IP, but last time out he threw a complete game shutout. Against the Mets last year he pitched 13.0 innings over two starts with a 2.08 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Wainwright:

• Wright 5-15, 2 2B
• C Young 2-12
• Duda 2-8, 2B, HR
• Murphy 6-11, 2 2B, 3B
• Quintanilla 4-12, 2 2B
• Granderson 1-5

Lets Go Mets!

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The Mets have a tough schedule to open up the season, and this week they end their monster gauntlet with four games against the Cardinals at home. Yesterday the Mets were able to avoid the sweep by the Braves after a 14 inning game and for the second time this season they improve to .500. Tonight Jenrry Mejia makes the start as he goes up against Tyler Lyons.

There were some doubts as to whether Mejia would be able to make this start. He started off well last time out but had finger blister issues that took him out of the game and made his start today questionable. On the season he is 2-0 over 3 games and 16.0 innings with a 2.81 ERA while walking 11 and striking out 18 (and an FIP of 4.52). He has limited exposure to the Cardinals. In his career he faced them in two games and 3.0 innings allowing 4 hits, no runs, one walk and 3 strikeouts. Here are the limited numbers:

• Mark Ellis 1-3
• Molina 1-2
• Craig 0-1

Tyler Lyons makes his first start of the season tonight. Last year in the majors he went 2-4 over 12 games and 8 starts pitching 53.0 innings posting a 4.75 ERA, 3.73 FIP, 16 walks and 43 strikeouts. In the minors this year he is 2-0 with a 3.32 ERA over 3 games and 19.0 innings, 5 walks and 18 strikeouts. Tyler has not faced the Mets at all in his major league career nor has he faced anyone on the Mets roster.

Lets Go Mets!

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The Mets look to avoid the sweep today at Citi Field, and climb back to .500 after a near win yesterday. The bullpen yesterday wasn’t the greatest, but neither was the hitting. The Mets bats didn’t really show up until the 8th and 9th inning, and the Mets were able to make it interesting in the ninth. Anyway, the Mets bats will get another crack at David Hale as he squares off against Zack Wheeler.

Wheeler is 1-2 on the season with a 4.67 ERA over 17.1 innings while allowing 9 ER, walking 5 and striking out 15. If it feels like Zack has been pitching better than that, you’re right. His FIP is 3.72 so far. His second start of the season, by far his worst start, was against the Braves where he allowed 8 hits and 4 ER over 5.0 innings with 6 strikeouts. The Braves have the following numbers against Wheeler:

• Freeman 5-9, HR
• C Johnson 1-11
• Simmons 3-9
• Heyward 3-9, HR
• J Upton 0-9
• Gattis 1-8, 2B

David Hale is making his third start of the season. He has pitched 9.1 innings this year with 2.89 ERA and a 4.05 FIP. He has not pitched since his last start on April 10th against teh Mets where he allowed 4 runs, 3 earned over 4.1 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against David:

• Granderson 0-2
• Murphy 1-2
• Wright 1-2
• E Young 3-3, 3B
• d’Arnaud 0-2
• Tejada 0-2

Lets Go Mets!

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The Mets look to win their first game in the Post-Ike Davis era tonight after dropping last night’s game. More importantly, the Mets need win tonight’s game in order to get back above .500 and guarantee that they end the series at least at .500. Dropping last night’s game doesn’t really do it justice in terms of visualizing what happened. The Mets were no-hit by the Braves almost through the 8th when David Wright was able to get a hit, but that was it for the Amazin’s last night. Niese did great, and sadly was saddled with the loss but the bullpen allowed the Braves to stretch their lead. Bartolo Colon gets the nod tonight as he squares up against Ervin Santanta.

Colon had a rough, rough outing his last time out. In 5.0 innings he allowed 11 hits and 9 earned runs, including back to back to back homers in the first inning, four homers overall. On a short season with three starts, that saw his ERA jump from 2.08 to 6.00. In the start before that, he was masterful against the Braves pitching 7.0 innings, scattering 6 hits while walking none, allowing no runs and striking out 5. The Braves have the following numbers against Colon:

• BJ Upton 8-26, 2B, 3B, HR
• Laird 0-7
• Doumit 0-2
• Heyward 0-4
• Freeman 1-3, 2B
• Gattis 1-3
• Johnson 1-3
• Simmons 1-3

The Mets bats will get their second look at Evin Santana this season. Over his first two starts he has allowed 1 ER over 14.0 innings of work with 7 hits, 2 walks and 17 strikeouts. His first start of the year was against the Mets were he picked up the win after going 8.0 innings and striking out 6 batters (In his next start he struck out 11 over 6.0). The Mets have the following numbers against Santana:

• Granderson 11-43, 2 2B, 5 HR
• C Young 0-6
• E Young 3-7
• Murphy 2-6, 2B
• Satin 0-3
• d’Arnaud 0-3
• Duda 1-3
• Wright 1-3

Lets Go Mets!

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The Mets continue their stretch of teams with “A” as a logo tonight as they return home to play the Braves. After a tough Sunday against the Angels, the Mets bounced back strong sweeping the Diamondbacks in Arizona, negating the series where the Mets were swept by the Nationals. Anyway the Mets draw Atlanta again as they face off against Aaron Harang behind Jon Niese.

Niese is 0-1 in his two starts so far this season with a 3.46 ERA over 13.0 innings allowing 12 hits, 5 ER, 2 BB and 9 strikeouts. Jon did not face Braves the first time around this season and last year was forgettable against them as he allowed 11 ER over 14.1 innings while walking 9 and striking out 17. When you break the numbers down, this is due to a start where he allowed 7 ER over 4.0 innings and then 3 ER over 3.1 innings. He had one fantastic start, 7.0 innings with 1 ER. The Braves have the following numbers against the Braves:

• Uggla 9-30, 3 2B, 3B
• Freeman 9-27, 2 2B, 2 HR
• Heyward 9-24, 2 2B, 2 HR
• Upton 8-15, 2B
• Johnson 3-13, 2B
• Simmons 4-10, 2B
• Schafer 0-9

Harang has been the surprise of 2014. The former Met has had a great start to the year in his first three starts logging 18.2 innings with a 2-1 record with a 0.96 ERA. He has allowed  only 9 hits this year and 2 ER. His one loss this came against the Mets where he allowed one earned run over 6.0 innings, walking 4 and striking out 9. The Mets have the following numbers against Aaron:

• Wright 11-24, 4 2B, HR
• Duda 2-12, HR
• Murphy, 6-14, 4 2B, HR
• Tejada 6-12, 2 2B
• EY Jr 5-8, 2B
• Granderson 1-5, 2B
• Davis 0-4

Lets Go Mets!

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As a warning, this game preview is being written before Monday’s game as I will be on a three day field trip with my students.

This is the time of year when things start to seriously get into swing as Dillon Gee makes his 4th start of the season. In his first three starts he is without a decision while posting a 5.03 ERA and 19.2 innings of work. Over that stretch he has allowed 16 hits, 11 earned runs while walking 7 and striking out 14. Last year he faced Arizona once allowing 6 hits and 2 earned runs, walked 2 batters and struck out 7 all over 7.0 innings. The Diamondbacks have the following numbers against Dillon:

• Prado 4-23, 2B
• Parra 2-10, 2B
• Montero 2-7, HR
• Goldschmidt 2-6
• Chavez 0-6
• Pennington 1-4, 2B
• Hill 1-3

McCarthy joins Gee in making his fourth start of the season. In his first three he has allowed 17 runs in an identical amount of innings (19.2) which is a 7.78 ERA. In that stretch he allowed 23 hits, 3 walks and 11 strikeouts. He is 0-2 this season. He faced the Mets once last year where he allowed 2 ER over 7 innings while walking 1 and striking out 4. The Mets have the following numbers against Brandon:

• Granderson 2-14
• E Young 2-6
• Davis 2-2, 2B
• Lagares 1-3, HR
• Murphy 0-3

Lets Go Mets!

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As a warning, this game preview is being written before Monday’s game as I will be on a three day field trip with my students.

Jenrry Mejia squares off against Bronson Arroyo tonight in Arizona. Mejia will be making his third start of the year. So far he is 1-0 over 11.0 innings with a 4.09 ERA while walking 9 and striking out 15 batters. Mejia has never faced the Diamondbacks in his career, which makes sense given his career trajectory so far and the infrequent pace the Mets and Diamondbacks play each other. Only one player for Arizona has faced Mejia, Martin Prado, who is 0-4.

The Mets batters will deal with Bronson Arroyo, who was linked to the Mets a little this offseason. Arroyo is 1-0 over two games with a 4.82 ERA and 9.1 innings this year. He has allowed 11 hits and 3 walks while walking 5. Last year for the Reds he went 14-12 over 32 games and 202.0 innings with a 3.79 ERA. The last time he faced the Mets was in 2012 where he allowed 3 ER and 4 hits over 6 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Bronson:

• Wright 9-38, HR
• Murphy 6-13, 2 2B
• Davis 2-7
• Granderson 3-9
• E Young 2-8
• Duda 1-4, HR
• Tejada 2-3

Lets Go Mets!

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The Mets look to move on from yesterday’s game as they face the Diamondbacks tonight. Nothing was working  for the Mets yesterday. The Angels got to Colon early hitting back to back to back jacks in the first. The umpire had a crazy strikezone which led to Murphy and Wright being ejected at the same time. Positives: we will forever have in our minds (and in our records) David Wright yelling, “YOU ARE THE WORST OF ALL TIME.” Anyway Wheeler gets the nod tonight as he faces Josh Collmenter.

Wheeler is 0-2 this season allowing 7 ER over 11.0 innings with a 5.73 ERA. Last year in one start against Arizona he allowed one earned run over 6.1 innings and 6 hits while walking none and striking out 4. The Diamondbacks have the following numbers against Wheeler:

• Goldschmidt 1-3
• Hill 1-3, HR
• Prado 1-3
• McCarthy 0-2
• Parra 1-2
• Pennington 1-2

The Mets bats will get a look at Josh Collmenter who is getting his first start since 2012. This year as a reliever he has pitched 8.0 innings allowing 2 earned runs. Last year he was 5-5 with a 3.13 ERA over 49 games and 92.0 innings. Against the Mets last year he logged 6.0 innings over 3 games allowing 2 ER, walking 3 and striking out 3. The Mets have the following numbers against Josh:

• Wright 2-9, 2 HR
• Murphy 3-7, 2B
• Davis 2-4, HR
• Niese 0-5
• Tejada 2-5
• Recker 1-4
• Satin 1-2, 2B

Lets Go Mets!

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