Today the Mets will open up their regular season away against the Florida Marlins. The Marlins are sending one of their new pitchers, Mark Hendrickson, to the mound. Hendrickson, with a career ERA at 5.01 does have one thing that the Mets tend to struggle against, which is that he is a left handed pitcher. Will that curse continue? We will have to see after today's game. Here are some Mark stats:
Vs Mets: 2 G, 3 IP, 3.00 ERA
@ FLA: 3 G, 16.2 IP, 4.86 ERA
Daytime: 60 G, 275.1 IP, 5.26 ERA
Another interesting note is that career, as a starter, his ERA is 5.15 and as a reliever it is 3.55.
In 16 IP this Spring, he posted a 1.69 ERA while walking 2 and striking out 9.
In other words, we cant just look at his career ERA and assume he is a pushover because he is on a streak right now and he is a left handed pitcher, which the Mets have trouble hitting. That being said, it is a telling story about the Marlins right now that they have Hendrickson as their opening day pitcher.
I hope you all caught the Braves/Nats game last night. It is always fun to watch a team show off their new park, and beyond the fanfare, it was actually a good game. Nats were ahead, then the Braves tied it (with no help from Paulie who allowed the ball to get away from him) and with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth, in a tied ballgame, Zimmerman hit a shot for the walk off.
(I was also thinking, since Chipper hit the first homer in Nationals Park, does he name his next kid after the ball park?)
