Its Interleague Preview weekend (the lovely teaser weekend for the full event in June) and the Mets will kick things off taking on the Bombers from the Bronx. The Mets have about million story lines flying into this weekend focusing around the looming doom and gloom that Jerry could be facing soon. So once again the Mets find themselves in a position where a very good weekend of ball could make all of these story lines evaporate.
The Mets will also be trying out Takahashi tonight to elliviate the rotation. Takahashi is 3-1 on the season with a 3.12 ERA and thanks to the sometimes erratic rotation the Mets have had this year, he has had his opportunities to stretch his arm out. When Takahashi is successful, he is hitting the corners and getting players striking out looking. However at times he has struggled with locating his pitchers. So far he has 14 BB and 33 K in 26 innings while giving up 9 runs. But when you take out his last outing, his numbers look much better. In 23 innings, he has only 10 BB, 29 K and an ERA of 2.74. Since this is Takahashi's rookie season, there are 0 Yankees with MLB AB's against him.
The Mets will draw the struggling pitcher in the Yankees rotation tonight as they take on Javier Vazquez (2-4, 8.01 ERA). The Mets were also fairly effective against him last season as he pitched 13.2 innings against the Amazins with a 1-1 record and a 4.61 ERA. The bats were actually working last night in Washington, however it has been a while that the Mets have been able to put together two nice, complete games back to back where the bats were very effective. They will need to take advantage of Vazquez tonight. The Mets have these career numbers against Javier:
Reyes 3-13, 3B
Bay 2-12
Wright 3-8, 2B, HR
Francoeur 2-5, HR
Lets Go Mets!
Tuff game last night.