The Mets and Dodgers open up their series tonight in Queens. (Side note, I wonder if the person who makes baseball schedules orchestrated that the Mets would play both “parent” clubs back to back at home) Yesterday, the Mets were able to avoid the sweep from the Dodgers main rival behind a great start from Pelfrey. Tonight the Mets will send out Niese who will go toe to toe with Kuroda.
Niese is 1-4 on the season with a 4.71 ERA over 36.1 innings of work. In his last three starts he has pitched 19.1 innings with a 2.79 ERA. So he has started to show signs that he is the pitcher we think he can be, but the offense just has not been producing consistently behind him. In his young career, Jon has never faced the Dodgers, thus there are only a few players on the team that have AB”s against him: Miles 1-3, Garland 0-2, Uribe 0-3. So for the vast majority of the LA ball club, Jon is a mystery.
The Mets draw Kuroda who is 3-2 with a 3.10 ERA over 6 games and 40.2 innings of work this season. In his last three starts he has pitched 20 innings with a 2.70 ERA. So as of now, both Niese and Kuroda are on similar paths, at least recently. He faced the Mets twice last season with a 1-1 record allowing only 2 earned runs in 14 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers on Hiroki:
Wright 6-12
Reyes 5-12, 2B
Hairston 3-8, HR
Bay 1-6, HR
Davis 1-5, 2B
Beltran 1-3, HR
Murphy 2-3, 2 2B
Let's Go Mets!
