213 Miles From Shea

Even for the standards established by the 2018 Mets – last night was a bad night up North and the Mets will try to reverse it today. Last night the Mets had a 6-1 lead off homers from Cabrera, Mesoraco and Flores plus a good start by Wheeler. Then the bullpen happened and everything fell apart. Swarzak faced 4 batters and could only get one out, Gsellman needed to get one out and not allow a game tying 3-run homer (which is exactly what he did), with two outs in the eighth the Mets allowed another 2 run homer. It was just a bad night.

Tonight Corey Oswalt will make his second start of 2018 and hopefully allow the Mets to forget last night. Last time out Oswalt was given a 3 hour heads up that he was starting the game and in Miami he allowed 6 runs over 2.2 innings. In his major league debut in April he allowed 2 runs over 4.2 innings. For Las Vegas this year he has a 5.32 ERA over 10 starts, last year he he had a 2.28 ERA in Binghamton over 24 starts.

The Mets bats draw Marcus Stroman who has a 6.02 ERA over 9 starts and 49.1 innings with a 4.18 FIP, 1.520 WHIP and 70 ERA+. But the stats do not tell the whole story. before landing on the DL after his start on May 8th, he had a 7.71 ERA. In his two starts since coming back he has allowed 2 runs, 1 earned, over 12.0 innings from 10 hits and a walk. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

• Frazier 4-11, HR, 3 BB
• Cabrera 2-2, 2B
• Mesoraco 0-2

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets had a terrible June, but are undefeated in July! On Sunday Matz and company defeated the Marlins, avoided the sweep and guaranteed Mets fans more than a day of not knowing the sting of defeat. Now the Mets find themselves north of the border to finish the home/away set started earlier this year with the Jays.

Wheeler will get the start for the Mets. He is 2-6 over 15 games and 88.2 innings with a 4.47 ERA, 3.67 FIP, 1.331 WHIP, 85 ERA+. He is coming off a strong start, shutting out the Pirates in 7.0 innings allowing 5 hits and a walk. It was the second 7.0 inning shutout performance in June for Zack. In May he faced the Jays and it was ugly as he allowed 6 runs over 4.0 innings from 7 hits and 3 walks. The Blue Jays have the following numbers against Wheeler:

• Donaldson 2-4, BB
• Solarte 1-3
• Granderson 1-3, 2B
• Smoak 2-3, 2B, HR
• Pillar 1-2

The Mets will get Marco Estrada who is 4-7 over 16 games and 89.1 innings with a 4.53 ERA, 4.41 FIP, 1.299 WHIP and 93 ERA+. In his last two starts he has allowed 6 runs, 5 earned, over 12.0 innings. He did not face the Mets back in May but some Mets have seen him in games before:

• Bruce 7 -23, 2B, 4 HR
• Frazier 7-22, 2B, 2 HR
• Reyes 5-14, 2B, 3B
• Cabera 1-8
• Mesoraco 2-8
• Cespedes 3-6, 2B
• Bautista 1-3, HR

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets lost again yesterday capping one of the worst months in the team’s history. Anthony DiComo reported yesterday that the Mets 5-21 record (.192) ranks just behind August 1982 (.172) and July 1963 (.138). Rosario was the only player to reach base twice yesterday going 1-2 at the plate and getting a walk. At least Swarzak didn’t allow any runs in relief.

The Mets will try to get things back together with Steven Matz. Matz is 3-5 over 15 games and 78.0 innings with a 3.69 ERA, 4.89 FIP, 1.244 WHIP and a 103 ERA+. He is coming off an average-good start where he allowed 3 runs over 7.0 innings from 6 hits and no walks. He hasn’t faced the Marlins yet this season but last year he shut them out over 7.0 innings in Miami. The Marlins have the following numbers against Matz:

• Prado 5-11, 2 BB
• Rojas 0-8
• Castro 0-5
• Realmuto 1-4
• Bour 0-3
• Chen 0-3
• Dietrich 0-2

Dan Straily is probably pitching against the Mets today despite throwing at a batter and getting suspended for 5 games. He is 3-3 over 11 games and 52.1 innings with a 4.82 ERA, 6.02 FIP, 1.395 WHIP and a 77 ERA+. His last start was average, allowing 3 runs over 6.1 innings from 4 hits. In the start below that he allowed 4 runs over 1.1 innings. Overall in his last four starts he has allowed 14 runs in 16.1 innings (a 7.71 ERA). One of his last good starts was against the Mets where he allowed 1 run over 6.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Dan:

• Reyes 2-11, 4 BB
• Cabrera 3-11, 2 2B, BB
• Bautista 1-9, HR, BB
• Flores 1-6
• Mesoraco 0-5
• Nimmo 1-3, HR, 2 BB
• Conforto 0-2
• Smith 0-3
• Rosario 1-2

Let’s Go Mets!

Jacob deGrom was scratched from last night’s start to take care of family matters, the Mets called on Oswalt to start and the Mets didn’t quite come to play. For most of the night the offense was off as it faced Sandy Alcantara making his Marlins debut. The only bright spots in last night’s game: Bautista got two more hits trying to show he has trade value, Rosario got 3 walks, Blevins had a clean 1.1 innings and Bashlor allowed only 1 run over 2.2 innings.

The fan base has become more and more divided about blowing up the team and trading deGrom or blowing up the team and building around deGrom. Meanwhile, Jacob still pitches. He’s 5-3 over 16 starts and 101.1 innings with a 1.69 ERA (league leading), 2.14 FIP (league leading), 1.007 WHIP and a 224 ERA+ (league leading). He is coming off his worst start in a while allowing 3 runs over 6.0 innings and it is worth remember that two runs came in after a bad call by the umpire. The first time he faced the Marlins this year in April he allowed 4 runs over 6.0 innings, his worst start of the year, and the second time he faced the fish he held them scoreless over 7.0 innings. The Marlins have the following numbers against him:

• Dietrich 4-21, BB, 11 K
• Bour 9-19, 2B, 2 HR, 2 BB, 6 K
• Castro 6-18, BB
• Realmuto 3-16, 5 K
• Prado 3-13, 2B, BB,  5 K
• Maybin 0-1o, BB

The Mets bats will get to see another Marlins pitcher making his Marlins debut (which will also be his major league debut) in Pablo Lopez. Pablo was part of a trade during the 2017 season that sent David Phelps to the Mariners. Lopez has posted a 1.44 ERA and 2.17 RAvg in the minors this year over 12 games and 62.1 innings. His stats include a 0.930 WHIP, 6.6 H/9, 9.5 K/9, and 5.50 K/BB. How will Lopez, who has only made 4 starts in triple A do tonight? We’ll find out.

Let’s Go Mets!

The battle for the bottom of the NL East kicks off tonight as the Mets play the Marlins in Miami. The Mets are coming off a loss (shocking) where their starter was good, their hitting was good, but Familia fell apart at the end and the Mets inexplicably didn’t have another option ready to go to get in the game as the Mets allowed the Pirates to score 4 runs in the top of the 9th and win 5-3.

With that as the back drop, Jacob deGrom takes the mound tonight. The fan base has become more and more divided about blowing up the team and trading deGrom or blowing up the team and building around deGrom. Meanwhile, Jacob still pitches. He’s 5-3 over 16 starts and 101.1 innings with a 1.69 ERA (league leading), 2.14 FIP (league leading), 1.007 WHIP and a 224 ERA+ (league leading). He is coming off his worst start in a while allowing 3 runs over 6.0 innings and it is worth remember that two runs came in after a bad call by the umpire. The first time he faced the Marlins this year in April he allowed 4 runs over 6.0 innings, his worst start of the year, and the second time he faced the fish he held them scoreless over 7.0 innings. The Marlins have the following numbers against him:

• Dietrich 4-21, BB, 11 K
• Bour 9-19, 2B, 2 HR, 2 BB, 6 K
• Castro 6-18, BB
• Realmuto 3-16, 5 K
• Prado 3-13, 2B, BB,  5 K
• Maybin 0-1o, BB

The Mets bats will see Sandy Alcantara’s 2018 debut today. Last year in 8 games and no starts he allowed 6 runs, 4 earned, in 8.1 innings of work from 9 hits and 6 walks when he was a member of the Cardinals. He was traded to the Marlins on December 14th in the deal that sent Ozuna to St. Louis. In the minors this year, he has posted a 3.71 ERA over 85.0 innings and 14 starts including a 1.271 WHIP, 7.8 H/9, 6.8 K/9 and a 1.88 K/BB.

Let’s Go Mets!

Tonight Zack Wheeler will take the mound against Ivan Nova for the Pirates. Wheeler is 2-6 over 14 games and 81.2 innings with a 4.85 ERA, 3.85 FIP, 1.371 WHIP and a 78 ERA+. His last start was more or less average of his season numbers where he allowed 4 runs over 7.0 innings. You could look and be worried about Wheeler, after a stretch of taking many steps forward, his lines in two of last three games don’t look good, 10 runs over 12.2 innings, but he really did perform better than his lines. Callaway deserves criticism about some decisions this year, but he has also started to move Wheeler in the right direction. Against Pittsburgh last year he allowed 3 runs over 6.0 innings from 7 hits and 2 runs. The Pirates have the following numbers against Zack:

• Bell 1-3
• Cervelli 2-3
• Frazier 0-3
• Freese 0-2
• Harrison 1-3, 2B
• Polanco 1-3

Ivan Nova is 4-5 over 14 game sand 81.1 innings with a 3.98 ERA, 3.87 FIP, 1.230 WHIP and a 99 ERA+. He is coming off his best game of the season where he held the Diamondbacks scoreless over 8.0 innings which is the second time in 2018 he has produced a line like that. Overall in June he has pitched 19.2 innings over 3 games with a 0.92 ERA. In comparison, in May, he pitched 23.2 innings over 5 games with a 7.61 ERA. Ivan Nova, the long time Yankee, hasn’t faced the Mets in a while which means most of the home grown New York Mets have never seen him. But the Mets have a good amount of players from trades and bargain bin signings over the last couple of years that have seen him:

• Bautista 9-29, 3 2B, HR, 8 BB
• Reyes 3-10, BB
• Cabrera 2-8
• Bruce 0-6, 3 K
• Cespedes 4-5, 2B, BB
• Frazier 1-5, HR
• Mesoraco 1-2, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets continued their losing streak last night. Great. At one point last night the Mets were down 5-1 when Flores hit a 3 run homer to pull it to 5-4. Like the last several games, the Mets had several chances after that to tie the game or possibly even take the lead, but they couldn’t get it to happen.

Steven Matz will look to stop the slide. He is 3-5 over 14 games and 71.0 innings with a 3.68 ERA, 5.05 FIP, 1.282 WHIP with a 103 ERA+. He is coming off one of his worst starts in a while where he allowed 5 runs over 5.2 innings from 8 hits and 2 walks. In Pittsburgh in 2016, Matz held the Pirates to 2 runs over 5.0 innings allowing 8 hits and 2 walks. The Pirates have the following numbers against him:

• Cervelli 0-2, BB
• Freese 1-3
• Harrison 3-3, 3B
• Ho Kang 2-3
• Marte 0-3
• Polanco 0-2

The Mets bats will get a look at Chad Kuhl who is 5-5 over 15 starts and 81.0 innings with a 4.56 ERA, 4.75 FIP, 1.444 WHIP, and a 87 ERA+.  He is coming off his worst start in 2018 where he allowed 8 runs over 2.0 inning from 8 hits and a walk against the Diamondbacks. Prior to that start Chad Kuhl had allowed 9 runs, 8 earned over 29.1 innings over 5 starts which led to a 2.45 ERA. In one start against the Mets last year he allowed 5 runs over 4.1 innings from 8 hits. The Mets have the following numbers against Chad:

• Bautista 0-2, BB
• Bruce 1-2, 2B
• Conforto 0-3
• Reyes 1-3, 3B
• Cabrera 0-2
• deGrom 1-2
• Mesoraco 0-1

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets losing streak extended to 6 games yesterday as the Mets fell to the Dodgers in a game that ended in extras off a go-ahead homer by Justin Turner. In so many different ways it was a Mets game to remember 20 years from now over a couple of beers watching the Mets be the Mets. I imagine the conversation would go something like, “Yeah this game is peak Mets but I remember back in 2018 the Mets had a late scratch for a starting pitcher due to injury, flew out a pitcher on a red eye from Las Vegas, started the game with a reliever Jerry Blevins, gave up 6 homers, somehow managed to tie the game before an ex-Met utility player turned All-Star hit the 7th homer of the game off said pitcher who traveled all night in the 11th inning.” Anyway the Mets will again tonight. Lucky us.

Seth Lugo gets the start. He’s 2-2 pver 25 game sand 4 starts pitching 53.2 innings with a 2.85 ERA, 3.15 FIP, 1.043 WHIP and 133 ERA+. Since rejoining the rotation he has allowed 11 runs, 8 earned, over 8.0 innings from 14 hits, 3 walks and 12 K’s. Honestly I don’t know which has been spinning more: his incredibly high RPM curveball or my head. He has never faced the Pirates before or any members of the Pirates lineup when they were with other teams.

The Mets bats broke a streak of 16 home games without scoring more than 4 runs yesterday. Let’s see if they can keep that going tonight against Jameson Taillon who is 4-6 over 15 games who has pitching 82.2 innings posting a 4.03 ERA, 3.70 FIP, 1.222 WHIP and 99 ERA+. In his last three starts he has allowed 8 runs in 17.0 innings from 21 hits and 4 walks which translates into a 4.24 ERA. The last time he faced the Mets was in 2016. His first two major league starts happened to be against the Mets. In Pittsburgh he allowed 3 runs over 6.0 innings and then 6 days later he held the Mets scoreless over 8.0 innings only allowing 2 hits and a walk. The Mets have the following numbers against Jameson:

• Cabrera 1-6, 2B
• Cespedes 1-5, BB
• Kelly 2-5, HR
• Confortion 0-2, BB
• Bautista 1-3, HR
• Flores 0-3
• Mesoraco 0-2
• Plawecki 0-2
• Syndergaard 1-2, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

Yesterday’s battle of the aces was anything but and ended with the Mets getting routed as they try to avoid the sweep. The Mets got an average start from Jacob deGrom allowing 3 runs over 6 innings, with two runs coming after a controversial strike 3 non-call. The Mets offense should have been able to overcome that for a few reasons, but they didn’t. First, they just owe it to deGrom. Second, Kershaw only last a few innings since this was really a rehab start for him. Third, they went 2-12 with runners in scoring position, leaving 8 men on base. Gsellman will become the scapegoat of this game (first for allowing 5 runs over 2.0 innings, second because the Mets will probably need him today and he shouldn’t be available, which isn’t his fault at all) but ultimately the offense needs to get it done. Nimmo got 3 hits on the night, which is nice!

Complicating the finale for the Mets today is the pitching situation. Jason Vargas was a late scratch from today’s start landing himself on the DL from conditioning injury. The Mets called up Flexen who was supposed to start for Vegas today and instead flew all night to get to New York. The situation is reminiscent of Tyler Pill in 2017 who got a last minute start for Harvey, traveled all night and did terrible. As of writing this, it is not clear if Flexen or Peterson will start the game but today looks like a bullpen game. Flexen has allowed 7 runs, 3 earned over 2.1 innings this year and last year allowed 44 runs, 42 earned in 48.0 innings (a 7.88 ERA) also posting a 6.95 FIP, 2.021 WHIP and 53 ERA+. Tim Peterson, who should get significant work today, has allowed 1 run over 7.2 innings and 5 games which leads to an ERA of 1.17, 3.23 FIP and 0.913 WHIP.

The Dodgers starting pitcher situation today is normal. I’m envious. Rich Hill his 1-2 over 7 starts and 30.2 innings with a 4.99 ERA, 5.51 FIP, 1.565 WHIP, 77 ERA+. His last start on the 19th was first start in exactly a month and he pitched well holding the Cubs scoreless over 6.0 innings off 3 hits and 2 walks. In LA against the Mets last year he held the Amazin’s to 1 run over 5.0 innings from 4 hits and 3 walks while in Queens he held the Mets to 3 runs over 5.0 innings from 6 hits and 1 walk. The Mets have the following numbers against Hill:

• Bautista 4-24, 2 2B, 3 BB
• Reyes 3-8
• Flores 2-6, 2B, HR
• Cabrera 0-4
• Confortion 1-3, HR
• Frazier 0-2
• Rosario 0-2

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets lost again last night, this time leaving a small army on the bases as they fell to the Dodgers 5-2. Overall on the night the Mets were 0-6 with runners in scoring position and left 7 batters on bases which together creates an inexcusable loss by three runs. As a positive for the night, Bautista hit a homer.

The Mets will rally behind Jacob deGrom who is 5-2 over 15 games and 95.1 innings with a 1.51 ERA (league leading), 1.98 FIP (league leading), 0.986 WHIP and 250 ERA+ (league leading). In his last start he allowed 2 runs, 1 earned over 8.0 innings from 5 hits and a walk while striking out 7. In his last 11 starts and 70.1 innings he has posted a 0.90 ERA. At home against the Dodgers last year he allowed 3 runs off 5 hits and 3 walks in 5.0 innings while striking out 8 (the damage done on two homers). The Dodgers have the following numbers against him:

• Utley 4-17, 2B, 4 BB
• Turner 5-19, 3 2B
• Pederson 1-12, 2B, 5 BB
• Kemp 4-16, 2 2B
• Grandal 2-13, 2B
• Puig 3-13, 2 HR
• Hernandez 0-4
• Bellinger 0-3
• Taylor 2-3, HR

The Mets draw Clayton Kershaw making his return from the DL tonight from a back strain. On the season he is 1-4 over 8 starts and 49.0 innings with a 2.76 ERA, 3.47 FIP, 1.122 WHIP and 139 ERA+. Kershaw pitched from March 29th to May 1st. Then missed a month of starts making an outing against the Phillies allowing 1 run over 5.0 innings on the 31st. He went out again and now he’s back. He faced the Mets last year in LA and it was one of his worst starts of the season allowing 6 runs over 6.1 innings from 6 hits and a walk while allowing 4 homers. The Mets have the following numbers against Clayton:

• Reyes 5-19, 2 HR
• Flores 3-15
• Frazier 3-13, 2 2B
• Cabrera 3-10, HR
• Plawecki 1-9
• Conforto 0-4
• Mesoraco 1-3
• Bautista 1-3, 2B
• Bruce 6-23, 3 HR (DL)
• Cespedes 1-18 (DL)

Let’s Go Mets!