The Mets and Pirates play would could be a soggy game today at Citi Field. Last night, the Pirates evened the series with a 7-3 win over the Mets. For the Amazin’s yesterday, Marcum couldn’t find it again, allowing 6 ER over 4.2 innings. On the positive side, the Mets did slug two homers out thanks to Recker and Valdespin. Anyway Jon Niese gets the nod today as he goes up against Francisco Liriano in his season debut.

Jon Niese is 2-3 this season over 36.2 innings and 7 starts with a 4.66 ERA. He is coming off of his worst start of the season against Atlanta where he allowed 7 ER in 4.0 innings, really blowing up his ERA. Hurting him in that start was the combinations of hits allowed (7) and walked batters (6). Last season he had one very good outing against the Pirates where he allowed 1 ER over 7.2 innings of work. The Pirates have the following numbers against him:

Sanchez 4-19, 2B, HR
Barmes 4-12, 2B, HR
Martin 1-8, HR
McCutchen 3-6, 2 2B
Tabata 1-2, 2B

Francisco Liriano is not only making his season debut today but also making his debut as a National League pitcher. Last season, between the Twins and the White Sox, Francisco pitched 156.2 innings with a 5.34 ERA and a 6-12 record. He has never faced the Mets in his career, which isn’t too surprising considering he was with the Twins for just about all of it (except for the partial season with Chicago last year). Two Mets have seen him though. Buck is 1-6 with a double and Byrd is 3-4 with 3 RBI’s.

Lets Go Mets!

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For the second time in three days, the Mets had a walk-off victory last night and for the second time in three days, the offensive hero at the end of the game was Mike Baxter with Bobby Parnell picking up the win. The Mets look to make it 2 in a row and 3 of 4 tonight as they take on the Pirates and Wandy Rodriguez behind Shaun Marcum.

Shaun Marcum has yet to have a break out game as a Mets pitcher, maybe that will change today. On the season he is 0-2 over three games and two starts while allowing 8 ER over 10 innings of work. Last season he was 1-1 against the Pirates while posting a 0.75 ERA (only 1 ER over 12.0 innings). The Pirates have the following numbers against the Pirates:

McCutchen 2-14, 2B
Jones 4-10, 2B, HR
Alvarez 4-14, 2 2B
Tabata 4-11, 2 2B
Barmes 1-11, 2B
Inge 1-8
Martin 1-8, HR

The Mets bats will try to break out vs Wandy Rodriguez tonight. You want to know how good the Mets offense was at the beginning of the season? The Mets offense is still 3rd in the National League in runs scored (even with the last two weeks). Wandy is 2-2 over 6 games and 31.1 innings with a 4.02 ERA. In his last three starts, he has allowed 13 ER in 15.1 innings of work. He was 2-0 against the Mets last year in as many games posting a 2.77 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Byrd 7-28, 2 2B, 2 HR
Wright 7-24, 2 2B, HR
Buck 3-9, HR
Davis 0-7
Tejada 5-7, 2 2B
Turner 2-7, HR
Murphy 0-3

Let’s Go Mets!

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The Mets fresh off of a split with the White Sox start a four game series with the Pirates tonight. Last night the Mets offense was flat, and too little too late. It wasn’t until the end of the game where the Mets started to get hits but they still couldn’t get runs. Anyway, Pittsburgh comes to town today and they are second in the NL Central with a 18-15 record. Tonight Dillon Gee will go up against Jeff Locke.

Dillon Gee is 2-4 this season over 6 games with a 6.16 ERA and 30.2 innings of work. In his last two starts he has allowed 8 ER over 11.0 innings of work. Gee hasn’t faced the Pirates since 2011 where he was 2-0 in as many games pitching 15.0 innings with a 2.40 ERA. The Pirates have the following numbers against Gee:

Tabata 4-10, 2B
McCutchen 1-9
Jones 2-7, 2B
Martin 0-5
Harrison 2-4
Alvarez 0-2
Barmes 0-2

The Mets will get a look at Jeff Locke today, who is in his 3rd season in the majors. This is the season where Locke is starting to put it together pitching 33.2 innings over 6 starts with a 3.21 ERA. At the start of the season, he wasn’t doing too well as he allowed 9 ER over 15.2 innings but in his last three starts he has allowed 3 ER over 18 innings. He has made one start against the Mets where he allowed 5 ER over 3.2 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Buck 1-3
Murphy 2-3
Tejada 3-3
Davis 0-1
Duda 0-2
Recker 1-2, HR
Wright 1-2

Let’s Go Mets!

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The Mets look to take the series tonight as they play their second game against the White Sox. Last night was definitely a Matt Harvey Day as Matt threw 9 innings allowing one hit and striking out 12 batters. Sadly, the bats were not able to help him out at all and the game went to extras where Mike Baxter knocked in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th. The Mets look to continue the good pitching and hope to find their bats tonight as they take on Jake Peavey behind Jermey Hefner.

Hefner is 0-3 on the season over 6 games, 5 starts, while pitching 29.0 innings with an ERA of 4.34. He has been on fire in his last two starts allowing 3 ER over 15 innings, and that number could have easily been lower. His two runs in his last start came in the 9th inning when he allowed the first two batters on in the inning and the bullpen imploded behind him. During those 15 innings, he struck out 12 batters.  Hefner has never faced the White Sox but has faced two batters. Wise is 0-1 while Greene is 0-3.

The Mets will get a look at Jake Peavey today who is putting his career back together in Chicago. He was fantastic as a Padre, found himself with the White Sox via trade. His career in Chicago was thrown off a bit by injury at the start but over the last two seasons he is starting to look like shades of his former self. This year he is 3-1 over 5 starts with a 3.38 ERA. In his career, he is 5-2 over 10 games and 62.0 innings against the Mets with an ERA of 3.48. The Mets have the following numbers against Jake:

Wright 2-14, 2B
Byrd 3-10, 2B
Buck 3-6, 2 HR
Murphy 1-2, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

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The White Sox finally visit Citi Field as the Mets will meet up with an old friend in Robin Ventura tonight. The Mets are coming off of a 9-4 loss where just about everyone on the field was experiencing a collective off day. Since then the Mets have had an off day and for the first time on 7 days rest, the Mets will enjoy another Harvey day as Matt takes on Hector Santiago.

Matt is 4-0 on the season with a 1.56 ERA over 40.1 innings of work. He bounced back from his worst start of the season (3 ER over 6 innings, quality for everybody else) to pitch 5.1 innings allowing 1 ER in Miami, a game he really had to labor through. He allowed 7 hits in that game, a season high, but paired that with 7 strikeouts. Not really all that surprisingly, Matt has not faced the White Sox in his career and has not faced any batters on the roster.

Hector Santiago gets the nod for the White Sox. On the young season he is 1-1 over 8 games, 1 start with a 2.29 ERA over 19.2 innings. His last outing was the first start of the season where he allowed 1 ER over 5.1 innings of work while striking out 6 batters. Last season, he was in 42 games including 4 starts with a 3.33 ERA. In his four starts, he pitched 19.2 innings allowing only 4 ER. Also not really surprising, but he has not faced anyone on the Mets roster in his career.

Let’s Go Mets!

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Long time readers of this site know my personal history of moving from Baltimore to Prince Georges (outside of DC) to Newark, NJ over the last 6 years. During that time, I’ve lived in two small markets for sports clubs and one large market.

I think I have a different experience riding public transportation back from Mets games than most fans do, because I’m constantly comparing it to my time in Baltimore and DC. When I would board the Metro in both cities (It’s still a subway) it is fairly obvious that its game day. Going back from both cities, it is still clearly obvious that it is game day. There are still a ton of people on the outstretch ends of the train lines wearing fan gear. This was expected in Baltimore since there is only one subway line and one light rail line, but DC has a good amount of lines.

I rarely have this experience with the Mets. By the time I get to Times Square from the 7 express, the fans start to really disperse. By the time I get back to the PATH train, I almost never board with someone who was clearly at the game. I never really thought too much about this until this weekend.

New York has an MLS team, the NY Red Bulls (formerly the Metrostars) located in Harrison, NJ (which is great because I’m practically walking distance to a great time). The MLS is considering adding a second NY franchise in Flushing, which would be great for Queens and would probably help both franchises with their fans (nothing like rivalries). Crowding the picture, the New York Cosmos, a second tier soccer team, is making a come back this season in Long Island and want to build a 25,000 seat stadium near the race track in Queens. At the end of this year, these are the following professional sports teams in the city and the surrounding areas:

- New York Mets
- New York Yankees
- New York Jets
- New York Giants
- New York Rangers
- New York Knicks
- New York Islanders
- New York Liberty
- Brooklyn Nets
- Red Bull New York
- New Jersey Devils
- New York Cosmos (2nd Tier)
- Long Island Ducks (Independent)
- Newark Bears (Independent)
- Brooklyn Cyclones
- Staten Island Yankees

That’s 16 teams, with the possibility of a 17th.

Now I admit it’s a large geographic area. If I applied the same to Baltimore, I would have to combine the list with DC. Even so, that is two unique communities sharing those teams.

I’m fascinated by the dynamics in New York because there are some teams that rule over the whole region (Mets, Yankees, Giants, Jets, Knicks, Red Bulls) and then there are smaller teams that feel local due (Islanders, Nets for example).

Sometimes it feels like Sports Saturation in New York, but at the same time it feels like New York, and its surrounding areas could take on more teams. I still believe, although I think it is a bad idea, that if another MLB team moved to the area, there would be enough support here to keep it and the Yankees/Mets afloat.

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The Mets made it two in a row friday night as they beat the Braves in the series opener. Then, the rain came from the sky and washed out last night, which knocked Harvey out of today’s spot.  For the Mets it was a night of homers and back and forth action as Marcum faltered as did parts of the bull pen. However the captain, David Wright, tied the game on a solo shot (after the Braves took the lead from the Mets and Wright did it against the fantastic Mets closers) and that was followed by a great 10th inning. The Mets try to take the series today behind Jon Niese as he goes up against Tim Hudson.

Jon Niese is 2-2 on the season over 6 games  with a 3.31 ERA and 32.2 innings of work. In his last 9 innings he’s allowed 3 ER. Last year he faced the Braves 4 times with a 3-1 with a 2.00 ERA over 27.0 innings. The Braves have the following numbers against Jon Niese:

Uggla 8-29, 3 2B
Freeman 6-19, 2B, 2 HR
R Johnson 6-16
Justin Upton 5-11, 2B
Schafer 0-8
C Johnson 2-6, 2B

The Mets bats have scored 7 runs two games in a row and look to keep it going against Tim Hudson. Hudson is 3-1 over 6 games with a 3.86 ERA over 35 innings of work and he is coming off of one of his strongest starts of the season allowing only one earned run over 7 innings. Against the Mets last year he allowed 7 ER over 11.0 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Wright 15-68, 2 2B, 2 HR
Duda 6-20, 2B, HR
Davis 3-13, 2B
Tejada 8-17, 2B
Murphy 4-16, 2B
Buck 2-13

Let’s Go Mets!

Lets Go Mets!

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The Mets made it two in a row last night as they beat the Braves in the series opener. For the Mets it was a night of homers and back and forth action as Marcum faltered as did parts of the bull pen. However the captain, David Wright, tied the game on a solo shot (after the Braves took the lead from the Mets and Wright did it against the fantastic Mets closers) and that was followed by a great 10th inning. The Mets try to take the series today behind Jon Niese as he goes up against Julio Teheran.

Jon Niese is 2-2 on the season over 6 games  with a 3.31 ERA and 32.2 innings of work. In his last 9 innings he’s allowed 3 ER. Last year he faced the Braves 4 times with a 3-1 with a 2.00 ERA over 27.0 innings. The Braves have the following numbers against Jon Niese:

Uggla 8-29, 3 2B
Freeman 6-19, 2B, 2 HR
R Johnson 6-16
Justin Upton 5-11, 2B
Schafer 0-8
C Johnson 2-6, 2B

The Mets bats have scored 7 runs two games in a row and look to keep it going against Julio Teheran. He’s 1-0 over 5 starts this season with a 5.08 ERA while pitching 28.1 innings. He’s gotten better in his last two starts posting a 2.19 ERA over 12.1. He faced the Mets once in 2011 where he allowed 5 ER over 8 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against Julio:

Duda 1-4, 2B
Tejada 0-4
Turner 1-3
Wright 1-2, HR

Lets Go Mets!

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It’s May and the Mets will finally meet the Braves for the first time in 2013. The Mets are fresh off of a win in Miami where they snapped a 6 game losing streak thanks to some offense and a bullpen that didn’t completely implode. The Mets will also be joined up with Andrew Brown who is hitting well in Vegas and could fill in at the OF and occasionally at first base. Anyway, tonight’s game features Shaun Marcum pitted against Mike Minor.

Marcum had a rocky start in his 2013 debut allowing 3 ER in 4.0 innings of work (right before the bullpen just fell apart). Then, the baseball gods decided to turn on Shaun as 1.2 innings against the Marlins and would give up the winning run in the 15th inning. And just like that, 5.2 innings into the season, he is 0-2. He pitched one game against Atlanta last year and he allowed only 3 hits and 2 runs over 7 innings of work. He will be facing a much different Atlanta lineup that now boasts BJ Upton (although currently struggling) and Justin Upton (who is hitting the ball way out of the park). The Braves have the following numbers on Marcum:

BJ Upton 6-21, 2 2B
Johnson 1-12
Schafer 3-9, 2B
Uggla 1-8
Justin Upton 2-8
Freeman 1-5

The Mets bats hope to replicate their last game and not their previous 6 before that tonight against Mike Minor who is 2-2 on the season over 31.2 innings and 5 starts with a 3.13 ERA. He has went from spectacular, allowing 2 runs over his first 19 innings to not so good allowing 9 ER over 12.2 innings (with his last start being the real dagger at 6.2 IP, 6 ER). In two starts against the Mets last year he allowed 9 hits and 6 ER over 11.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Wright 2-11, 2 2B
Tejada 4-13, 2B
Buck 0-8, 3 BB
Turner 3-7
Byrd 4-8, 2B
Duda 3-8, 2B
Davis 0-4, 3 K
Murphy 2-5, 2 2B
Gee 2-2 (I know he’s a starter and he’s not starting tonight but whatever sorry not sorry)

Let’s Go Mets!

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The Mets try to put this Marlins series out of its misery this afternoon as they play the get away game / salvage game today. Even though there was a terrible call last night at third base in 9th inning that cost Hefner his gem of a game, the real blame of the game falls on offense. The bats have fallen completely silent to the point that during this losing streak everyone in the lineup is under-performing. Here’s hoping last night was enough of a fire to spark this offense, which is as spark-able as wet wood right now. Dillon Gee gets the start today vs Wade LeBlanc.

Dillon Gee is 1-4 this season over 5 starts with a 5.96 ERA over 25.2 innings. He is starting to look like a better pitcher. He had a scoreless outing two starts ago and last time out he was cruising with the exception of one inning. He hasn’t faced the Marlins since 2011, back then he was 1-0 over 2 games while allowing 4 ER over 11.0 innings. The Marlins have the following numbers against Gee:

Polanco 2-12
Pierre 2-6
Dobbs 1-3, HR
Stanton 1-5, HR

Wade LeBlanc looks to keep the Mets bats depressed. On the season, Wade is 0-4 over 5 games with a 6.20 ERA over 24.2 innings of work. In his last three games, he’s allowed 13 ER over 13.2 innings. Last year he was pretty good against the Mets allowing 3 runs, 2 earned over 11 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Wade:

Wright 6-10, HR
Tejada 1-7
Murphy 4-8, HR
Davis 3-7, HR
Buck 0-3
Duda 2-3

Lets Go Mets! (Please, just win)

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