213 Miles From Shea

Picture of Mets infielder, Walter Rasquin, who led off for the Cyclones on 7/11/16 against Mahoning Valley.

The Subway Series comes home tonight. The first two games of the home and home series have been forgettable for the Mets (unless you are Dom Smith, congrats on your first major league homer!) as the Mets have dropped both. If the Mets want to split the series for bragging rights, they will have to do it by sweeping the Yankees in Queens.

Originally Seth Lugo was going to pitch tonight but he just landed himself on the DL. Luckily, Robert Gsellman is good to go and he comes off the DL for tonight’s start. Before he left he was 5-5 over 17 games, 14 starts in 76.0 innings with a 6.16 ERA, 5.08 FIP and 1.618 WHIP. We haven’t seen him since the end of June when things were unraveling for him rather quickly. Including the game he was removed in the 3rd inning from, he allowed 18 runs over 12.1 innings. The only person on the Yankees roster who has seen him in a major league game is Jaime Garcia, the starter for the Yankees, who will be batting tonight. Garcia walked in his only appearance against Gsellman.

The Mets draw a long time National Leaguer in Jaime Garcia tonight who spent the vast majority of his career with the Cardinals and started this year with the Braves. He got traded and made a start with the Twins before being traded again to the Yankees. Overall this year he is 5-8 over 21 games and 130.0 innings with a 4.50 ERA, 4.16 FIP and 1.377 WHIP. He is 0-1 over 2 starts and 10.1 innings with Yankees posting a 6.97 ERA, 5.75 FIP and 1.839 WHIP. He opened his 2017 season against the Mets allowing 4 ER over 6.0 innings off 6 hits and 2 walks. In June he faced the Mets again and allowed 2 runs over 7.0 innings of 7 hits and 2 walks. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

• Reyes 7-24, 2B, 2 BB
• Flores 4-12, 2B, 2 HR
• Cabrera 3-11, 2 2B
• Lagares 2-6, 2 BB
• Cespedes 1-7, 2B, BB
• d’Arnaud 2-6, 2B
• Conforto 2-4, 2B
• Granderson 1-3

Let’s Go Mets!

Panorama taken on 7/6/16.

The Mets dropped the first game of the Subway Series, and would you believe me if I told you it had nothing to do with Rafael Montero? Montero allowed 2 runs over 6 innings and besides the 4th inning where he almost melted down, he looked like the pitcher that we thought he would be several years ago. It was a good outing for Montero and, I can’t believe I’m saying this, I’m looking forward to his next start to see if this was a blip or the start of something for him. Tonight’s game has the best pitching match up of the series as Jacob deGrom goes against one of the newest Yankees, Sonny Gray.

Jacob deGrom is 13-5 over 23 games and 151.1 innings with a 3.21 ERA, 3.53 FIP and 1.143 WHIP. After a poor (for him) start against the Dodgers at the beginning of August, he rebounded against the Phillies shutting them out in Philly over 6.2 innings allowing 4 hits, no walks while striking out 9. He left the start early after being hit with a comebacker. Last year he shutout the Yankees over 7.0 innings allowing 4 hits and a walk while striking out 8. The Yankees have the following numbers against deGrom:

• Ellsbury 2-9, 2B, HR
• Gardner 2-8
• Frazier 1-5, HR
• Gregorius 0-5
• Headley 1-5
• Hicks 1-3

The Mets bats will get a look at Sonny Gray who is 6-7 over 18 games and 109.0 innings with a 3.39 ERA, 3.19 FIP and 1.183 WHIP. This will be his third start as a Yankee. In his previous starts he has allowed 8 hits and 7 runs, only 4 earned, over 12.0 innings. He missed the Mets when the Athletics and Mets met up earlier this season. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

• Cabrera 2-8, HR, 2 BB
• Reyes 1-10
• Cespedes 1-3

Let’s Go Mets!

Piazza going into the hall was a moment I’ve waited for. I took a ton of pictures of anything Piazza, including this. Picture taken on 7/23/16.

It’s the Subway Series! This week the Mets and Yankees play a four game, home and home series starting in the Bronx and ending in Queens. The Mets are coming off of a series win Philly where they took 3 of 4 games largely thanks to Conforto who is pushing towards 30 homers for the year.

Rafael Montero will get the start for the Mets tonight. He is 1-8 over 23 games and 9 starts totaling 65.1 innings with a 6.06 ERA, 4.64 FIP and 1.806 WHIP. The last three starts have not been kind to Montero who has allowed 13 runs and 18 hits with 9 walks in 13.1 innings. The Yankees roster looks quite different since Montero has last faced them, so only two players have seen him a game. Ellsbury is 0-2 with a walk against him while Gardner is 1-3.

The Mets draw Luis Cessa for the opener who is 0-3 over 9 games and 4 starts over 31.2 innings with a 4.83 ERA, 5.41 FIP and 1.484 WHIP. Tonight will be Cessa’s first start since Jthe end of June. When he was a starter he allowed 13 runs, 11 earned over 17.0 innings with 17 hits and 7 walks. he’s coming off a shutout, 3.1 inning outing where he allowed only 1 hit but still walked 4 batters. Prior to that he allowed 6 runs over 4.2 innings. He has never faced the Mets before and no one on the Mets has seen him at the major league level.

Let’s Go Mets!

The 7 Line last year loaded a bunch of buses to Cooperstown to camp out before the Piazza Induction. Here is one of the photos of the campsite at night. Taken on 7/23/16.

The 7 Line last year loaded a bunch of buses to Cooperstown to camp out before the Piazza Induction. Here is one of the photos of the campsite at night. Taken on 7/23/16.

The Mets wrap up their four game set against the Phillies today as they look to take the four game set and avoid the split after dropping yesterday’s game. Working against the Mets: it’s a Sunday. The Mets have been terrible on Sundays this year. This should be a statistical blip, a correlation without causation, but for some reason the Mets just can’t get it done on Sundays.

Chris Flexen looks to buck the Sunday trend. In his first three starts to his major league career he has allowed 17 hits and 8 walks in 11.2 innings leading to 12 runs, 11 earned. His last start was his best start so far as he allowed 3 runs off 4 hits and 3 walks over 5.2 innings, the first time he recorded more than 9 outs. This will also be the first time Flexen pitches against an opponent that is not from a western division (previous starts against the Padres, Rockies and Rangers).

The Mets bats will get a look at Zach Eflin who is 1-3 over 9 games and 54.0 innings with a 5.67 ERA, 5.82 FIP and 1.389 WHIP. His last start was his first start since the end of May and he came back strong allowing 2 runs over 7 hits and a walk while pitching 7.0 innings, his second best start of the year. His first start this season was against the Mets where he allowed only 2 runs, 1 earned over 5.0 innings allowing 3 hits and 3 walks. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

• Cabrera 0-6
• Cespedes 1-4, 2 BB
• Reyes 2-5, 2 2B
• Conforto 0-2, BB
• Granderson 1-2, HR, BB
• Lagares 1-3, 3B
• d’Arnaud 0-2
• R Rivera 0-2

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets won yesterday! And they look to keep it going tonight. Lugo labored through 5.1 innings yesterday allowing 5 runs off 8 hits and 4 walks but the Mets bats never gave up as Conforto started the come back with his 25th homer of the year, Cespedes hit a three run homer later and finally Rosario hit his first home, a tie breaking homer, in the top of hte 9th.

Steven Matz will look to keep it going today. He is 2-5 over 11 games and 57.2 innings with a 5.77 ERA, 4.96 FIP and 1.509 WHIP. He is coming off a rough start where he allowed 5 runs over 6 hits and 2 walks in 5.1 innings. Overall in August he has allowed 8 runs over 10.1 innings. He hasn’t faced the Phillies yet this year and shockingly he has never faced the Phillies in his career. No members of the Phillies have faced Matz as members of other teams.

The Mets bats draw Aaron Nola today who is 8-7 over 18 starts and 112.1 innings with a 3.12 ERA, 3.12 FIP and 1.184 WHIP. He’s having the best year of his young career and pulled off the unusual FIP and ERA exact match. In his last 9 starts he has gone 5-2 over 61.1 innings with an ERA of 1.76. In April he allowed 7  hits and 4 walks over over 5.0 innings leading to 4 runs. The Mets have the following numbers against Aaron:

• Cespedes 2-5, BB
• Granderson 1-6
• Conforto 2-5, HR
• R Rivera 2-4
• Cabrera 2-3
• Walker 1-2, HR, BB
• d’Arnaud 1-2, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!