213 Miles From Shea

Today’s picture of the day is another sky shot, this time behind centerfield looking at the sky above the old scoreboard topper from Shea Stadium. Enjoy!

Baseball Road Trips are my thing. I love getting in my car and catching 7 games in a week, I’m actually about to leave for my 4th road trip later this week.

In April, I completed my most ambitious Road Trip where I went to Miami and back in 5 days. I generally do these trips solo, meeting old and new friends on the way and that road trip I spent an incredible amount of time behind the wheel (I should probably write about it later).

The goal of the trip was to get to Miami to see the Mets play. You probably remember the game. It went 16 innings, started with Gsellman allowing a Grand Slam, ended with a homer and a Mets win. Great night.

Marlins Park was a nice place to see a game. My main thoughts echo what you hear about it from announcers. The stadium is uniquely Miami with bright green walks, dark blue seats, aquariums behind home plate, huge/loud art in the outfield, a bobble head museum and a night club. The food was good and overall I had a great time. Plus, I sat midway back from the dugout for $28, the cheapest I’ve paid from the MLB website for seats that close.

I am also concerned about them pulling off the All-Star game. It was clear that the staff, who were very friendly, are not used to crowds of any size. I need to take my bias out of this. Living in NJ/NY for 6 years I’m used to everything being fast paced, but this was different. The staff was working fast but the lines were incredibly slow. My best guess is that they are severely understaffed. Hiring extra staff doesn’t necessarily solve the problem because the whole staff needs to work together to be efficient and they need to be stress tested.

I don’t want to make a claim without evidence. It took 15-20 to get food at the start of the game, I was the 8th person in line. By the 3rd inning, lines from the concession stands were approaching the seats. The best bar in my opinion in the ball park, the one sponsored by Miami Brewing in centerfield, was severely understaffed. I was 4th in line and took 10 minutes to get a drink. The bar had one bar tender pouring drinks, making mixed drinks and handling the register.

And of course, the upper deck wasn’t open. That’s going to be an unknown.

The only events I could think of that were full at Marlins Park recently would be the WBC. Does anyone know how they handled that? As always with posts like this, I hope I’m wrong.

The Mets bounced back last night from their frustrating 6-3 loss in the series opener with an 8-0 win. Curtis Granderson continued his hot streak as he continues to remind me why I love him. On the pitching side, Steven Matz had his best start of the season throwing 7 shutout innings.

Tonight Seth Lugo looks to keep that going. Lugo is 2-1 over 3 games this season with 19.1 innings with a 3.72 ERA, 4.38 FIP and 1.397 WHIP. Although it is a small sample size, while his WHIP is up quite a bit from this year to last year, his FIP is nearly identical (4.33 last year). Lugo was 2-0 over three games and two starts last year against Miami where he pitched 12.2 innings with a 3.55 ERA. The Marlins have the following numbers against Lugo:

• Osuna 0-4, 2 BB
• Prado 4-7, 2B, HR
• Yelich 1-6, HR, BB
• Gordon 1-6, 2B
• Realmuto 1-4
• Bour 1-2, BB
• Stanton 1-3, 2B
• Suzuki 0-3

The Mets bats will get a look at Jose Urena today who is 6-2 over 16 games and 10 starts this year logging 70.1 innings with a 3.33 ERA, 5.05 FIP and 1.251 WHIP. He is in the midst of a good streak pitching a combined 18.0 innings in his last three games allowing only 3 runs over 11 hits and 6 walks. His last start, 6.0 innings no runs, is his best start since he faced the Mets early May where he held the Mets to 1 hit and 1 walk with no runs in 6.0 innings. Overall against the Mets this year he has allowed 1 ER and 4 hits over 10.0 innings (1 start and 2 relief outings). The Mets have the following numbers against Urena:

• Granderson 3-14, BB
• Reyes 5-12, 2B, 3B
• Bruce 2-10, 2 HR, BB
• Conforto 3-8, 2B
• Cespedes 2-8, HR
• Cabrera 1-7
• Flores 1-7, HR
• R Rivera 1-6
• TJ Rivera 1-5, 2B, BB
• d’Arnaud 1-4, BB
• Lugo 1-2, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

If you’ve been to a Mets game in the last year or so, you know when Cespedes comes up, a new tradition has been born at Citi Field. This picture was taken on 6/13/17.

The Mets saw their three game winning streak snapped last night in Miami. The Mets took an early 1-0 lead thansk to a Granderson lead off homer but promptly gave the Marlins back the lead. The Mets would later tie the game but Neil Ramirez (and his 6.66 ERA going into the night) couldn’t record an out and by the end of the inning the Marlins had a 6-3 lead where the game stayed. The larger story of the game was, stop me if you have heard this before, an injury. This time Robert Gsellman strained his hamstring running to first. The Mets will look to put this game behind them tonight as Steven Matz takes on the Marlins.

Matz is 1-1 over 3 starts and 20.0 innings this year with a 3.60 ERA, 5.89 FIP and 1.100 WHIP. His first start of the season was fantastic, his second start was slightly below average and his last start was exactly on the quality line allowing 3 runs and 6.0 hits (but 5 walks, which is concerning). Last year he was 1-2 over 3 starts against the Marlins allowing 9 runs, 16 hits and 5 walks over 14.2 innings. The Marlins have the following numbers against Steven:

• Yelich 3-11
• Ozuna 2-8, 2 BB
• Prado 4-8, 2 BB
• Stanton 3-7, 2 HR, BB (1.786 OPS)
• Ellis 3-7
• Gordon 2-4, BB
• Realmuto 1-4

The Mets bats will get a look at Jeff Locke in his first season with the Marlins after starting his career with the Pirates. He is 0-3 over 5 games and 23.2 innings with a 5.70 ERA, 4.24 FIP and 1.521 WHIP. Or in other words, his WHIP isn’t helping him at all, but neither is the fielding behind him. He is coming off his worst start of the season where he allowed 7 hits and 3 walks which led to 5 runs over 4.0 innings. Last year in one start against the Mets he allowed 9 hits and a walk over 4.0 innings leading to 7 runs. The Mets have the following numbers against Jeff:

• Bruce 7-29, 3 2B, BB
• Cespedes 1-6, 3 BB
• Granderson 1-6
• Cabrera 2-3
• Flores 1-3
• d’Arnaud 2-2, 2B, HR
• Duda 0-2
• R Rivera 1-2, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

This might be the last picture from Father’s Day! Maybe. I guess you’ll find out tomorrow.

Jacob is used to racking up K’s in the left field corner but he got an apple in centerfield. Had to snap a photo. Isn’t the Apple great in the day time?

One weekend can make a huge difference. Going into Friday’s game it looked like the entire Mets world was falling apart. The Mets are now on a three game winning streak and go into Miami to keep it going! The last time the Mets swept a three game series was Philly near the start of the season. They then went to Miami, took game 1 and lost the next 3. The Mets look to avoid that pattern by winning early and often this series.

To further the pattern laid out above, Robert Gsellman was the first pitcher in the Mets vs Miami series in April after the Mets swept the Phillies. He’s the starter again tonight!. Gsellman is 5-5 over 16 games and 13 starts with a 6.04 ERA, 5.27 FIP and 1.616 WHIP over 73.0 innings. Gsellman is coming off back to back poor starts where he allowed 15 runs, 14 earned and 20 hits in his last 9.1 innings of work. Those two games ended a streak starting around May 20th of good outings for Robert. Miami hasn’t been the best for Gsellman this year as he has allowed 14 runs, 10 earned over 14.2 innings. The Marlins have the following numbers against Gsellman:

• Stanton 5-7, HR, BB
• Bour 0-7, BB
• Ozuna 4-8, 3 HR (2.125 OPS)
• Gordon 2-5
• Yelich 1-5, BB
• Ellis 1-4, BB
• Realmuto 3-5, 2B,  3B
• Dietrich 0-4

The Mets bats will take a crack at Dan Straily who is 5-4 over 15 games and 84.0 innings with a 3.43 ERA, 3.74 FIP and 1.095 WHIP. Each of those stats are better than his career numbers as Dan may be having the best season so far in his career. After allowing 7 runs over the first 11.0 innings and 2 games in June, he has now allowed 1 run over his last 12.1 innings and 2 games. His first good start of the season was against the Mets this year where he held the Mets scoreless and hitless over 5.1 innings despite allowing 5 walks. The Mets have the following numbers against Dan:

• Reyes 2-8, 2 BB
• Granderson 0-6
• d’Arnaud 1-5
• Duda –3, 2 BB
• Bruce 1-4, HR
• Flores 1-4
• Cabrera 2-3, 2B
• Cespedes 0-2, BB

Let’s Go Mets!

Still have a few pictures from Father’s Day! Today’s is a great sign from section 140 in The 7 Line!

The pictures from Father’s Day keep coming. I snapped this out in center/right field while Conforto was at bat.

On Father’s Day I was able to catch this picture of Warthen throwing to d’Arnaud before the first inning.