213 Miles From Shea

Want a trip down memory lane? Here’s Mejia after finishing the last game of the 2014 season. Time has tainted this picture. Taken on 9/28/14, moments before I bolted from the stadium to catch the 7 Express to Manhattan train.

Mets finish second in the division! Until next year, Let's Go Mets!

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Sep 28, 2014 at 12:59pm PDT

I took this picture on 9/28/14 to remember the steps took after the 2009 season to add more Mets history to Citi Field.

Ghosts of Octobers Past: Leiter, Franco, and Alfonzo #mets #amazins #IBelieveIn2015

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Oct 5, 2014 at 7:32am PDT

All good things come to the end. Example: the Mets ended their 4 game winning streak last night with a thumping from the Chicago Cubs. Second Example: after 7 good starts in a row, Wheeler hit a bump in the road. It wasn’t all bad last night as Josh Smoker ate up some serious time, Neil Ramirez wasn’t horrendous and the Mets hit back to back jacks in the bottom of the ninth. Plus, Jay Bruce made an incredible over the wall catch. Fun was still had. The Mets will look to regroup tonight as they take on the Cubs with Matt Harvey at the helm.

Harvey is 4-3 over 12 starts and 66.1 innings with a 5.02 ERA, 5.86 FIP and 1.462 WHIP. In his last start, he held Atlanta to 4 hits and 2 walks over 5.0 innings allowing no runs for the first time this season. He missed the Cubs last season but in 2015 he tossed 7.0 scoreless innings against them holding them to 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 9. The Cubs have the following numbers vs the Dark Knight:

• Heyward 2-9, HR
• Jay 2-8, 2B
• Rizzo 1-5, 2B, 2 BB
• Montero 3-5, 2B, 3 BB
• Zobrist 2-7, 2B
• Bryant 1-6
• Schwarber 1-4, HR

The Mets draw Mike Montgomery who is is 0-3 over 19 games and 1 start this season with a 2.43 ERA, 4.07 FIP and 1.279 WHIP. His last time out against the Rockies was his first start of the season lasting 4.0 innings allowing 3 hits and 2 runs with 3 walks. The only othe rtime he reached 4.0 innings was against the Giants on 5/25 in relief. He’s reached 3 innings or more in 5 of his 19 games this season. The Mets have the following numbers on Mike:

• R Rivera 0-2
• Cespedes 0-2, 2 BB

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets won their 4th game in a row last night as they beat the Cubs 6-1. On the positive side, Cabrera hit two homers and Jacob deGrom returned to form pitching a complete game. It wouldn’t be the Mets though if everything was positive. Cespedes was pulled early from the game due to injury. Hopefully they play this injury correctly unlike every other time with every other player this season.

Wheeler starts for the Mets today. he is 3-3 over 11 starts and 62.2 innings with a 3.45 ERA, 3.90 FIP, and a 1.356 WHIP. In Wheeler’s last 7 starts, stretching to the end of April, he is 2-1 over 41.0 innings with a 2.41 ERA. The Cubs have the following numbers against Zack:

• Heyward 7-19, 2 2B, 2 HR, BB
• Montero 2-4, 2B, BB,
• Rizzo 0-5, BB
• Baez 1-3

The Mets will get a look at Jon Lester who is having a tougher season after last year’s 19-5, 2.44 ERA campaign. This year he is 3-4 over 13 games and 76.1 innings with a 4.13 ERA, 3.74 FIP (actually close to his 3.41 FIP last year) and 1.349 WHIP (far from his 1.016 WHIP last year). Lester was 1-1 against the Mets last year allowing 13 hits and 4 walks in 9.0 innings leading to 9 runs. The Mets have the following numbers against Lester:

• Granderson 16-53, 2 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 3 BB (.892 OPS)
• Cabrera 7-30, 2 2B, BB
• Reyes 4-29, 2 BB
• Cespedes 3-21, 2 BB
• Bruce 3-20, 2B
• Flores 6-13, 3 HR, BB (1.654 OPS)
• Lagares 4-12, 2 2B, BB
• Walker 3-12, BB
• d’Arnaud 2-5, HR
• Duda 2-6, HR
• R Rivera 1-1, HR

Let’s Go Mets!

I was lucky enough in 2015 to go the first game of the season in DC. Here are you 2015 New York Mets! Picture taken on 4/6/15.

Your 2015 New York Mets!

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Apr 6, 2015 at 12:39pm PDT

What a difference two days make! After Friday’s loss, it felt like the season was completely slipping away from the Mets. Since then, the Mets had a dominate starts from Gsellman, Matz and Lugo and took the last three games from the Braves and come into the series with the Cubs on a high note. The Mets will look to keep the good times going as they welcome the Cubs to Queens for the start of the week.

Jacob deGrom will look to shake off his last two starts. On the season he is 4-3 over 12 games and 72.0 innings with a 4.75 ERA, 3.93 FIP and 1.444 WHIP. In his last two starts he has tossed a combined 8.0 innings allowing 18 hits and 6 walks leading to 15 runs. In the two starts before that he allowed 10 hits and 4 walks over 15.1 innings leading to 1 run. In those two starts he struck out 19 batters, in his last two he struck out 8. In one start against the Cubs last year he tossed 5.0 innings allowing 3 hits and a walk leading to 1 run. The Cubs have the following numbers against Jacob:

• Rizzo 4-14, HR
• Heyward 3-11
• Bryant 2-6, 2 HR, 2 BB
• Jay 2-5, 2B, BB
• Montero 1-6
• Russell 1-6
• Zobrist 0-5
• Schwarber 1-2, HR, BB

The Mets draw John Lackey tonight who is 4-6 over 12 games and 70.1 innings with a 5.12 ERA, 5.06 FIP, and 1.365 WHIP. After a string of poor starts to end the month of May, he started June well holding the Cardinals to 2 runs over 4 hits and 2 walks in 7.0 innings of work, but his last time out against the Marlins he allowed 5 runs over 6.0 innings off 7 hits and no walks. Last year he held the Mets to 2 runs over 6.1 innings allowing 5 hits with 2 walks. The Mets have the following numbers against John:

• Granderson 10-41, 2 2B, 2 3B, HR, 5 BB (.326 OBP)
• Cabrera 7-34, 2 2B, HR, BB
• Bruce 5-29, 2B, 2 HR
• Walker 4-14
• Cespedes 2-7, 2B, HR
• Reyes 3-8, BB
• Flores 0-8, 3 K
• Duda 2-7
• d’Arnaud 2-2, BB

Let’s Go Mets!

I swear I go to baseball games that aren’t Harvey Days. Today’s Picture of the Day was the Harvey Day at Yankee Stadium on 4/25/15.

#HarveyDay

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Apr 25, 2015 at 1:49pm PDT

Today’s Picture of the Day is from the way back machine on 6/27/15 when Harvey started against the Reds on a rainy day.

Happy (Rainy) Harvey Day!

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Jun 27, 2015 at 2:11pm PDT

After dropping the first game of the series on Friday night, the Mets swept the doubleheader against the Braves in convincing fashion. In the first game, Robert Gsellman looked more like the pitcher we saw in 2015 as he notched his third straight strong start and Yoenis Cespedes returned with an exclamation point getting 4 insurance runs in the top of the 9th with a grand slam. In the evening, Steven Matz returned and he was dominant over 7 innings as the Mets won 8-1.

Seth Lugo makes his return to the rotation today. He was a key part in the Mets rise to the Wild Card game at the end of last year and was one of the best pitchers on Puerto Rico’s staff in the World Baseball Classic. Last year in with the Mets he pitched to a 5-2 record over 17 games, 8 starts with a 2.67 ERA and a 1.094 WHIP. He picked up a win in his only start against Atlanta last year where he allowed 6 hits and 1 walk over 7.0 innings leading to 2 runs. The Braves have the following numbers against Lugo:

• Inciarte 1-3
• Kemp 1-3
• Markakis 1-3
• Swanson 0-2

The Mets will get another look at Jaime Garcia who is 2-4 over 11 starts and 70.0 innings with a 3.21 ERA, 4.33 FIP and 1.229 WHIP. Each of those starts are down from last season with WHIP being down from 1.375 and his ERA is down from 4.67. The Mets last saw Jaime the opening week of the season where he allowed 6 hits and 2 walks over 6.0 innings leading to 4 runs in a game the Mets won. The Mets have the following numbers against Garcia:

• Bruce 11-54, 2B, HR, 2 BB (.216 BA, .241 OBP)
• Reyes 6-22, 2B, BB
• Flores 4-10, 2B, 2 HR (1.500 OPS)
• Cabrera 3-8, 2 2B
• Cespedes 1-7, 2B, BB
• Walker 3-8, 2 2B
• d’Arnaud 2-6, 2B
• Duda 1-2, HR, BB

Let’s Go Mets!

(I’m trying something new today, so bear with me. Generally on double header days I just put both game previews in the same article, but I’m going to give this a shot and hope it posts before the start of the second game but after the start of the first game)

It’s finally the day! Steven Matz returns to the mound for the Mets! The Stony Brook native makes his 2017 debut after a flexor tendon strain sidelined him during Spring Training and was an early members for the Mets 2017 All-DL Team. Last season he went 9-8 over 22 games and 132.1 innings with a 3.40 ERA, 3.39 FIP and 1.209 WHIP. While his ERA was much lower in 2015, Matz 2016 FIP was .22 points lower in 2016 and WHIP was .033 points lower. Matz was 2-0 over 4 games against the Braves last year pitching 24.1 innings with a 3.70 ERA. The Braves have the following numbers against Matz:

• Markakis 3-11, 2B
• Flowers 2-10, 2B
• Inciarte 2-5, BB
• Phillips 3-6, HR

The Mets bats draw Matt Wisler who has pitched in 6 games for the Braves this year totaling 9.0 innings and 7 ER off 9 hits, a homer and 3 walks. Today will be Wisler’s first start of the season. Wisler made his seas debut against the Mets on 4/26 where he held the Mets to a hit over 2.0 innings, then he saw the Mets again on 5/2 where the Mets got 4 hits and 4 runs off of him in 0.2 innings. The next day the Mets got 3 runs off 4 hits in 1.1 innings, so the Mets have recorded all 7 runs on his ledger this year. The Mets have the following numbers against Matt:

•  Granderson 2-17, 2 BB
• Conforto 5-12, 2B, 2 BB
• Duda 1-11, 2 BB
• Cabrera 3-11, 2B
• Walker 2-7, BB
• Bruce 3-5, HR, BB

Let’s Go Mets!