213 Miles From Shea

The Mets and Brewers play game two of the series tonight as both teams could possibly also be fighting the rain. Yesterday the Mets took the first game of the series behind a strong start from Gsellman, and the ability to keep the bat line moving. It was the first time this year the Mets were able to beat the Brewers.

Tyler Pill will make his first major league start. He made his major league debut on Saturday where he gave up the go ahead run in the top of the 10th in 0.2 innings of work. Pill has been tearing it up though in Vegas before coming over with a 4-1 reocrd over 9 starts and 56.1 innings with a 1.60 ERA, 15 walks and 26 K’s while posting a 1.172 WHIP.

The Mets bats will get another look at Zach Davies who is 5-3 over 10 starts and 52.1 innings with a 5.33 ERA, 5.39 FIP and 1.643 WHIP. In his last two starts he has allowed 12 hits and 4 walks over 12.0 innings totaling 5 runs. When he faced the Mets on the 13th he picked up the win despite allowing 7 hits and a walk over 5.0 innings and 4 runs. The Mets have the following numbers against Davies:

• Bruce 1-11, HR, BB
• Granderson 2-9, HR
• Walker 2-8, HR, BB
• Conforto 2-5. 2 2B, BB
• Cabrera 1-4
• Reynolds 0-3
• T.J. Rivera 1-3
• Duda 0-0, BB
• Flores 0-2

Let’s Go Mets!

Our Piazza journey down Mets Picture of the Day continues with the Hall of Fame Parade. The day before the induction, the hall of famers have a parade to the Baseball hall itself. Some players ride, others walk and sign. It’s a good time. If you have an opportunity to go, do it!

The faithful taking photos of Mike Piazza, greatest hitting catcher of all time

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Jul 23, 2016 at 3:51pm PDT

The Mets have had back to back nationally televised games, including last night’s 8 PM start and they come back to Citi Field today for a late afternoon game against the Brewers. The Mets are coming off of a series win, that should have been a sweep, but focusing on positives, they took two out of three and they try to build some momentum out of it. Bruce and Duda started hitting again this weekend while the bullpen got a bit of rest from deGrom and Harvey, but players with too many appearances still warmed up last night.

Gsellman gets the start today. he is 2-3 over 11 games and 8 starts and 44.2 innings with a 6.45 ERA, 4.27 FIP and 1.657 WHIP. His last outing was his return to the rotation where he allowed 3 runs over 6 hits and a walk in 6.0 innings of work. He was “kicked out” of the rotation by the Brewers earlier in May when he allowed 9 hits and 3 walks leading to 6 runs, 5 earned over 4.0 innings. The Brewers have the following numbers against Robert:

• Brandy 1-3
• Broxton 2-3
• Perez 1-3, 2B
• Santana 2-2, BB
• Shaw 2-3
• Thames 0-2, BB
• Villar 1-3
• Arcia 0-2

The Mets bats will face Matt Garza who is 2-1 over 6 starts and 35.0 innings with a 3.60 ERA, 4.22 FIP and 1.143 WHIP. Garza is coming off of his worst start of the season where he allowed 7 hits leading to 6 runs over 5.1 innings. He faced the Mets earlier this season allowing 5 hits and 2 walks over 6.0 innings that led to 2 runs. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

• Bruce 12-35, 4 2B, 3 HR, 6 BB
• Granderson 9-32, 4 2B, HR, 2 BB
• Walker 6-23, HR, 6 BB
• Duda 3-11, 2 2B, HR, 3 BB
• Cabrera 3-11, 2B, 2 HR
• Reyes 2-7
• Lagares 1-6
• Flores 2-5
• Conforto 0-3
• deGrom 2-2

Let’s Go Mets!

Piazza was the first superstar player that I idolized as a kid. I remember when my cousin gave me a Piazza jersey and I didn’t want to ruin it so for the first year I just hung it on my wall. Anyway, going to his induction last year was an amazing even. Picture was taken 7/24/16.

Introducing Mike Piazza! #HOFWeekend #Piazzastock

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Jul 24, 2016 at 11:08am PDT

Last night was a quintessential Mets night. The Mets had the lead going into the 9th inning and they ended up losing the game in the 10th inning. Many members of the Mets pen are still to on pace for a ridiculous high amount of appearances and they just seem to be running out of gas at this point. On the positive side, both d’Arnaud and Duda had a great night, and the Mets will need all members of the lineup on overdrive until the bullpen can get out of this phase they are in.

Hoping to help the bullpen get some rest tonight is Matt Harvey who is 3-3 over 9 starts and 50.1 innings with a 5.36 ERA, 6.05 FIP and 1.470 WHIP. To put this in perspective, in 2013, he led the league in FIP at 2.01 and his current FIP is nearly double his career numbers. His WHIP is 0.3 points higher than his career number and is nearly identical to last year. He’s coming off a short, but better start where he allowed 3 hits and 4 walks that led to only 2 runs in 5.0 innings, the first time since April 11th, he allowed only 2 runs. The Pirates have the following numbers against him:

• Stewart 0-6
• McCutchen 2-4, HR
• Polanco 1-4, 3B
• Freese 1-3
• Harrison 2-3, 2B
• Mercer 0-3

The Pirates will sent Tyler Glasnow who is 2-3 over 9 starts and 40.1 innings with a 6.69 ERA, 5.31 FIP and 1.934 WHIP. Last year he posted a 4.24 ERA, 4.26 FIP and 1.500 WHIP in 7 games, 4 starts for a total of 23.1 innings. He has been better of late allowing only 4 ER (6 runs total) in his last two starts and 11.0 innings with 10 K’s. Tonight will be his first start against the Mets and his first time facing anyone on the Mets roster in a major league game.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Piazza theme continues here on Mets Picture of the Day. Today’s picture was taken on 7/29/16 at the start of Piazza weekend and the start of what would be a spectacular sky all game long. The Mets played poorly that night, so at least this was nice to look at.

Last weekend of summer? Better spend each day at Citi Field. #MeetTheMatz #PiazzaWeekend #PiazzaStock

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Jul 29, 2016 at 5:00pm PDT

For maybe the first time all season, the Mets had a game last night like they drew it up in Spring Training. The Mets offense was on overdrive behind Neil Walker who continued his May turn up month knocking in two homers and recording 4 RBI’s and Duda smacked two doubles. On the mound deGrom was dominant  over 8.1 innings allowing only 6 hit sand a walk while striking out 10. Hopefully the Mets can do it again tonight as they try to get their season rolling.

Wheeler is 3-2 over 8 starts and 43.1 innings posting a 3.74 ERA, 4.20 FIP and a 1.292 WHIP. In his last four official starts (remember there was a non-start in this time too that was good, but rained out), Wheeler is 2-0 over 21.2 innings with 19 K’s and a 2.08 ERA. He has never faced the Pirates before and the only Pirate who has seen him in a major league game is Jaso who is 2-4 with a double and a walk.

The Mets bats draw Gerrit Cole who is 2-5 over 10 starts and 61.2 innings with at 3.36 ERA, 3.91 FIP, and 1.119 WHIP. By ERA standards he is off to a normal season and his WHIP has returned to his career number after it was way above normal last year. His FIP though is nearly a full run higher than his career average. He is coming off of his worst start since Opening Day where he allowed 5 runs and 10 hits over 4.2 innings. The last time he faced the Mets was in 2015 where he recorded a win over 8.1 innings where he allowed 6 hits and 1 walk while striking out 10 (coincidentally – Cole’s pitching line for this game is nearly identical to deGrom’s line from last night). The Mets have the following numbers against Cole:

• Bruce 5-17, 2 2B, 2 BB
• Granderson 1-6, BB
• Duda 1-6
• R Rivera 0-4, BB
• Flores 1-3
• Lagares 1-3
• Reyes 1-3

Let’s Go Mets!

Today’s picture of the day is a style of picture I’ve become slightly obsessed with making at sporting events, stitching pictures of the sky together as the game unfolds. This one was taken on the Eve of the Piazza retirement ceremony, 7/29/16. Enjoy!

Tonight at the @Mets game. #nikonvision

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Jul 29, 2016 at 6:09pm PDT

The Mets have had a frustrating past two days where they lost two games against a glorified Triple A team, which speaks volumes about our team as well. Last night the Mets made a late move to start Montero instead of deGrom due to the rain, but the game ended up happening anyway and the Mets ended up losing. At least it allows the Mets to skip Milone’s spot in the rotation this weekend without needing to tax the pen or tap Las Vegas again.

Jacob deGrom is 3-1 over 9 starts and 55.2 innings with a 3.56 ERA, 3.23 FIP and 1.311 WHIP. He is coming off of his best start of the season where he allowed 4 hits and 3 walks over 7.0 innings while striking out 9. Last year he made back to back starts against the Padres going 0-2 allowing 5 runs off 12 hits and 1 walk in 12.0 innings of work while striking out 18 batters. The Pirates have the following numbers against deGrom:

• McCutchen 3-11, BB
• Mercer 3-11
• Jaso 1-9, 2B
• Harrison 1-8
• Stewart 2-4
• Nicasio 1-2
• Marinez 0-1

Chad Kuhl is 1-4 this season over 9 starts and 40.0 innings with a 5.85 ERA, 3.78 FIP and 1.600 WHIP. He had two bad starts in a row in May totaling 10 runs over 9.0 innings with 16 hits and 3 walks. He rebounded in his last start allowing only 1 hit and 2 walks over 5.0 innings of work and no runs (by far his best start of the season). This has pretty much been Kuhl’s season. He lasts between 4-5 innings (reaching 6 or 6+ twice, both near the start of April) and he’s generally right around average. He also has games when he completely blows up. Chad has never faced the Mets or anyone on the Mets roster.

Let’s Go Mets!

I’m blending the definition of picture of the day today to be a video! I took this on 7/30/16 as the Mets revealed the 31 at top of Citi. Enjoy!

Forever Piazza! Thanks for the Memories! #PiazzaStock #HappyNumberRetirementDay

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Jul 30, 2016 at 4:08pm PDT