213 Miles From Shea

Today’s picture of the day is a sign in St. Lucie where the Mets high A team plays as well as where the Mets have Spring Training. Photo taken on 4/14/17

After winning the series opener, the Mets dropped the second game of the series 9-7 game that saw the Mets take an early 2-0 lead, the Braves and Mets exchanging barbs from 2-2 to 3-3, an eventual Braves pull away to 9-3 and a failed Mets comeback to 9-7. There are still two games to go in Atlanta and plenty of time for the Mets who will have Jacob deGrom on the mound tonight.

Jacob deGrom is 1-1 over 5 starts and 31.2 innings this year with a 2.84 ERA. In his last two starts he has allowed 6 ER over 12.2 innings all against the Nationals walking 7 and striking out 22. (Note: 6 of those 7 walks were in one game where he lasted 5.2 innings). His season opener was against the Braves where he pitched 6.0 scoreless innings with 1 walk and 6 K’s. The Braves have the following numbers against Jacob:

• Freeman 4-22, 2B, HR
• Markakis 6-17, HR
• Peterson 3-15, 2B
• Inciarte 4-13, 2B
• Kemp 3-13, 2 2B
• Garcia 2-7
• Bonifacio 0-5

This will never get any easier to type: The Mets will face Bartolo Colon tonight. He is 1-2 on the season allowing 18 ER over 29.0 innings (5.59 ERA). His season started off well facing the Mets and holding them to 1 ER and 2 hits over 6.0 innings. Then he blew up for 6.0 runs over 4.0 innings against Miami before shutting down the Padres over 7.0 innings. In his last two starts he has allowed 10 ER and 11 hits over 12.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Big Sexy:

• Cabrera 1-20, 2B
• Granderson 4-15, 2 HR
• Reyes 5-15
• Walker 3-12, 2B, HR
• Bruce 2-7, 2 HR
• R Rivera 2-5, 2B, HR

Let’s Go Mets!

Today’s picture of the day is a photo of Robert Gsellman starting in Miami on 4/13.

You know which team I love to watch? I love to watch the New York Michael Confortos. They always play hard, they have a beautiful swing at the plate, and they should get to play all the time.

The Mets took the opener of the series last night with the Braves thanks to a big game from Conforto who started the game with a lead-off homer and finished the game with 3 RBI’s. The Mets will now turn to Matt Harvey today to keep the streak going as the bats get to see folk hero R.A. Dickey again.

Matt Harvey is 2-1 over 5 games and 29.2 innings with a 4.25 ERA. His last start was against the Braves where he allowed 6 ER over 5 hits and 4.1 innings against the Braves. Today will also be his first start since April 16th that is actually planned (he pitched on the 21st early for deGrom and on the 27th for Syndergaard). In his season opener against the Braves, he held them to 2 ER and 3 hits over 6.2 innings, mostly due to Matt Kemp. The Braves have the following numbers against Harvey:

• Freeman 4-24, 4 2B
• Markakis 5-16, 2B
• Inciarte 3-15, 2B
• Phillips 3-14, 2 2B
• A. Garcia 3-14
• Kemp 3-12, 3 HR
• Peterson 4-12, 2 2B
• Suzuki 1-8
• Flowers 0-5
• Swanson 0-4

R.A. Dickey is 2-2 in as many starts this season pitching 23.2 innings with a 3.80 ERA. Hist last start was against the Mets where he allowed 5 hits and 3 runs, 2 earned, over 5.0 innings in a game where he left early due to muscle spasms. The Mets have the following numbers against Dickey:

• Granderson 5-31, 2 2B
• Reyes 5-27, HR
• Cabrera 6-21, 2B, 3B, 2 HR
• Walker 4-16, 2B
• Bruce 6-15, 3 2B, HR
• R Rivera 1-7, HR
• Lagares 1-4, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

Today’s Mets Picture of the Day is courtesy of my Dad, David Teichman, who took this photo on 4/29/17 before the game against the Nationals. Picture is at the Bullpen down the block from Nationals Park.

Here’s the positive way to look at the past weekend: The Mets took 2 of 3 from the Nationals beating both Scherzer and Strasburg thanks to big offensive games from Conforto and d’Arnaud. Bruce and Reyes also showed signs of life again.

That’s the mantra I’m running through my head today because yesterday was an ugly loss. The Mets lost both the game, by a lot, and Noah Syndergaard as the injury bug on the team is a full scale epidemic.  On a completely unrelated note, this will be the Mets first trip to SunTrust park, the new home of the Atlanta Braves. I don’t have too many fond memories of watching the Mets play at Turner Field on TBS as a kid growing up outside of Baltimore, so I’m hoping the Mets will build a positive history at SunTrust in the coffers of my gray matter.

The Mes will turn to Robert Gsellman tonight and this is the night they need Robert to be the same pitcher he was last September. He is 0-2 over 5 games and 4 starts this season with a 6.23 ERA over 21.2 innings. His last start was against Atlanta and it was his worst start of the season allowing 6 runs, 5 earned over 4.0 innings allowing 10 hits. He had an inning against the Braves on Opening Day as well, allowing 2 hits and no runs. The Braves have the following numbers against Gsellman:

• Freeman 3-8
• Kemp 4-9, 2B, HR
• Garcia 5-9, 2B
• Inciarte 1-7
• Markakis 3-9
• Flowers 3-7, 2B
• Peterson 2-6, 2 2B
• Swanson 2-5

The Mets will see Julio Teheran again. Julio is 2-1 on the season over 5 starts and 29.1 innings with a 3.38 ERA. After tonight, 50% of his 6 starts will be against the Mets. Opening Day was typical Julio vs the Mets as he held the Mets scoreless over 6.0 innings with only 4 hits. His last time out though the Mets were able to score 2 runs over 4 hits and 6.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Teheran:

• Granderson 7-32, 2B, 2 HR
• Bruce 4-22, 2 HR
• Walker 2-22
• d’Arnaud 2-22
• Reyes 3-18, 3B
• Cabrera 6-17, 2 2B
• Lagares 4-18
• Conforto 1-6
• Plawecki 0-5
• TJ Rivera 1-3

Let’s Go Mets!

On my way down to Miami two weeks ago, I stopped at the Columbia Fireflies. I planned this trip way before Tebow landed himself on the Fireflies roster. I really want to dislike him playing on the farm team but his presence did make the game more fun.

The photo below has be edited through a watercolor filter. Photo taken on 4/12/17.

Another picture from my roadtrip down to Miami on 4/13/17, Cabrera and a friend were both intensely staring at the field.

The Mets are trying to flip the script today from last weekend as they look to complete the sweep against the Washington Nationals. In the first game of the series, the Mets and Nationals flipped-flopped the lead for a bit before the Mets took a 7-3 lead and then held it together through a bases loaded / no outs in the 9th inning to win 7-5. Yesterday, despite the Nationals taking an early 1-0 lead, Conforto carried the Mets on two homers and the Mets won 5-3 on an uncomfortably hot day. The weather didn’t deter Familia who got over his performance the previous night and locked it down.

The Mets will be calling on Noah Syndergaard today, who has had an interesting week. With the rain-out on Tuesday, he was slated to go Wednesday and the Mets would skip Gsellman. Then the Mets pushed him to Thursday and before game time it was revealed he was suffering through biceps tendinitis and Harvey made the start instead. Syndergaard tossed on Friday and got the green light to go, so here we are! On the season he is 1-1 over 4 starts with a 1.73 ERA in 26.0 innings of work with no walks and 30 strikeouts. He is coming off of his worst start of the season where he allowed 5 runs, 3 earned in 7.0 innings against the Phillies. This will also be his first start in 2017 against the Nationals. Last year he was 1-3 over 5 starts and 28.2 innings against them with a 3.45 ERA. The Nationals have the following numbers against Noah:

• Harper 5-18, 2B
• Rendon 6-19, 2B, HR
• Werth 2-17
• Murphy 3-12, 2 2B
• Zimmerman 2-11, 2 2B
• Lobaton 1-6
• Taylor 1-6
• Turner 1-6
• Lind 1-3

The Mets bats will contend with Joe Ross who is 1-0 this season over 2 starts and 11.2 innings allowing 8 ER, 3 walks with 9 strikeouts. It is worth nothing that his numbers may be skewed because this will only be his third start this season and his bad start, his last one, was in Colorado. Before that he allowed 3 ER over 7.0 innings against Atlanta. He was 1-0 in as many starts against the Mets last year despite allowing 4 ER and 10 hits over 6.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Ross:

• Granderson 3-10
• Walker 2-5, HR
• d’Arnaud 2-5
• Bruce 1-3
• Cabrera 0-2
• Plawecki 0-3
• Lagares 1-2

Let’s Go Mets!

On April 13th, the Mets played an epic 16 inning game against the Marlins. For some reason, I drove from Newark to Miami.

And I got to see Rene Rivera play first! It was a highlight?