213 Miles From Shea

Today’s picture of the day is a night shot! Taken on 5/20/17.

The Mets are making fans believe again! They will go for a sweep this afternoon against Philly as they look to win their 8th game in their last 9. Yesterday the Mets won a back and forth affair where they took an early lead only to see it slip away on a tough double play. They responded immediately with 2 runs to take back the lead at 3-2. In the 7th, the Phillies would score 3 to to take the lead but the Mets rallied again scoring 4 in the bottom half of the frame.

The Mets will look to Rafael Montero again who had a solid start his last time out. On the season he is 1-4 over 16 games and 3 starts with a 5.63 ERA, 3.83 FIP and 1.983 WHIP in 32.0 innings. In his last start he allowed 1 run over 5.2 innings holding the Giants to 5 hits and 2 walks, his best start by that measure, or any measure, this year. He has 0.1 innings against the Phillies on record this year where he allowed 4 hits, 4 runs, 3 earned. The Phillies have the following numbers against him:

• Galvis 3-4
• Franco 1-3
• Herrera 3-3, 3B
• Joseph 2-3
• Altherr 1-1

The Mets bats will close out the series against the rookie Nick Pivetta. Pivetta is 1-4 over 9 games and 45.0 innings this season with a 5.40 ERA, 4.94 FIP, 1.667 WHIP. June has been his most complete month of work, making 5 consecutive major league starts. One of those starts was brilliant as he held the Red Sox scoreless over 7.0 innings. Everything else, not as much. He is coming off of his worst start of the season where he allowed 6 runs over 2.2 innings to the Diamondbacks. He has never faced the Mets or any player on the Mets roster in a major league game.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets took the opener last night against Philly and now have won 6 of their last 7 games. Jacob deGrom had his 4th strong start in a row last night and the bullpen shut the door behind him again. This is the first time in a while the Mets won a game when the offense couldn’t get much going. In other words, it was nice to rely on pitching again, something that has been missing this year for a number of reasons.

Zack Wheeler will return from the disabled list this afternoon. On the season he is 3-5 over 13 games and 66.1 innings with a 5.29 ERA, 4.86 FIP and 1.538 WHIP. He had two very poor starts in a row where he allowed 15 runs over 3.2 innings and looked like he just needed a pause on the season, and I’m hoping he comes back stronger today because of that. He faced the Phillies all the way back in April. His first time against them he allowed 3 runs over 5.2 innings. Then he allowed 1 run in 5.0 innings. The Phillies have the following numbers against Zack:

• Herrera 1-4, HR, 2 BB
• Franco 0-4, BB
• Galvis 0-4
• Joseph 1-4, 2B
• Rupp 0-4
• Blanco 1-2, BB

The Mets bats will get a look at Jeremy Hellickson tonight who is 5-5 over 16 games and 90.0 innings with a 4.40 ERA, 5.48 FIP and 1.256 WHIP. The FIP is showing the difference from Jeremy this year. Last year was one of his best seasons in his career and his FIP was 3.98. Hellickson is coming off back to back strong starts where he allowed 2 runs over 13.0 innings. This will be his first start against the Mets this year. Last year he was 1-3 over 5 starts and 24.1 innings against the Mets allowing a whopping 34 hits with 8 walks leading to 21 runs. The Mets have the following numbers against Jeremy:

• Granderson 6-30, 2 2B, HR, 2 BB
• Reyes 10-30, 2B, HR, BB
• Cabrera 8-20, 2B, HR, 2 BB
• Cespedes 6-16, 3 HR, 3 BB (1.411 OPS)
• Duda 5-11, 3 2B, HR, BB (1.462 OPS)
• Bruce 1-8
• Conforto 1-5, 2B, 2 BB
• d’Arnaud 2-7, 2 2B
• Flores 1-3, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

Wheeler returns from the DL today. Here’s a picture taken during the 5th inning of his 5/20/17 start against the Angels.

The Mets won their 5th game in their last 6 against the Marlins last night and come home to face the Phillies. After a dreadful week dropping 7 of 8 to Nationals and Dodgers, the Mets beat up on the Giants and Marlins (which isn’t hard to do). Last night the Mets got a good outing from Lugo but more importantly got a strong outing from the bullpen who allowed no runs and 3 hits between Blevins, Edgin and Reed. On the other side of the ball, T.J. Rivera had another great game recording three hits.

Tonight Jacob deGrom gets the nod. He is 7-3 over 15 starts and 97.0 innings with a 3.71 ERA, 3.86 FIP and 1.268 WHIP. He is in the midst of a great stretch allowing only 3 runs, 2 earned over 25.0 innings with 12 hits and 7 walks while striking out 19. During this time his ERA is 0.72 and opponents are batting .143 against him. In his one start against the Philly this year, he allowed 2 runs off 6 hits and 2 walks in 6.0 innings. The Phillies have the following numbers against deGrom:

• Herrera 4-18
• Galvis 6-16
• Kendrick 2-16
• Rupp 1-8, HR
• Franco 2-9
• Blanco 1-5
• Morgan 0-2

The Mets bats will get a look at Ben Lively who is 1-2 over the first 5 starts of his major league career posting a 3.90 ERA, 4.99 FIP and 1.361 WHIP in 32.1 innings. Ben is coming off of his worst start of the season where he allowed 5 runs, 4 earned, over 5.1 innings. Ben was called up at the start of June. Before his call-up he was dominating in Triple A with a 6-1 record over 9 starts and 56.1 innings while posting a 2.40 ERA and 0.938 WHIP. This will be his first time facing the Mets.

Let’s Go Mets!

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!