213 Miles From Shea

Last year I went to an interesting promotion night at the Binghamton Mets, “Netfix and Chill Night”. Did they know what that colloquially means? At the ballpark people dived in buckets of ice for movie snacks. Picture was taken 4/12/16.

What I have learned tonight: no one in the stadium knows what this means. Staff is also in the dark…or coy

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Apr 12, 2016 at 4:48pm PDT

The Mets pitching woes continued last night at they lost to the Rangers 8-10 despite out hitting the Rangers 17-16. Jacob deGrom had his second poor start in a row allowing 8 runs over 4.0 innings and Smoker allowed an additional 2 in the 6th. The Mets were able to score 4 runs in the last two frames but needed two more to tie the game. On the statistical side for the Mets, Lagares, Cabrera, Walker, Granderson and d’Arnaud all hit homers. Cabrera and Flores each had 3 hits (Flores raising his BA to .325 and his OPS to .847) and Lagares had 4 hits. Duda increased his OPS to .968 for the season.

Wheeler looks to put the Mets back on track tonight. He’s 3-3 over 10 starts and 55.2 innings with a 3.72 ERA, 3.98 FIP and 1.365 WHIP. In his last 6 starts he is 2-1 over 34.0 innings with a 2.65 ERA. At this point in the season, I did not expect that Wheeler (knock on wood) would be the most positive, consistent pitcher on the squad. The Rangers have the following numbers against Zack:

• Andrus 0-2, BB
• Beltre 0-3
• Chirinos 1-3, HR
• Choo 1-3, 2B
• Lucroy 0-3
• Odor 0-3

The Mets bats draw Yu Darvish tonight who is 5-4 over 12 starts and 74.2 innings this year with a 3.13 ERA, 4.02 FIP and 1.192 WHIP. Interesting for Yu, his FIP is up nearly a full run from his FIP last year, but WHIP is only up .08 or so. In Yu’s last two starts he has allowed 6 ER over 11.0 innings with 12 hits and 4 walks. The Mets have the following numbers against Darvish:

• Cabrera 5-10, 2 2B, HR
• Reyes 0-8
• Granderson 1-6, 2B, BB
• Bruce 2-3
• Walker 0-3
• d’Arnaud 0-1
• Duda 1-1, HR, BB

Let’s Go Mets!

Before leaving on a roadtrip to Cleveland last year, I saw the Mets play Miami at Citi Field and Logan Verrett make an effective spot start for the Amazin’s. Picture taken 4/13/16.

Pit stop back home to see my boys. #ElliotTakesALongDrive #Roadtrip2 #LGM2016

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Apr 13, 2016 at 10:42am PDT

The Mets will try to forget their last series as they head to Texas to take on the Rangers. The Mets fell apart Friday night, rebounded Saturday night and just never showed up on Sunday as they lost two of three to the Pirates.

Tonight Jacob deGrom will get a shot at redemption. On the season he is 4-2 over 11 games and 68.0 innings with a 3.97 ERA, 3.58 FIP and 1.368 WHIP. In back to back games he allowed 1 run over 15.1 innings and hten his last start against the Brewers happened where he allowed 8 hits and 5 walks over 4.0 innings leading to 7 runs. Only two Rangers have seen deGrom in a major league game. Lucroy is 2-12 with a double and Cashner is 0-1.

The Mets will face an old friend tonight, Dillon Gee. Gee was a Met through 2015 and spent last year with the Royals with a 8-9 record over 33 games and 14 starts over 125.0 innings with a 4.68 ERA, 5.25 FIP, 1.464 WHIP. Since joining the Rangers this year, Gee pitched 2.2 innings allowing 3 hits in first appearance and last time out he allowed 2 hits and 4 runs, none earned, over 4.0 innings. Tonight will be Gee’s first start this year. In the minors this year he is 3-4 over 9 starts with a 3.88 ERA over 51.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Gee:

• Walker 1-8, 2 BB
• Bruce 1-9, HR
• Granderson 1-5, HR, 3 BB
• Cabrera 0-6, BB
• R Rivera 1-2
• Conforto 0-1

Let’s Go Mets!

Today’s Mets Picture of the Day comes from my road trip last year to see the Mets in Cleveland. Colon had the start on Jackie Robinson Day (4/15/16) and it was one of the first De Aza homers of the year.

Big Sexy with the start for the Mets tonight in Cleveland! #BartoloForMayor #BartoloForPresident #BartoloForLife #ElliotTakesALongDrive #Roadtrip2

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Apr 15, 2016 at 4:23pm PDT

Last year I took a roadtrip around the Mets going to Cleveland. I snapped this photo on 4/16/16. Enjoy!

Happy Harvey Day! Last game of the roadtrip, back to Newark tomorrow! Lucky to take a week to see 7 baseball games for the second time in under a year. #BeautifulAprilClevelandWeather #ElliotTakesALongDrive #Roadtrip2

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Apr 16, 2016 at 1:23pm PDT

Tyler Pill was the medicine the Mets needed on his first start, so lets hope his second dose is just as good. To quote the SNY Booth, Tyler Pill on his first major league start looked like Dillon Gee at his best. Not overpowering, but worked off-speed and location to keep hitters off balance throughout the game. On the season he is 0-1 over 2 starts and relief appearance allowing 2 runs, 7 hits with 4 walks.  He doesn’t have a win to show for his start thanks to a dropped popup in the infield. His loss actually came from the Pirates in 0.2 innings where he allowed a hit, a walk and a run in the extra inning game last weekend. Pirates have limited exposure to Pill:

• Cervelli 0-0, BB
• Freese 1-1
• McCutchen 0-0, HBP
• Ngoepe 0-1
• Polanco 0-1

The Mets bats willd raw Trevor Williams who is 2-3 over 11 games and 5 starts over 36.1 innings with a 5.20 ERA, 4.61 FIP, 1.321 WHIP. After back to back starts being just slightly below average (5.2 IP with 3 ER, 5.0 IP with 3 ER), Williams is coming off of his best start of the season where he held the Diamondbacks to 4 hits and 1 run over 6.0 innings. This will be Trevor Williams first start against the Mets in his career and he has never faced the Mets when they were members of other teams.

Let’s Go Mets!

When I heard that Syndergaard was going to face Bumgarner last season at the start of May (5/1/16), I was there! The game was let and didn’t go so well for Syndergaard and little did we know it would be a preview for the Wild Card game at the end of the season.

Thoooooooorrrrrrrrrr! (vs Bumgarner)

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on May 1, 2016 at 10:14am PDT

The Mets and Pirates play game two of their series today as Gsellman takes on Glasnow. If this feels a bit like deja vu, the Mets spent last weekend with the Pirates as well.

Gsellman pitched like a pitcher who didn’t want to leave the rotation last time out and on the season he is 3-3 over 51.2 innings in 12 games and 9 starts with a 5.75 ERA, 4.36 FIP and 1.529 WHIP. In his last start he allowed only 3 hits and 2 walks leading to 2 runs, 1 earned over 7.0 innings of work against the Brewers. He missed the Pirates last weekend, has never faced the Pirates before in his major league career and has never faced any Pirates as members of other teams, so everyone is getting a first look at Robert tonight.

Tyler Glasnow for the Pirates is 2-4 over 45.1 innings and 10 starts this year with a 6.95 ERA, 4.96 FIP and 1.897 WHIP. His last start was against the Mets and it didn’t go so well for Tyler as the Mets got him for 8 hits leading to 5 runs over 5.0 innings, ending a two game stretch of good performances for Tyler (before that he had a blow up against the Diamondbacks). The Mets have the following numbers against Tyler:

• Bruce 3-3, 2 2B
• Duda 0-3
• Granderson 1-3
• Reyes 1-3
• Walker 1-3
• Cabrera 1-2, 2B
• d’Arnaud 0-2
• Harvey 1-2
• Lagares 0-2

Let’s Go Mets!

The last of a three part series of Milwaukee 2016, here’s a picture I snapped on 6/11/16 before the members of The 7 Line marched over to Miller Park. Enjoy!

About to March with nearly 1000 Mets fans to the game #MilwaukeeInvasion #OrangeAndBlueCrew

A post shared by Elliot Lester (@eteich1100) on Jun 11, 2016 at 12:00pm PDT