213 Miles From Shea

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?

The Mets finally won a game again! Last night the Mets played a very Mets game as they beat the Nationals 7-5. Travis got the offense going early with a 2 run shot in the 2nd but the Nationals immediately responded with three runs of there own. Then Travis hit a 3 runs shot and gave the Mets the lead. The game became a typical Mets game in the bottom of the 8th and 9th as Terry brought in Reed with two outs in the 8th and he promptly gave up a 2-run homer making the score 7-5. Familia came into close, loaded the bases, somehow got one out and Terry went to Edgin. Edgin got Harper to ground into a double play, the game ended and an entire fan-base breathed a sigh of relief.

Wheeler is 1-2 on the season over 4 starts and 21.2 innings with a 5.40 ERA. He is coming off a start against the Nationals where he allowed 4 ER over 7.0 innings with 2 walks and 6 strikeouts. (Runs thanks to Mr. Murphy) The Nationals have the following numbers against Wheeler:

• Werth 7-24, 2 2B, HR (Fun Fact, Wheeler has faced Werth more than any other player currently in baseball right now)
• Rendon 7-19
• Harper 4-16, HR
• Zimmerman 6-15, 2 HR
• Lobaton 3-5
• Murphy 1-3, HR, 4 RBI

The Mets bats will get a look at Stephen Strasburg who is coming off the paternity list, congrats Stephen! This season he is 2-0 over 4 games and 28.0 innings with 7 walks and 29 K. In his last two starts he has allowed 4 ER over 14.0 innings. He was 3-0 against the Mets last year over as many starts and 19.2 innings with a 1.83 ERA, 6 walks and 30 strikeouts (more than any other team he faced). The Mets have the following numbers against him:

• Granderson 3-19
• Reyes 5-22, 2 2B
• Walker 6-20, HR
• Lagares 2-14
• Bruce 5-13, 2B, HR
• d’Arnaud 4-10, HR
• Cabrera 3-9, 2 HR
• Conforto 0-9, 5 K
• Plawecki 1-6, 2B
• Rene Rivera 0-3

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets are in a tough stretch right now. The team has been in a tailspin, losing games and the players are dropping to injury left and right. Yesterday Matt Harvey made the spot start for Noah Syndergaard and the day after he worked out quite a bit. He had a rough inning which ended up being the difference maker as the Mets dropped the game 7-5 despite scoring 2 in the bottom of the ninth.

Jacob deGrom will look to get the Mets on the right path tonight. He is 0-1 over 4 starts and 24.2 innings allowing 20 hits and 7 ER this season (2.55 ERA) while walking 10 and striking out 32. Most of the negative numbers in the previous sentence were due to his last outing which was against the Nationals. He allowed a season high amount of runs (3), in his shortest outing (5.2 innings) with 6 walks (previous 3 starts had 4). The Nationals have the following numbers against Jacob:

• Harper 7-18, 2 2B, HR, 4 BB, 3 K
• Rendon 0-11, 3 BB, 3 K
• Werth 1-12
• Taylor 0-11, 5 K
• Zimmerman 4-11, 5 K
• Eaton 2-6, 2B
• Lind 1-5
• Turner 2-6, 2B
• Wieters 2-6

The Mets bats will try to break out of their slump against Max Scherzer. Piece of cake! He’s 3-1 over 4 starts and 27.2 innings with a 1.95 ERA while walking 8 and striking out 33. His last start was against the Mets and it was his longest start of the season as he went 8.0 innings allowing 3 ER with one walk and 9 K’s. The Mets have the following numbers against Max:

• Cabrera 13-58, 4 2B, HR, 18 K
• Granderson 9-33, 3 2B, 2 HR, 8 K
• Cespedes 7-20, 2 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 2 BB, 8 K
• Walker 4-19, 3 HR
• Reyes 6-20, 2B
• Conforto 5-12, 3 HR
• Bruce 3-10, 3B, HR
• Lagares 1-11
• Plawecki 2-12
• d’Arnaud 1-9, 3B
• R Rivera 1-9

Let’s Go Mets!

Now, more than ever, I hope the Mets are super careful and remember to do this all the time.

I took the above picture at an April 2015 Subway Series game where Harvey faced off against CC.

(Taken 4/23/17)

The Cliff Floyd and Robin Ventura card were some of the first baseball cards that I ever collected. Walking by these brought a strong nostalgia.

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