213 Miles From Shea

The Mets try to pick it up and put it back together today as they go for a series split with the Nationals. After winning the first game of the set, the Mets have dropped the last two as the injury bug continues to spread itself throughout the clubhouse. Today, they turn to Steven Matz as they look to go into the All-Star break on a good note.

Steven Matz is 7-4 over 15 starts and 89.0 innings this year with a 3.34 ERA. He was the hard luck loser in his last start allowing only 2 runs against Miami in a game the Marlins eventually won 5-2 (both runs on one bad pitch to Stanton, which was the start of Stanton’s tear against the Mets). It was was Matz’s strongest start since June 1ith. In his only start against the Nationals this year came mid-May where he shut the Nationals out over 8.0 innings while striking out 7. The Nationals have the following numbers against Steven:

• Espinosa 0-3
• Heisey 0-2, BB
• Murphy 1-3
• Ramos 1-3
• Rendon 0-3, 2 K
• Taylor 1-3
• Werth 0-3

The Mets bats draw Gio Gonzlaez who is 4-8 over 17 starts and 97.2 innings with a 4.79 ERA. In his last 9 starts he has allowed 43 runs, 42 earned, over 49.1 innings for an ERA of 7.66 and a record of 1-7. His two starts against the Mets this year were back to back in mid-May and were quite different. In his first start, he held the Mets to 1 ER over over 6.1 innings. His next start started his current struggling streak where he allowed 7 ER over 5.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Gio:

• Granderson 5-35, 2B, HR
• Lagares 13-32, 3 2B, 3B, HR
• Cabrera 5-23
• Flores 2-15
• d’Arnaud3-14, 3 2B
• Cespedes 6-10, 2 HR
• Walker 3-11, HR
• Reyes 4-10, 2B
• De Aza 2-3, 2 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

After the offensive explosion from Thursday night, last night was more tame, and disappointing with a 3-1 loss to the Nationals. Further fanning fear flames, Syndergaard left the game early with Arm Fatigue. Tonight, Logan Verrett will make his first spot start for the Mets in their post-Harvey life as he goes up against Max Scherzer.

Logan Verrett is 3-5 over 23 game sand 5 starts this year with a 4.01 ERA pitching 49.1 innings. Since his last start in Milwaukee where he allowed 5 ER over 4.0 innings, he has pitched 9.0 innings allowing 4 ER (4.00 ERA) including a start against the Nationals where he allowed 2 ER over 5.0 innings. The Nationals have the following numbers against Logan:

• Rendon 1-5
• Werth 1-4
• Espinosa 1-2, 2B
• Harper 0-3
• Ramos 0-3
• Revere 1-3
• Murphy 2-3, 2B, HR

Max Scherzer is 9-6 over 18 games this year and 120.2 innings of work with a 3.21 ERA. In his last two starts he has allowed 1 ER while striking out 17 batters over 13.1 innings, including a 7.1 inning shutout performance against the Mets. In total against the Mets he has allowed 2 ER over 13.2 innings this year. The Mets have the following numbers against Max:

• De Aza 12-49, 2 2B, HR
• Cabrera 13-51, 4 2B, HR
• Granderson 8-27, 3 2B, 2 HR
• Loney 8-29, 2B, 2 HR
• K Johnson 5-25, 2 2B, HR
• Cespedes 7-20, 2 2B, 3B, 2 HR
• Walker 3-15, 2 HR
• Reyes 5-15, 2B
• Flores 0-10, 7 K

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets won the home run derby last night against the Nationals as they took the series opener by the score of 9-7. The Mets found themselves behind the Nationals at a few points in the game but the team never rolled over and brought their homer total to 21 in the month of July. Tonight Citi-Field will become the battle of the All-Stars as Stephen Strasburg goes up against Noah Syndergaard.

Noah is 9-3 over 17 games and 16 starts over 101.0 innings with a 2.41 ERA. After his worst start of the season against the Nationals on June 27th, he returned with a classic Noah start going 7.0 innings allowing only one run while striking out 8. Speaking of the Nationals though, he has had two different starts against them. In May he held them scoreless over 7.0 innings while striking out 10. In June he allowed 5 ER over 3.0 innings. The Nationals have the following numbers against Noah:

• Harper 4-13
• Rendon 5-12, 2B, HR
• Werth 1-9
• Espinosa 2-8
• Revere 4-8
• Zimmerman 1-8, 2B

Stephen Strasburg is in the midst of his best season. He has tossed 15 games over 99.2 innings so far this year with a 2.71 ERA while posting a 11-0 record. His last start was his first since June 15th and he held the Reds to no runs and no hits over 6.2 innings while walking 4 batters. Against the Mets this year he has allowed 3 ER over 10 hits and 12.2 innings while striking out 21 batters. The Mets have the following numbers against Stephen:

• Granderson 3-18
• Reyes 5-19, 2 2B
• Walker 6-17, HR
• d’Arnaud 4-10, HR
• Lagares 2-12
• Cespedes 4-8, 2B
• Flores 2-9, 2B
• K Johnson 2-8, HR
• Cabrera 2-6, HR

Let’s Go Mets!

The Nationals swept the Mets in DC last week, and the Mets looked primed to spiral out with the Cubs coming to town. Since then, the Mets have swept the Cubs and took 2 of 3 from the Marlins, gaining confidence on the way. The Mets and Nationals now play a 4-game set to end out the first half of the year.

Bartolo gets the nod for the Amazin’s. He’s 7-4 over 17 games and 16 starts this year pitching 94.0 innings with a 2.87 ERA. Since May 23rd he’s made 8 starts, 46.0 innings and has posted a 1.96 ERA (innings pitched to starts skewed due to his 0.1 inning start due to injury). He pitched back to back starts against DC in May with very different outcomes. First he allowed 3 ER over 5 hits in 4.2 innings, then he allowed 1 ER over 7.0 innings (the start that started his run). The Nationals have the following numbers against Colon:

• Revere 8-27, 2B
• Harper 3-16, HR
• Rendon 6-19, HR
• Werth 6-13, 2 2B
• Ramos 2-16, 2B
• Zimmerman 3-10
• Murphy 3-9
• Espinosa 1-8

The Mets draw the phenom prospect, Lucas Giolito, again, for his second major league start. In his only major league start, which happened to be against the Mets, he allowed no runs and 1 hit over 4.0 innings, walking two batters and striking out one. Cespedes picked up one of the walks and Granderson got the other walk and the only hit.

Let’s Go Mets!

Last night was the Stanton show at Citi Field. The only mistake Matz made all night was a change-up that Stanton hit with an exit velocity of 115 mph out to the stands. In the 8th inning, he did it again against the Mets bullpen with three runners on. All five Marlins runs came on Stanton homers. The Mets look to take the series today behind Jacob deGrom.

Jacob is 4-4 over 14 games and a 2.62 ERA this season. In his last two starts he has tossed 13.0 innings allowing only 1 ER and striking out 13 batters (his last outing was limited to 5.0 innings thanks to the rain). He has avoided the Marlins so far this year and last year he was exactly average against them allowing 9 ER over 18.0 innings while striking out 17. The Marlins have the following numbers against deGrom:

• Ozuna 6-19, 2B
• Yelich 6-19, 2 2B
• Johnons 5-14, 2B
• Stanton 2-10, 2B
• Bour 5-9, 2B
• Hechavarria 3-10, 2B
• Prado 3-8, 2B
• Rojas 1-7

The Mets draw Justin Nicolino who is 2-4 this season over 11 starts and 60.2 innings with a 5.34 ERA. In his last three starts he has allowed 14 ER over 15.1 innings while striking out 10. His last start that could be tangentially considered good was against the Mets on June 4th where he allowed 2 ER over 9 hits and a walk in 5.1 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Justin:

• Lagares 1-6
• Walker 1-5
• Flores 2-3
• Cabrera 1-3
• Cespedes 1-3
• d’Arnaud 2-3, HR
• Granderson 1-2
• Loney 2-3

Let’s Go Mets!

I really hope you didn’t turn the game off yesterday after the Marlins took a 6-0 lead. The Mets and Harvey struggled early getting some bad breaks mixed in with some difficult performance and the Marlins took advantage by putting 6 runs up against the Mets. Then the Mets started to strike back. Solo shots from d’Arnaud and Granderson brought it to 6-2. Small ball then took the score to 6-4, 6-6 and finally 8-6 in favor of the Mets. It was hte first time since last year that the Mets came back from being down 6 runs and came at a good time with the Nationals losing earlier in the day and the Marlins on the Mets heals. Now the Mets look to push their win streak to 6 games tonight behind Steven Matz.

Matz is 7-3 over 14 games and 82.0 innings with a 3.40 ERA with 79 K’s. June wasn’t a good month for Steven. He went 0-2 over 5 starts and 26.2 innings with a 5.74 ERA raising his season ERA from 2.28 to 3.40. Tonight is also Matz’s revenge night. His only start against the Marlins this year was his worst of his career, his season debut, where he allowed 7 ER over 1.2 innings. The Marlins have the following numbers against Matz:

• Yelich 2-5
• Ozuna 1-3
• Prado 1-3
• Mathis 1-2, HR
• Stanton 1-2, HR
• Hechavarria 1-1

The Mets will get a look at Wei-Yin Chen tonight, who is 4-3 over 16 starts and 91.2 innings this year with a 5.11 ERA. Chen got his start in the majors with the Baltimore Orioles and is currently in his worst season in his major league career with the Marlins. Wei-Yin had a promising stretch from May 11th to June 2nd where he pitched 29.0 innings over 5 starts and a 3.72 ERA. Since then he posted a 7.27 ERA over 26.0 innings in 5 starts. He has never faced the Mets before, but has faced several Mets when they were with other teams:

• Loney 8-24, 2 2B, HR
• Cabrera 2-16, HR
• Granderson 3-14, 2 HR
• Cespedes 3-14
• Reyes 4-9, 2B
• Rivera 2-8, 2B
• Walker 1-4, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets swept the Cubs! Now the Mets try to keep it going against the Marlins! Yesterday the Mets ended the series with a bang winning 14-3 knocking homers over the wall and a historic game from Wilmmmmaaaa Floressssss going 6-6 at the plate with two jacks.

Matt Harvey takes the ball today. He’s 4-10 on the season over 16 starts and 89.0 innings with a 4.55 ERA. He allowed 1 ER over 3.2 innings in his last start where he also walked 3 batters and allowed 4 hits. He is still waffle-ing between good starts and bad starts, so let’s hope the pendulum swings back today to good. He allowed only 1 run over 7.0 innings of work. The Marlins have the following numbers against Matt:

• Freeman 3-18, 3 2B
• Markakis 3-13, 2B
• Pierzynski 8-12, 2 2B
• Aybar 2-9
• Peterson 3-2 2B
• Garcia 2-9
• Inciarte 3-9, 2B
• d’Arnaud 1-3, 2B

The Mets bats will get another look at Tom Koehler who is 6-8 over 16 games with 87.0 innings of work and a 4.45 ERA. His last starts two starts haven’t been the best. He’s allowed 9 ER over 9.0 innings. His only start against the Mets this year was average allowing 3 ER over 6.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Tom:

• Granderson 5-25
• Lagares 6-23, 3B
• d’Arnaud 6-15, 2B
• Flores 4-13, 2 2B
• K Johnbson 3-12, 2B
• Cespedes 5-11, 3 2B, 3B
• Walker 3-8, 2B
• Loney 2-7, 2B
• Cabrera 2-5, HR

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets go for a 4-game sweep of the Cubs this afternoon at Citi-Field. Yesterday the Mets were able to beat the Cubs 4-3 thanks to a 2-run homer by walker and a 2-run base blip by Travis. As with any 4-game set, you need to beat the team drawing most of their big guns, and the Mets will draw a huge one tonight in Jon Lester. Luckily, we have one of our own going in Noah Syndergaard.

Noah Syndergaard is 8-3 on the year over 16 games and 15 starts with 94.0 innings with a 2.49 ERA. His last start was not good as he allowed 5 ER over 3.0 innings against the Nationals topping off a month where he wasn’t that dominant (outside of one start, which was his best of the season). Noah allowed 3 ER over 5.1 innings against the Cubs during the regular season and allowed only 1 ER over 5.2 innings during the playoffs. The Cubs have the following numbers against Noah:

• Bryant 4-6, 2B, 3B
• Coghlan 1-4, HR
• Montero 0-4, 3 K
• Rizzo 0-3, 2 BB
• Heyward 2-3, 2B
• Zobrist 1-3, 2B
• Baez 0-2, 2 K

Jon Lester is 9-3 over 16 starts and 106.1 innings with a 2.03 ERA in what is shaping up to be his best season in his career, rivaling 2014. In the month of June he was 4-0 over 44.2 innings with an ERA of 1.41 with 44 K’s. He faced the Mets twice in the regular season last year going 1-0 allowing 3 ER over 13.0 innings. However in the postseason against the Mets he allowed 4 ER over 8 hits in 6.2 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Lester:

• Granderson 13-47, 2 2B, 3B, 2 HR
• Cabrera 7-27, 2 2B
• Cespedes 2-16
• Loney 4-15, 2B
• K Johnson 1-15
• De Aza 4-14, 4 2B
• Flores 2-8, HR
• Walker 2-8
• d’Arnaud 2-2, HR

Let’s Go Mets!

I’m not sure what was louder at Citi Field last night: the thunder or the bats! The Mets finally woke up offensively as they smashed 5 homers including back to back shots by Loney and Cabrera, a second homer for Cabrera, a Yo! Shot and Nimmo’s first major league blast. deGrom also pitched in and out of rain delays earning his first win since the end of April. Tonight will be a more difficult night for the Mets as they go against Jake Arrieta, but at least they can counter with Bartolo Colon.

Colon is 6-4 over 16 games and 15 starts this season over 88.0 innings with a 2.86 ERA. He was the hard luck loser on record last time out only allowing 1 ER over 7.0 innings. In his last 7 starts he has pitched 40.0 innings with a stunning 1.80 ERA (Innings skewed lower per start due to his 0.1 IP outing on the 21st). He had a great start in the regular season last year against the Cubs allowing no runs over 7.0 innings and holding the Cubs to 3 hits and a walk. The Cubs have the following numbers against Bartolo:

• Zobrist 9-15, 3B, 4 HR (Geezz…..)
• Heyward 7-17, 2B, HR
• Rizzo 0-7
• Bryant 0-4, 3 K’s
• Ross 0-2
• Coghlan 0-3
• Baez 0-1

One of my co-workers is a huge Chicago Cubs fan. He calls Jake Arrieta his big, fuzzy security blanket, because you always feel good when he’s on the mound (for the record, he describes Noah Syndergaard as ours, I tried to counter that it should be Colon, but whatever). Arrieta has a league leading 12 wins this year with 2 losses over 16 starts and 103.0 innings while posting a 2.10 ERA. Since late May though, he’s been more human going 4-2 over 7 starts and 40.0 innings with a 3.38 ERA. He held teams scoreless twice of those 7 starts, allowed an average amount of runs for another two, and below average to bad in the remaining three. He was 2-0 in the regular season against the Mets last year holding them to 2 ER over 16.0 innings while striking out 17 batters but in the NLCS last year he allowed 4 ER over 5.0 innings against the Mets. The mets have the following numbers against Jake:

• Granderson 11-32, 2 2B, 3B, 3 HR
• Walker 4-28, 2B, 8 K’s
• Flores 3-10, 2B
• Cabrera 4-8, 2 HR
• Cespedes 2-8, HR
• K Johnson 0-6, 3 BB, 4 K’s
• De Aza 2-5

Let’s Go Mets!

Man, the Mets needed that one last night. The game looked bleak for a while coming off of a sweep by the Nationals, and giving up two runs quickly in the first, by the top of the 6th, it looked like the Mets were going to follow the same script. This was further supported by an insurmountable third run the Cubs scored in the sixth. But then Cespedes knocked a solo shot into the third deck and later the Mets had a three run rally, where Nimmo played a key role and the Mets won! Tonight they look to do it again.

Jacob deGrom is on the bump for the Amazin’s tonight. He is 3-4 over 13 starts and 81.0 innings with a 2.67 ERA. After three average starts in a row, he came out last time with his best start of the season pitching 8.0 scoreless innings against the Braves with 6 strikeouts. In the regular season last year against the Cubs he allowed 8 runs, 7 earned over 10.1 innings. However, in the NLCS, he held the Cubs to 2 ER over 7.0 innings. The Cubs have the following numbers against Jacob:

• Rizzo 4-12, HR
• Heyward 3-9
• Coghlan 1-5
• Bryant 1-5, HR
• Montero 1-6
• Russel 1-4
• Zobrist 0-3

The Mets bats will get a crack at Jason Hammel who is 7-4 this season over 15 starts and 87.1 innings with a 2.58 ERA. He’s having his best year in his career. The Last time he was close to this was his first 108.2 innings in 2014 when he was with the Cubs before he was traded to the Athletics. In the month of June, he has made 5 starts over 31.1 innings with a slightly more human 3.45 ERA. His starts against the Mets last year were quite different. Jason dominated the Mets in the regular season pitching 8.0 innings allowing only 1 ER. But in the post season, he lasted only 1.1 innings against the Mets as the Mets scored 5 times (game 4, the clinching game). The Mets have the following numbers against Hammel:

• Loney 13-41, 3 2B, 3 HR
• K Johnson 9-30, 2B, 2 HR
• Granderson 9-26, 2 2B, 2 HR
• Walker 5-19, 2B
• Cabrera 2-8, 2B HR
• De Aza 1-6, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!