213 Miles From Shea

The 2015 Mets have no chill.

Yesterday a core group of regulars started on the bench and the Mets were either in the lead or close to it throughout most of the game. The Braves had a breakout bottom of the 8th where they took a 7-4 lead. The Mets then promptly tied the game in the 9th and they scored 3 in the 10th to take the game, win their 7th, stay on pace with the Nationals and lower their magic number to 11. Now they welcome the Marlins, who are surging, into Citi Field. The last time these teams faced in Miami, the Marlins took two of three and lowered the Mets division lead to 4 games (and about a week later, its at 9.5).

Logan Verrett gets the start for Matt Harvey today. Logan is 1-0 over 10 games and a start for the Mets where he has logged 23.1 innings with a 1.93 ERA. On August 23rd he made a start for the Mets where he pitched 8.0 fantastic innings allowing 1 ER, 1 walk and striking out 8 batters. Since then he had a clean inning of relief against the Phillies and allowed 3 ER against the Red Sox on the 28th of August. Tomorrow will be his first time facing the Marlins in a major league game.

The Mets bats draw Justin Nicolino in his rookie season making his 9th career start. So far he has pitched 48.1 innings with a 3.72 ERA. His ERA is inflated right now from his last start where he allowed 5 ER over 4.1 innings. Before that, he had an ERA over 1.98 over 27.1 innings and four starts. This will be his first time facing the Mets in a major league game.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets look to make it 7 straight this afternoon and close the door on a four game sweep of the Braves. Yesterday on 12 days rest, Syndergaard dominated the Braves lineup and Cespedes continued his storybook season. The Braves made a comeback late but the Mets broke the tie in the 9th and Familia closed the door after. Today Cespedes, d’Arnaud, Wright and Clippard will all get rest.

Just like Syndergaard needing a good start yesterday, Niese needs a good start today to get back on the right track. On the season he is 8-10 over 27 starts and 161.0 innings with a 4.36 ERA. In his last four starts he has allowed 23 earned runs over 19.2 innings. He has been quite good against the Braves this year allowing 2 ER over 11.2 innings. The Braves have the following numbers against Jon:

• Freeman 11-43, 2 2B, 2 HR
• Maybin 8-32, 3 HR
• Simmons 8-23, 2 2B
• Bourn 7-20, 2B
• Swisher 4-13, 2B, HR
• Markakis 1-6

The Mets will get a look at rookie Ryan Weber who making his second major league start. In his first start on the 8th he allowed 2 ER over 6.0 innings against the Phillies walking 1 and striking out 2. Across two leagues in the minors this year he posted a 6-5 record and a 2.35 ERA over 38 games, 9 starts, and 99.2 innings.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets look to roll to 6 straight tonight as they look to take the four game series against the Braves by winning the first three. Some quick notes from last night, the Mets gained a game on the Nationals, Matz looked good for 5 innings, the bullpen held up, Cespedes is stupid strong, etc.

Noah needs (mentally?) a strong game tonight, and this Braves lineup is a great opportunity for that. he is 8-6 on the season over 20 starts and 122.1 innings with a 3.31 ERA with 129 K’s. In his last four starts he has tossed 23.2 innings, 23 K’s with a 4.56 ERA. Not terrible, but it would be nice for him to get back in that mid-summer form. His one start against the Braves earlier this year wasn’t very good as he allowed 4 runs, 3 earned over 4.0 innings. The Braves have the following numbers against Noah:

• Maybin 0-2
• Peterson 0-1
• Markakis 1-2
• Perez 0-2
• Pierzynski 2-2, 3B
• Simmons 2-2

The Rookie Williams Perez is 5-6 over 19 games and 16 starts with a 5.42 ERA over 93.0 innings and 59 K’s. He’s coming off a strong performance in Philly allowing 2 ER over 7.0 innings. However in the four starts before that he allowed 24 runs, 22 earned over 17.2 innings. In his first start against the Mets this year he allowed 4 ER over 6.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Perez:

• Herrerea 1-3
• Lagares 0-4
• Campbell 0-3
• Cuddyer 0-2
• d’Arnaud 2-3, HR
• Duda 0-1
• Granderson 2-3, HR
• Tejada 1-3

Let’s Go Mets!

If you fall asleep early, you may have missed that the Mets actually played a game last night. At one point early in the night the outfield was actually flooded but the game still happened and Mets were able to extend their winning streak to 4 games. Kevin Plawecki and Uribe each had 3 RBI’s on the night. Colon added an RBI of his own, and eventually saw his scoreless streak end at 31.0 innings.

Steven Matz looks to keep the good times going for the Mets. He is 2-0 over his 3 starts this year with a 1.89 ERA over 19.0 innings with 20 K’s. His last start was his first since returning to the DL and he allowed 2 ER over 5.1 innings with 6 K’s. This will be his first start against the Braves, and he hasn’t faced any members of the Braves before when they were on other major league teams.

Matt Wisler gets the start for the Braves. The rookie has pitched in 15 games, 14 starts, over 74.1 innings with a 5-6 record and a 5.81 ERA. His first relief outing was his last time out where he pitched two scoreless innings against the Nationals. Before that for the entire month of August (+the first start in September) he allowed either 2 ER over 6.0 innings or less or allowed at least 5 ER. His ERA in that stretch was 9.49 over 30.1 innings. His major league debut was against the Mets back on June 19th and it was by far the best start of his major league career as he held the Mets to 1 ER over 8.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Matt:

• Duda 0-4
• Granderson 0-4
• Tejada 2-4, 2B
• Cuddyer 2-3
• Flores 0-3
• Herrera 0-3
• Lagares 0-3
• Plawecki 2-2

Let’s Go Mets!

What a difference a few days makes! Going into Monday, the Mets dropped two of three to the Marlins and the Nationals completed a four game sweep of the Braves. The Nationals at that point closed the gap in the division to 4 games. The Mets then completed a fantastic sweep of their own of the Nationals, knocking them down to 7 games out. Now the Mets get to face Atlanta who have won 2 of their last 3 after dropping about two hundred in a row.

Bartolo Colon is 13-11 over 28 games, 27 starts, logging 170.0 innings with a 4.18 ERA and a league leading 190 hits. He has been on fire as of late pitching 25.0 innings in three starts (+ one relief inning) allowing no runs, 19 hits (which is low for his season), and 21 strikeouts (high for his season). His season ERA was 4.90 when this streak started. In three starts against the Braves he is 3-0 over 19.0 innings, 19 hits, 13 strikeouts and a 3.79 ERA. The Braves have the following numbers against Colon:

• Pierzynski 15-56, 2 2B, 2 HR
• Markakis 9-38
• Freeman 8-18, 3 2B
• Simmons 9-17, 2 2B, 3B
• Swisher 6-12, 2 2B, 2 HR
• Peterson 1-7, 2B
• Maybin 0-4

The Mets bats draw Shelby Miller who is 5-13 over 28 starts and a 2.81 ERA over 176.1 innings. He has also tossed two complete game shutouts this year. He is coming off his worst start of the season where he allowed 7 runs, 6 earned over 4.1 innings. He has one great start and three terrible ones in his last four going a total of 0-4 over 24.1 innings allowing 17 runs, 14 earned (5.18 ERA). He’s only faced the Mets once this year and he was average allowing 3 ER and 8 hits over 6.1 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Miller:

• Duda 3-8, 2B, HR
• Uribe 1-7
• Murphy 3-7, 2B
• Cuddyer 3-6, 2B
• Wright 3-6, 2B, HR
• Cespedes 1-4
• Granderson 2-4, 2B
• Flores 1-3, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

Last night was a wild ride for the Mets. The Nationals jumped out to an early lead and the Mets were able to scratch a run back and thus the game was 3-1 Nationals heading into the 6th. Then defensive miscues and Harvey not being able to stop the bleeding led to the Nationals taking a 7-1 lead. The Mets were able to then make things interesting and made it 7-7 going into the bottom frame of the 7th. Kirk would later hit the go-ahead homer and the Mets took a game from the Nationals that they had to win and just couldn’t lose with that large of a lead. Now the Mets have the opportunity to create a worst case scenario for the Nationals picking up a sweep tonight.

Jacob deGrom is 12-7 over 26 games and 169.0 innings with a 2.40 ERA this season. His last two starts have been average to good as he allowed 2 ER over 6.0 innings and then 3 ER over 6.0 innings. This will be his fifth start against the Nationals. In his season debut he allowed 2 ER over 6.0 innings. Then he imploded allowing 5 ER over 5.0 innings at the end of April. In July he allowed 2 ER over 6.0 innings and did the same thing again in August. The Nationals have the following numbers against deGrom:

• Harper 5-13, 2B
• Desmond 4-13, HR
• Escobar 5-10, 2B
• Ramos 3-11, 2B
• Werth 1-8
• Zimmerman 3-8, HR
• Taylor 0-8, 4 K
• Rendon 0-6
• Espinosa 0-5

Stephen Strasburg will try to help the Nationals avoid the sweep tonight. He’s 8-6 over 18 starts and 91.0 innings this year with a 4.35 ERA. He’s coming off of his roughest start since returning from the DL where he allowed 4 ER over 4.0 innings. In his 5 starts since returning he’s 3-1 over 30.0 innings with a 2.70 ERA and 35 strikeouts, so he has been a different pitcher this past month. Before hitting the DL, he faced the Mets twice. He allowed 3 ER over 5.1 innings to start the season and then later allowed 2 ER over 5.1 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Stephen:

• Wright 6-19
• Murphy 4-16
• Cuddyer 5-15
• Duda 2-9, HR
• Granderson 2-10
• Tejada 2-13
• Uribe 2-10
• Flores 2-7, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets get to focus on Matt Harvey throwing tonight rather than any of the other Matt Harvey stuff as the Mets take on the Nationals for second game of the series. Yesterday the Mets got out to an early 3 run but the Nationals came back taking the lead 5-3. The Mets fought back and through some bullpen help took the opening game thus guaranteeing that in the worst possible scenario now this series, the Nationals end up 3.0 games back, but preferably putting the Mets in a position to take a critical series.

Harvey is 12-7 over 25 starts and 166.1 innings with a 2.60 ERA. After a great August where he allowed 1 ER over 27.0 innings striking out 24 batters, his last start wasn’t so good allowing 4 ER over 6.1 innings against the Phillies. This will be his fifth start against the Nationals this year. In his season opener he held the Nats scoreless over 6.0 innings, striking out 9. A month later he held them scoreless over 7.0 innings. On July 20th he allowed 5 runs, 2 earned over 7.0 innings against them and finally on July 31st he held them to 1 ER over 7.2 innings while striking out 9. The Nationals have the following numbers against Harvey:

• Desmond 5-20, 2B, HR
• Harper 0-17, 7 K
• Werth 4-16, 2B
• Zimmerman 4-17, 2B, HR
• Escobar 3-12
• Taylor 3-13, 2B
• Rendon 2-10
• Ramos 3-6, 2B

The Mets bats will get another look at Jordan Zimmermann who is 12-8 over 28 starts and 173.0 innings with a 3.38 ERA. After back to back poor starts in August, he has now tossed 13.0 innings allowing 2 ER and striking out 9 in his last two starts. This will be his fourth start against the Mets this year. He held the Amazin’s to 1 ER over 6.0 innings to start his season. On July 22nd the Mets scored 3 ER over 7.0 innings. In his last start the Mets hit him for 5 ER over 6.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Jordan:

• Murphy 20-59, 5 2B, 4 HR
• Wright 12-45, 2 2B, 2 HR
• Lagares 7-26, 2 2B
• Tejada 7-25
• Granderson 5-23, HR
• K Johnson 5-20
• Flores 4-16, 3B
• d’Arnaud 4-10, 2B
• Cespedes 1-3

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets dropped two of three to the Marlins while the Nationals rolled through a four game sweep of the Braves and now the two teams meet in DC for an incredibly important series. The Mets have a four game lead in a division and winning this series is critically important. You probably know all the math things already but a Nationals sweep puts them 1 back, a Nationals series win puts them 3 back, a Mets series win puts the Nationals 5 back and Mets sweep puts them 7 back.

Terry Collins has already said that this may be the most important start of Niese’s career. He is coming off of three bad starts and needs to put the pieces back together today. On the season he is 8-10 over 26 starts and a 4.17 ERA logging 157.2 innings. As mentioned earlier, in his last three starts he has allowed 18 ER over 16.1 innings. In the 10 starts before that he had a 2.66 ERA over 64.1 innings. He has had only one start against the Nationals this year and it was a good one where he held them to 1 run over 7.0 innings and 5 K’s despite allowing 9 hits. The Nationals have the following numbers against him:

• Uggla 10-33, 3 2B, 3B
• Werth 10-32, 2B
• Desmond 7-27, 2 2B
• Espinosa 9-21, 2B, HR
• Zimmerman 8-20, 2B
• Harper 3-13
• Ramos 6-14, HR
• Rendon 4-12, 3 2B

The Mets bats get a tall order as they face Max Scherzer, the pitcher getting paid the big bucks for games like this. He is 11-11 over 27 starts and 184.0 innings with a 2.89 ERA this year including 3 complete games, 2 shutouts. Since the beginning of August he has been more human going 0-3 over 34.0 innings with a 5.82 ERA, but bounced back in his last start allowing 2 ER over 6.0 innings. He somehow has lost both starts against the Mets allowing 3 runs, none earned over 7.2 on opening day and then 1 ER over 7.0 innings about a month later. In 14 innings he has struck out 18 Mets. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

• Cuddyer 6-24, 2B, 2 HR
• Granderson 5-19, 2B, HR
• K Johnson 4-18, 2 2B
• Uribe 4-16, 2 2B
• Murphy 3-14
• Cespedes 5-11, 2B, 3B, HR
• Flores 0-8, 5 K
• Wright 0-6

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets wrap up their series with the Marlins today!

Matz finally returns to the Mets this afternoon after being shutdown after his second start. The rookie went 2-0 in his first starts holding opponents to 2 ER over 13.2 innings, which is a 1.32 ERA, while striking out 14 batters. He did well in his rehab starts and is ready to get back to the field (and the Mets are ready to have him back). He has never faced the Marlins in a major league game before and has never seen anyone on their roster in a major league game before.

Normally I wouldn’t do this, but since I’m writing this game preview a day early and the Marlins haven’t announced their starters yet, you get a pick your own game preview!

Chris Narveson is the probable starter for Sunday, but is having a blister issue that is causing his start to be in doubt. He has pitched in 8 games for the Marlins this year and 2 starts with 20.2 innings and a 5.23 ERA. His numbers are inflated from a start against the Pirates where he allowed 7 ER over 3.2 innings. His first outing with the Marlins this year was against the Mets where he held them scoreless over 3.2 innings. Cuddyer is 4-8 with a double and a homer against Narveson and Kelly Johnson is 2-8. After that Tejada is 2-3 with a double and Cespedes has a hit, every one else has yet to get a hit off of Chris.

If Chris can’t go today then Jarred Cosart will get the start. He is 1-4 this year over 9 games and 8 starts with a 5.36 ERA, and not performing at the level he was last year when he went 13-11 with a 3.69 ERA over 30 starts. He has not pitched in the majors since July 4th where he was sent down after allowing 7 ER over 1.2 innings to the Cubs. However, he managed to make two starts against the Mets at the beginning of the year. He first allowed 5 ER and 7 hits over 5.1 innings and he later allowed no runs over 8.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Cosart:

• Granderson 0-9
• Murphy 2-9
• Flores 4-8, 2B, HR
• Lagares 3-7
• Cuddyer 1-6
• d’Arnaud 1-5

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets will try to bounce back from last night’s extra inning loss against the Marlins with Bartolo Colon. Yesterday the Mets were able to come back and force the game into extras, but it wasn’t enough as the Marlins won 6-5 and unfortunately the Nationals won so the gap in the NL East is a little closer.

Colon is 12-11 on the year over 27 games, 26 starts with a 161.0 innings and a 4.42 ERA while allowing a league leading 181 hits. Colon broke his streak of not pitching well in back to back starts with a masterful performance against the Phillies. In total in his last two starts (and one relief outing) he has logged 16.0 scoreless innings and 19 strikeouts while only walking three. He has faced the Marlins four times already this year and has had a range of results. First he was great allowing 1 ER over 7, then he wasn’t allowing 4 over 6.2, then he was average allowing 3 over 7.0 finally he was great allowing 1 over 8.0. The Marlins have the following numbers against Bartolo:

• Suzuki 34-108, 3 2B, 3B, 3 HR
• Yelich 6-18, 3 2B
• Gordon 6-16
• Prado 4-13
• Hechavarria 3-12, 2 2B
• Osuna 2-11, 2B
• Realmuto 1-10, 2B
• McGehee 4-9
• Dietrich 1-7
• Solano 4-7

The Mes bats will get another look at Brad Hand who is 4-4 over 33 games and 9 starts over 81.1 innings. His last four starts have seen two bad starts sandwich two good starts so overall in his last four he has logged 24.2 innings and 14 ER, 20 K’s with a 5.11 ERA. His first start against the Mets was good? I’m not quite sure. He held the Mets to no runs, but he was only allowed to pitch 4.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Hand:

• Tejada 1-9
• Lagares 3-11
• Wright 1-11
• Granderson 2-10, 2B
• Murphy 1-9
• d’Arnaud 1-5
• Campbell 1-4
• E Young 1-5, 2B
• Cuddyer 3-3

Let’s Go Mets!