213 Miles From Shea

The Mets head on the road after a tale of two different series at home this past week. The Mets started off with a sweep of the Reds and they followed their escape from Panic City with being swept by the Cubs scoring only 1 run over 3 games. The Mets will look to reverse their offensive woes tonight against Clayton Kershaw because hey, anything can happen right?

Noah Syndergaard gets the start for the Mets tonight. On the season he is 3-4 over 9 games and 52.2 innings with a 3.59 ERA. He is coming off a strong start against the Reds where he held them to 1 ER over 8.0 innings and 5 hits while striking out 5. He has never faced the Dodgers before in a major league game and the Dodgers will be third NL West team he has faced in his young career. So far the NL West has not been kind to Noah as the Padres hit him up for 7 earned runs over 4.0 innings and the Giants scored 4 runs off 10 hits in 6.0 innings.

The Mets bats draw one of the most feared pitchers in the game tonight in Clayton Kershaw. Clayton is 5-6 over 16 starts this season and 107.0 innings with a 3.20 ERA. After a couple of non-Clayton starts allowing 3 ER over 6 and 7 innings of work, eh allowed 1 ER over 7.0 innings his last time out. The last time he faced the Mets was back in 2013, he allowed 2 ER over 5.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Kershaw:

• Cuddyer 4-15
• Mayberry 2-10, 2B
• Tejada 3-7
• Murphy 3-6
• Duda 0-4
• Granderson 0-3

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets try to avoid the sweep today after two consecutive games where the pitching was on point but that bats were no where to be found. The Mets were shutout 2-0 last night in a game where the Cubs scored both of their runs in the 11th inning and the Mets just left runners just about everywhere, except the scoring side of homeplate. Maybe Jacob deGrom can provide some offense tonight and juice the lineup a bit.

Jacob deGrom is 8-5 over 15 starts and 100.1 innings with a 2.15 ERA and 100 strikeouts this season. In his last three starts he has tossed 22.1 innings of 1.21 ERA ball while striking out 19 batters. His last bad start was against the Cubs in Chicago where he allowed 4 ER over 5 hits and 4 walks over 5.0 innings. The Cubs have the following numbers against Jacob:

• Castro 0-5
• Rizzo 2-6, HR
• Bryant 1-2, HR
• Coghlan 1-3
• Fowler 1-1
• Russell 1-2

The Mets bats will try to find themselves against Jake Arrieta who is 7-5 over 15 starts and 98.0 innings with a 2.94 ERA. He has allowed 1 ER in his last two starts and 16.0 innings of work. He dominated the Mets earlier this year pitching 8.0 innings allowing 1 run and two walks while striking out 10 batters. The Mets have the following numbers on Jake:

• Granderson 9-26, 2B, 3B, 3 HR
• Duda 4-9
• Cuddyer 2-9
• Murphy 2-9
• Flores 2-5
• Tejada 1-4
• Lagares 0-3

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets lost again yesterday by the score of 1-0. After getting a terrific start by Jon Niese and outings by the pen, they couldn’t score a single run and only recorded three hits throughout the night. Daniel Murphy returned to the lineup and recorded probably the best hit of the night with a double but it just wasn’t enough. Tonight the Mets will try to find it against Jon Lester.

The Mets will be sending out Bartolo Colon to the mound who is 9-6 over 15 games and 92.0 innings with a 4.89 ERA. His last two starts have been rough as he has allowed 11 runs, 10 earned over 10.1 innings. He missed the Cubs earlier this year and completely last year. Back in 2013 he made one start against them allowing 2 ER over 7.0 innings. The Cubs have the following numbers against Colon:

• Castro 2-3
• Rizz0 0-3
• Ross 0-1
• Denorfia 0-1

Jon Lester is 4-6 over 15 starts and 89.1 innings with a 4.03 ERA. June was an odd month for him. He opened the month pitching 9.1 innings in his first two starts allowing 11 ER, then he pitched 13.1 innings in his next two starts allowing 2 ER and he ended the month pitching 4.0 innings allowing 4 ER. Earlier this year he allowed 3 ER against the Mets over 6.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Lester:

• Granderson 11-40, 2 2B, 3B, 2 HR
• Cyddyer 5-19, 2 2B
• Mayberry 2-6
• Duda 2-3, HR
• Flores 1-2, HR
• Lagares 0-2
• Murphy 0-3
• Plawecki 1-3

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets are coming off a pretty good weekend and welcome the Cubs to Queens tonight to keep the good times going. The Mets swept the Reds this past weekend including two wins on Sunday (finishing Saturday’s game and then Matz debut). Obviously the main story line was Steven Matz, the hometown kid, who grew up a Mets fan, who fought through the minors to get here, who tossed a great game and went 3-3 at the plate with 4 RBI’s. Lets see if the Mets can keep it up.

The other Mets lefty in the 6 man rotation gets the start today, Jon Niese. Both the Cubs and the Dodgers have been linked to Niese recently so this will be an audition of sorts for the homegrown Met. He is 3-7 over 14 starts with a 4.12 ERA this season over 83.0 innings.  June has been pretty good to Jon despite going 0-2. He has tossed 26.0 innings over 4 starts with a 3.46 ERA while striking out 21 batters. Jon struggled against the Cubs earlier this year allowing 6 runs, 4 earned over 6.1 innings. The Cubs have the following numbers against Jon:

• Castro 5-22, 3B, HR
• Ross 6-20, 2B, 3B, HR
• Rizzo 2-13, 2B
• Fowler 4-14, HR
• Coghlan 2-13, 2B
• Denorfia 4-8, 2B
• Bryant 1-3

Kyle Hendricks is 2-4 over 14 starts and 78.2 innings with a 4.46 in his second season. In his last two starts he has allowed 11 runs, 10 earned over 10.0 innings. He missed the Mets the first time around this year but he faced them in his rookie season where he held the Mets to 1 ER over 7.0 innings. At the time he had a 1.48 ERA over his first 7 career starts. The Mets have the following numbers against Kyle:

• Duda 1-2, HR
• Granderson 1-3
• Lagares 0-3
• Flores 0-2

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets and the Reds will play two today, of sorts. Yesterday the Mets tried really hard to get the game in with the rain. I was there and I’ve never seen that much rain at a ballgame with the teams still playing (my personal feeling is it was a combination of the Steve Miller concert at the end of the plus the Reds only coming to town once this season). Anyway, Harvey pitched great and Granderson provided the only run of offense (and his dropped ball in the outfield led to the Reds only run, so whatever). After the Mets and Reds finish this game, it will be the battle of two rookies at Citi Field.

First, Steven Matz will make his long awaited debut for the Amazins. In the minors this year he has a 7-4 record over 15 games, 14 starts and 90.1 innings with a 2.19 ERA with 94 strikeouts. What makes his minor league numbers so surprising is he is pitching in the incredibly hitter friendly PCL league and the even more so Las Vegas park. Over the off-season Wally Backman told Mets fans at the second annual Queens Baseball Convention that Matz is the pitcher in the Mets system that he feels is the unhittable one.

The Mets bats will get another rookie today in Josh Smith. Smith will be making his second major league start after allowing 4 ER and 6 walks over 3.0 innings in his major league debut. Across three minor league levels this year he made 13 starts with a 3.04 ERA and 74.0 innings of work.

Let’s go Mets!

No Offense? No Problem. For the second straight game the Mets were able to muster up only 2 runs off of offense but it was enough as the Mets received another excellent start from their young pitching corps, this time from Noah Syndergaard. Noah was given a lead very early thanks to a leadoff homer from Granderson and while the game was tied soon after, he kept the Reds in check and the Mets squeaked away with a 2-1 win. Today, Matt Harvey will try to get similar results.

The Dark Knight of Gotham is 7-5 over 14 games and 93.1 innings with a 3.18 ERA. In his last two starts he has allowed one earned run over 13.2 innings while striking out 11, and he has three good starts in his last 4. His one start against the Reds back in 2013 was not a good one as he allowed 4 earned runs over 6.1 innings. The Reds have the following numbers against him:

• Schumaker 1-9
• Phillips 2-6, 2B
• Bruce 1-6, 2B
• Votto 2-3, HR
• Frazier 0-3

The Mets bats will try to find themselves against rookie starter Michael Lorenzen. In 11 games and 9 starts this season he is 3-2 over 55.2 innings with a 3.56 ERA while striking out 35 batters. In his last two starts he has tossed 13.0 innings allowing 3 ER and 6 strikeouts so he is on a bit of a roll. This being his rookie season, today will be his first career start against the Mets.

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets were able to avoid the sweep yesterday behind Jacob deGrom and they look to start a series with three young guns to get back on track starting tonight with Syndergaard, Harvey on Saturday and Steven Matz with his major league debut on Sunday. While we have a couple of days to figure out what this means for the Mets rotation, lets focus on tonight’s game.

Noah Syndergaard is 2-4 over 8 games and 44.2 innings with a 4.03 ERA while recording 48 strikeouts. Noah was roughed up in his last start allowing 4 runs, 3 earned over 4.0 innings against the Braves and he has only one good start in his last four. Although Noah hasn’t faced the Reds yet in a major league game, tonight is a trip back to the beginning for him of sorts as his first three major league starts were against NL Central teams.

The Mets bats will try to find themselves against Johnny Cueto tonight who is 4-4 over 13 games and 90.2 innings with a 2.98 ERA. His last two starts have not been Cueto like as he has allowed a total of 7 ER over 12.1 innings (but still struck out 13 batters). He had 1.93 ERA against the Mets last year in two starts over 14.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Cueto:

• Duda 3-13, HR
• Granderson 2-10, HR
• Lagares 2-9
• Mayberry 2-8, HR
• Tejada 1-4, 2B
• Cuddyer 1-3, 2B
• Flores 1-3, 2B

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets are in a bad way right now. Last night was the 7th loss in a row and fell below .500 (and now 3.5 games out of first place). All the Mets offense was able to muster last night was Granderson’s 11th homer of the season. Hopefully this team can dig down deep today and pull something up.

Jacob deGrom is 7-5 over 14 starts and a 2.34 ERA over 92.1 innings of work. He was a hard luck loser in his last outing allowing only 2 ER over 7.1 innings against the Braves in a game where the Mets bats could only score one run and the bullpen ultimately cost him. Jacob hasn’t allowed more than 2 ER in a start since May 11th. Against the Brewers earlier this year he picked up a win over 6.0 innings of work striking out 6 batters and allowing 1 run. The Brewers have the following numbers against him:

• Braun 0-7
• Gomez 4-9
• Lucroy 2-6, 2B
• Ramirez 2-6, 2B
• Segura 2-6
• Gennett 2-5, 2B
• Lind 0-2
• Parra 0-3

The Mets bats will try to do something positive against Taylor Jungmann who is 2-1 in his first three major league games pitching 18.0 innings posting a 3.50 ERA and striking out 14 batters. Before being called up, Jungmann was 2-3 over 11 games and 9 starts in the minors posting a 6.37 ERA over 59.1 innings. He has a career 4.10 ERA over 505.1 innings in the lower leagues. He has never faced the Mets in a major league game before.

Let’s Go Mets!

There have been brighter days in Metville. Close to game time yesterday, the Mets announced that d’Arnaud would be heading to the DL and then the Mets lost a game 3-2 because they just couldn’t string hits together. Altogether, it feels like a different lifetime since the Mets were crushing it.

Bartolo Colon is 9-5 over 14.0 games and 86.0 innings with a 4.81 ERA. His first two starts in June were strong allowing 4 ER over 13.0 innings but he couldn’t repeat that in his latest start where he allowed 7 runs, 6 earned over 4.1 innings. He made a start against the Brewers this year and it wasn’t good as he allowed 6 runs, 5 earned over 5.0 innings. The Brewers have the following numbers against Colon:

• Lind 6-19, 2B, HR
• Gomez 2-9, 2B, 3B
• Ramirez 4-9, 2B, HR
• Gennett 0-4
• Segura 1-4
• Braun 1-3, HR
• Lucroy 2-3
• Parra 2-3, 2B, HR

The Mets bats will try to get something done against Jimmy Nelson. He’s 3-8 over 14 games and 83.1 innings with a 4.64 ERA. His June has been odd. In two starts he allowed 7 runs over 5.0 innings, had a shutout over 6.0 innings and allowed 3 ER over 5.0 innings. In one start against the Mets last year he allowed 2 ER over 7.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Nelson:

• Duda 1-4, HR
• Lagares 0-3
• Granderson 1-3, 2B
• Tejada 0-2

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets really need to get off to a strong start vs the Brewers this week. They are in the midst of a 5 game losing streak, including a three game sweep in Atlanta. They come in against a struggling Brewer club and right now they need anything to right the ship. Yesterday they got a great start from Matt Harvey and went into the top of the 9th down 1-0 and got two runners on with no outs…but then very quickly from that point recorded three outs.

Tonight the game lies on Jon Niese. Niese is 3-7 over 13 games and 77.0 innings with a 4.21 ERA. He’s 0-2 in three games in the month of June where he has a 3.60 ERA over 20.0 innings with 18 K’s. He was 0-1 over 2 starts  against the Brewers last year allowing 4 ER over 12.2 innings. The Brewers have the following numbers against Niese:

• Ramirez 6-19, 2B, 2 HR
• Lucroy 6-18, 2B
• Braun 4-14
• Gomez 4-14
• Segura 1-7
• Parra 3-6

Mike Fiers is 3-7 over 14 games and 74.0 innings and an ERA of 4.50. After going 2-1 in the first three starts and 17.1 innings with a 2.60 ERA, in his last start he allowed 6 ER over 8 hits through 5.0 innings of work. He logged an inning of work against the Mets last year allowing 1 hit and 1 walk with no runs. The Mets have the following numbers against Fiers:

• Mayberry 2-3, HR
• Tejada 1-4, 2B
• Duda 1-2, 2B
• Granderson 0-1

Lets Go Mets!