213 Miles From Shea

The Mets are moving up 95 to Philly this weekend for a series with the Phillies after taking 3 of 5 from the Braves this week. Yesterday the Mets held it together with solo shots with Wright (2 of them) and Brown followed by an RBI double by Satin later. Tonight Jeremy Hefner will be facing Cole Hamels.

Hefner is 1-6 this season over 75.0 innings with a 3.96 ERA. Hefner has pitched 18.0 innings in the month of June with a nice 1.50 ERA as he continues to prove why he should be in the rotation when Wheeler is fully added. His second start of the year was against the Phillies where he allowed 5 ER over 3.0 innings, so doing well tonight will be a nice statistical point to plot growth. The Phillies have the following numbers against him:

Rollins 3-7, 2 2B
Mayberry 1-4
Brown 2-2, HR
Howard 3-3, HR
Galvis o-2

The Mets draw a common foe in Cole Hamels tonight. Hamels is 2-10 (league leading in losses) on the season pitching 15 games, 94.0 innings with a 4.40 ERA. Hamels has been turning it around in June making three starts pitching 20.0 innings posting a 2.70 ERA and he did a good job against the Mets earlier this season allowing one earned run over 6.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Cole:

Wright 18-54, 3 2B, 3B, 4 HR
Buck 2-25, 2 HR
Murphy 6-23, 2B, HR
Duda 1-12
Byrd 3-13
Young 3-8

Lets Go Mets!

The Braves and Mets finish off their five game series this afternoon against the Braves and, it’s a rubber game! The Mets dropped the first game of the series that started at 10:05 in Atlanta due to rain thanks to a two run homer in the ninth and very little run support throughout the game. The Mets then won two games on what may be the best day of the season as Harvey dominated followed by Wheeler dominating. Marcum had a rough start last night and the offense couldn’t smooth it over so it comes down to this. If this was the playoffs, this would be the crucial game 5. Alas, it’s not. Jon Niese gets the nod as he goes up against Mike Minor.

Jon Niese is 3-6 over 13 games and 73.2 innings while posting a 4.15 ERA. Niese has been solid in his last five starts totaling 32.2 innings with a 1.93 ERA. His one start against Atlanta this year was not so good as he allowed 7 ER over 4.0 innings of work. The Braves have the following numbers against Niese:

Uggla 9-30, 3 2B, 3B
Freeman 7-22, 2 2B, 2 HR
Heyward 8-20, 2 2B, 2 HR
R. Johnson 7-18
J Upton 6-13, 2B
McCann 1-12

Mike Minor is 8-2 over 14 games this year with a 2.68 ERA while pitching 90.2 innings. He’s coming off of a rough start allowing 5 runs, 4 earned over 6 innings. It was the second time in the last three games that Minor gave up 4 or more runs (not necessarily earned). In two starts against the Mets this year he allowed 3 ER over 14.1 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Minor:

Wright 2-17, 2 2B
Buck 1-11, HR
Duda 5-14, 2B, HR
Byrd 4-13, 2B
Murphy 2-13, 2 2B

Lets Go Mets!

Earlier this year the Fresno Grizzlies participated in a Star Wars Night with special storm trooper uniforms:

(Source)

Yesterday was a lot of fun! Let’s do it again! The Mets played two games yesterday. In the day game, Harvey dominated for 7 innings, and then the Mets held on to the lead to give Harvey his first win in over a month. Last night, Zack Wheeler made his major league debut and was good as the Mets were also able to win that game thanks to a four run 8th. Wheeler didn’t dominate last night, he had some nerves early and his off speed was just slightly off, but he still shutout the Braves. Tonight Shaun Marcum looks to build on the momentum as he takes on Kris Medlen.

Marcum is 0-8 this season with a 5.43 ERA over 54.2 innings of work. He started off poorly in his last start and the Mets just could not recover from that as he allowed 6 ER over 5.2 innings. His pattern generally is one bad outing followed by a good outing, so lets see what happens today. He has a 3.97 ERA over 11.0 innings and two games against the Braves this year, who have put up the following numbers against him:

BJ Upton 8-26 2B
Laird 4-14
Uggla 2-12, HR
J Upton 3-13
Schafer 3-9, 2B
Heyward 1-12

The Mets bats will deal with Kris Medlen today who is 3-7 over 14 games this season pitching 84.1 innings with a 3.09 ERA. He started June off with 13 scoreless innings in two starts but in his last outing he allowed 4 ER over 6.0 innings of work. In his only start against the Mets this year, he allowed 3 ER over 6 innings and 7 hits. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Wright 4-19
Murphy 4-16, 2 2B
Duda 2-10
Buck 1-5, HR
Turner 0-5
Byrd 1-4
Spin 0-2

Lets Go Mets!

THE BIG DAY.

Today is more than just Harvey day. It is more than Wheeler day. It is more than Wheeler debut day. It is Harvey and Wheeler Day! I would say chances of this happening again are rather slim but the Mets run into bad weather like I miss the subway (ie. a lot). Anyway, last night’s game got delayed until after 10 and the Mets ended up losing the game 2-1 after a 2 run homer in the ninth. Gee was very close to a complete game shutout and he ended up driving in the only run of the game (#Typical). Anyway, since I’ll be working all day, here are both game previews:

Game 1:

Matt Harvey is 5-1 on the season with a 2.04 ERA over 97.0 innings with 102 K’s vs 20 BB’s. In his last start, he allowed 1 ER over 7 innings and criticized himself for not putting up 0’s. In reality, he didn’t get any run support. Last year he allowed 2 ER over 6.0 innings of work while walking 5 and striking out 3 (one of the few games where he walked more than struck out). The Braves have the following numbers against Harvey:

Freeman 0-3
Heyward 1-3, HR
Uggla 0-1
J. Upton 0-2

Alex Wood takes the mound for the Braves in the first game, making his first start in his major league career. So far this year he has pitched in 6 games, finishing 4 allowing 3 ER over 7.2 innings of work. In the minors this year he made 10 starts totaling 57.0 innings with a sparkling 1.26 ERA at the AA level. In his previous season, at A level, he had a 2.22 ERA over 52.2 innings. As to be expected, he has never faced the Mets and no current Mets have any stats against him.

Game 2:

Zack Wheeler makes his major league debut in the night cap, very close to where he grew up (how many times will we hear that tonight?). At the beginning of the season, the story line was, “Harvey is good, Wheeler is better”. It is hard to believe at this point that will be true at least at the end of this season (Harvey has been better than expected by far) but Wheeler still brings it. In pitcher friendly PCL league, he pitched in 13 games with a 3.93 ERA over 68.2 innings while striking out 73 batters. There are no MLB players with official batting numbers against him.

Paul Maholm at the age of 31, finds himself at the far end of the veteran scale when compared to the other three starters fans will see today. Maholm is 7-5 over 14 games this year while pitching 86.1 innings with a 3.65 ERA. Last year he was fantastic against the Mets in two starts, he pitched 15.0 innings and allowed no runs at all. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Wright 8-29, 2B
Byrd 3-20, 2B
Buck 4-10, 2B, 3B, HR
Murphy 7-12
Duda 0-1

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets start a four game set with the Braves tonight with the key day being the double-header tomorrow that is also Harvey/Wheeler Day but before we can get to that, we have a Dillon Gee game. Yesterday the Mets somehow won. At points yesterday the defense was so poor that it doesn’t even qualify under the word defense. Anyway Byrd hit a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the ninth and Kirk followed by a three run homer and the Mets…won. (This team is so Mets) Tonight Dillon Gee goes up against Tim Hudson.

Dillon Gee is 5-6 on the season with a 4.84 ERA while pitching 70.2 innings. This now makes three games in a row where Gee has allowed only one run per game, leaving him with an 1.29 ERA over 21.0 innings and 3-0 record. In his only start against the Braves this year, he allowed 5 ER over 5 innings of work. The Braves have the following numbers against Gee:

Heyward 7-15, HR
Uggla 4-21, 2B, 3B
McCann 3-16, 2B
Freeman 2-14
Upton 3-11, 2B, HR
Johnson 3-5, 2B

The Mets bats get a crack at Tim Hudson who is 4-6 while pitching 83.2 innings this year while posting a 4.41 ERA. Tim had a rough May where he saw his ERA blow up from 3.86 to 5.37. So far in June though he has pitched 21.2 innings over three starts with a 1.66 ERA. In one start against the Mets this year he allowed 3 earned runs over 7.1 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Tim:

Wright 17-79, 2 2B, 3 HR
Duda 6-23, 2B, HR
Murphy 4-18, 2B
Buck 2-16
Turner 1-9
Byrd 1-5

Lets Go Mets!