213 Miles From Shea

The Mets try to redeem themselves today as they play the Cubs after dropping the first two games in the series. Yesterday Jon Niese fumbled through his start but left the team in a position where (under normal circumstances with a lineup that can string together hits into runs) a team could still win. That didn’t happen as the bullpen took a misstep, widened the lead and the Mets offense faded into the distance. Today Jeremy Hefner, making another audition to stay in the rotation when Wheeler arrives, faces off against Matt Garza.

Hefner has been a nice surprise on the team this season. Don’t let the 1-6 record fool you, he has been putting in work this season (sorry, I’m with my students too much and it’s changing my vernacular). Over 13 games he has pitched 70.0 innings with a 4.11 ERA walking 22 batters and striking out 51. In his last four games he has pitched to the tune of a 2.52 ERA over 25.0 innings with 21 strikeouts.His last poor start was against the Cubs where he allowed 4 ER over 4.0 innings of work. The Cubs have the following numbers against him:

Schierholtz 2-6
Castro 0-4
Rizzo 1-3
Soriano 1-1, 2B, 2 HBP
Barney 0-2

The Mets bats go up against Garza who is 1-1 over 5 starts and 27.1 innings of work while posting a 6.26 ERA. This is mostly due to his last outing where he allowed 9 ER in 5.0 innings. He wasn’t pitching yet this season when the Mets went to Chicago. The last time the Mets met up with Garza was back in 2011 where he allowed 3 ER in 7.0 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Buck 3-12, 2 2B
Byrd 4-11, 2 HR
Duda 0-3
Wright 0-3
Turner 0-1

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets look to bounce back from last night’s game as they face the Cubs in game two with Scott Feldman going up against Jon Niese. Niese is 3-5 over 12 games on the season while pitching 68.0 innings with a 4.24 ERA. In his last four starts he’s totaled 27.0 innings with a 1.69 ERA walking 7 while striking out 18. He missed the Cubs earlier this season and last year he allowed 8 ER over 14.0 innings against the Cubs who have the following numbers agaisnt the Mets:

Soriano 4-14, 2B
Castro 5-13, 3B, HR
Barney 4-9
Rizzo 1-7, 2B
Hairston 0-3

The Mets bats go up against Scott Feldman who is 5-5 over 12 starts and 72.2 innings with a 3.22 ERA. His last four starts have been a palindrome of sorts as he has gone 5.1 IP, 5 ER, 6 IP with 2 ER, 6 IP with 2 ER and most recently 6.0 IP with 5 ER. He looked good against the Mets earlier this season as went 6.2 innings (he has only done that twice this season) allowing 7 hits and no runs. The Mets have the following numbers against Feldman:

Buck 3-15, 2 2B, HR
Wright 1-5
Duda 1-3
Murphy 2-3
Cowgill 0-2

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets and Cubs start a series in New York tonight as the Mets continue to look for a reliable source of offense. Yesterday Harvey allowed one run, and that was enough to lose the game as the Mets bats did nothing for him, even with David Wright going 3-4. Anyway tonight Edwin Jackson gets the nod for Cubs as he goes up against Shaun Marcum.

Marcum was the definition of hard luck in his last outing. After the the Mets / Marlins game went into extras, Marcum took the hill and tossed 7 scorless frames. In his 8th inning, the 20th in the game, he allowed one run, which saddled him with the loss. It was one of the longest relief outings in major league baseball since the late 80’s and an impressive outing for Shaun forcing his season ERA down to 4.96. However, the Mets bats struggled and he is now 0-7 on the season. The Cubs have the following numbers against Marcum:

DeJesus 3-23, 2B
Navarro 5-19, HR
Castro 2-16, 3B, HR
Barney 4-14, 3 2B, HR
Soriano 2-11, 2B

Edwin Jackson is 2-8 this season over 12 games and 65.2 innings while posting an ERA of 5.76. He picked up the loss against the Mets earlier this season allowing 3 ER over 6.2 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against Edwin:

Byrd 6-21, 4 2B, HR
Buck 3-16, HR
Wright 4-13, HR
Murphy 2-12, HR
Valdespin 0-6

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets and Cardinals play the rubber game of the series today, which also falls on Matt Harvey Day! In a slightly, not as exciting theme, Harvey Day is once again “really bad weather day”. The tri-state is looking at another 1-2 inches of rain today, so it will be interesting to see if the Mets can get this game in today. Anyway, last night the Mets finally won again thanks to a third great start in a row by Dillon Gee and solo homers by Duda, Wright and Byrd. Harvey goes up against a villain in Mets history: Adam Wainwright.

Matt Harvey is 5-0 on the season while pitching 13 games over 90.0 innings of work with a 2.10 ERA and 95 strikeouts. After having a bad start two starts ago, Harvey bounced back with a 7.0 inning, 1 run performance. The Mets bats however decided to dip out for the season day, so the Mets ended up losing in 20 innings. He faced the Cardinals last season allowing 3 ER over 5.0 innings while striking out 4 batters. The Cardinals have the following numbers against Harvey:

Craig 1-3
Freese 1-3
Holliday 0-3
Jay 1-2
Molina 1-2

Adam Wainwright is 9-3 on the season over 13 starts with a 2.34 ERA while pitching 96.0 innings. He leads the league with 3 complete games and 2 complete game shutouts (and wins too). One of his losses this year came from the Mets who got 6 hits and 4 runs, 3 earned, over 6.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Wright 3-12, 2 2B
Buck 1-11, HR
Byrd 3-11, 2B
Duda 2-5, 2B, HR
Murphy 6-9, 2 2B, 3B
Omar Q 4-9, 2 2B

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets had a new look on the field last night and if the game ended after the first inning, it would have looked great. As the game went on the defense started to fall apart and the pitching couldn’t stop the bleeding as the Mets ended up allowing 7 unearned runs. The Mets look to reverse this tonight, as well as score some runs as Dillon Gee takes the mound against Shelby Miller.

Dillon Gee is 4-6 over 64.0 innings of work and 12 starts with a 5.20 ERA. Gee is coming off of back to back excellent starts where he has combined to throw 14.1 innings while allowing 2 ER and 19 strikeouts. The only downside is he allowed 12 hits in his last start, which is living on the edge a bit too much. Gee faced the Cards the first time around this season allowed 6 runs, 5 earned over 4.0 innings and 9 hits. The Cards have the following numbers against Gee:

Freese 3-8
Holliday 2-8, 2 2B
Molina 0-9Beltran 2-7
Craig 3-5

The Mets bats will get a look at Shelby Miller tonight who is 7-3 over 12 starts and 75.1 innings with a 1.91 ERA (geeeezzzeeeee). In a start against the Mets earlier this season he allowed 0 runs over 5.2 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against Miller:

Murphy 2-4, 2B
Duda 0-3
Wright 1-3
Buck 0-2

Lets Go Mets!