213 Miles From Shea

It’s rivalry week where most teams are playing their Interleague partner. Of course it feels different this year as there is always an interleague series happening and one rivalry pair (Houston/Texas) is no longer interleague so they aren’t playing right now. Anyway, the Mets won last night and look to continue that into a long streak to reverse the direction the team is moving. Tonight Jon Niese takes on the Yankees and Phil Hughes.

Jon Niese is 3-5 over 10 games this season while pitching 54.1 innings and a 4.80 ERA. In his last 13.0 innings of work he has allowed only 2 ER (although thanks to the Mets defense its 5 runs). Last year he faced the Yankees twice where he allowed 4 runs, 2 earned over 13.1 innings while striking out 11 batters. The Yankees have the following numbers against Niese:

Cano 4-9, 2B
Nix 2-4
Boesch 2-2, HR
Hafner 1-2
Wells 2-3

The Mets bats will get a crack at Phil Hughes today who is 2-3 over 9 games this season over 47.1 innings while posting a 5.51 ERA. His last start (6.0 innings, 2 ER) is went much better than the start before that where he allowed 7 ER in 0.2 innings which was on the heels of a 5.2 inning 6 ER game. Last year he allowed 2 ER against the Mets in a 6.2 inning outing. The Mets have the following numbers against Phil:

Buck 2-7, HR
Davis 1-5
Wright 3-9, HR
Murphy 0-5
Byrd 0-3
Ankiel 2-2, HR

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets and Braves finish off their series in the rare/annoying Sunday Night baseball game as the Mets look to avoid being swept. Yesterday the Mets ended up losing two games dropping their resumed baseball game by the score of 7-5 and then their actual baseball game by the score of 6-0. Tonight Shaun Marcum will take the mound as he goes up against Teheran.

Shaun Marcum is 0-5 this season with a 6.59 ERA over 27.1 innings of work. Two starts ago was his best of the season where he allowed only 2 ER over 6.2 innings of work, but in his last outing against the Reds he regressed back to typical Marcum allowing 4 ER over 6 innings of work. Earlier this season he faced the Braves where he allowed 3 ER over 4.1 innings. The Braves have the following numbers against Shaun:

BJ Upton 8-23, 3 2B
Schafer 3-9, 2B
Chris Johnson 1-12
Uggla 1-10
J Upton 2-10

Julio Teheran is 3-1 this season over 8 starts with a 3.99 ERA over 49.2 innings of work. He is coming off of his best start of the season where he allowed 1 ER over 8.1 innings. Back in 2011 he logged 8.0 innings against the Mets allowing 5 ER, and the Mets have the following numbers against Julio:

Duda 1-4, 2B
Tejada, 0-4
Turner 1-3
Wright 1-2, HR

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets and Braves will play 1.1 (or more) games today as they finish off last night’s game and then start tonight’s game. Last night the Mets had a 3-2 lead with Hefner in the game before the bullpen let the game get away. Right before the game was almost called, the Mets scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth to tie it causing tonight’s first game. Right now (7:50 AM), I am not sure who will start the resumed game for both teams so I can’t preview that. I can however preview tonight’s scheduled game between Dillon Gee and Mike Minor.

Dillon Gee is 2-5 on the season over 9 games with a 6.04 ERA while pitching 44.2 innings. May continues to be a struggle for Gee who has a 6.16 ERA over 19.0 innings. He didn’t face the Braves the first time around this year and last year he made one start against the Braves where he allowed only one earned run in 7 innings of work. The Braves have the following numbers against Dillon:

Uggla 4-19, 2B, 3B
Heyward 6-12, HR
McCann 3-14, 2B
Freeman 1-11
Upton 2-8, HR

Mike Minor is 5-2 on the season over 9 starts with a 2.78 ERA while pitching 58.1 innings. He has a 2.36 ERA in the month of May over four starts and 26.2 innings of work including his first start of the month against the Mets where he allowed 3 ER and 3 hits over 7 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Minor:

Wright 2-14, 2 2B
Tejada 5-16, 2 2B
Buck 1-11, HR
Turner 3-10
Duda 4-11, 2B, HR
Byrd 4-10, 2B
Murphy 2-8, 2 2B

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets open up a home series against the Braves tonight at Citi Field where the Mets will look to Wright the ship (I’m writing this at 5:40 AM, I’m allowed a terrible pun, deal with it). Anyway, the Mets find themselves 10 games under .500 after being swept by the Reds this week and its not even June yet. There are two ways to look at that: one with deep depression, the other with optimism that there is plenty of time to turn it around. Anyway Kris Medlen will get the nod for the Braves tonight and square up against Jeremy Hefner.

Hefner is 0-5 over 9 games this year, 8 starts while pitching 45.0 innings with a 5.00 ERA. Hefner struggled in his last start allowing 4 ER over 4 innings of work. In the Month of May he’s pitched 16.o innings while allowing 11 ER. He hasn’t faced the Braves yet this season but last year he allowed 6 ER over 6.1 innings of work. The Braves have the following numbers against him:

Freeman 2-4, HR
McCann 2-4, 2B
Medlen 1-3, 2B
Uggla 2-3
Heyward 1-3

The Mets will get a crack at Medlen tonight who is 1-5 this season over 9 starts with a 3.02 ERA. In his last four starts he’s pitched 26.1 innings with a 2.73 ERA. In 27.2 innings against the Mets last year he posted an amazing 1.3o ERA while striking out 21 batters. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Davis 4-15, HR
Wright 2-16
Murphy 2-14, 2B
Tejada 3-13, 2B
Duda 1-8
Baxter 2-7

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets try to salvage this series with Matt Harvey tonight, therefore, happy Harvey Day! Last night Niese was average but the bats just produced nothing, which is becoming a sad theme of the season. The Mets will try to avoid that today against Mat Latos.

Harvey is now 5-0 on the season with an ERA of 1.55. Over 63.2 innings this year he has walked 14 batters while striking out 68. His performance in May is fairly comparable to his performance over all as he has made three starts, 1-0, with a 1.54 ERA and 23.1 innings. He made a start against the Reds last year where he pitched 7.2 innings, allowing 4 hits, 1 earned run while striking out 8. The Reds have the following numbers against Matt:

Cozart 0-4
Bruce 1-3, 2B, 2 K
Frazier 0-3, 2K
Phillips 1-3, 2B
Paul 0-1

We go from talking about Matt to talking about Mat. Mat Latos has had a good start to season where he is 4-0 over 9 games with a 2.91 ERA. In that stretch he has pitched 58.2 innings walking 19 batters and striking out 51. His last outing was a rebound start where he came back from 6.0 inning, 7 run (6 earned) performance with a 8.1 inning, 2 ER one. In two starts against the Mets last year, he was 0-0 with a 2.25 ERA allowing 3 ER over 12.0 innings.

Wright 2-11, 2B, HR
Murphy 3-9, 2B
Buck 0-8
Davis 0-6
Byrd 2-4, 2B
Duda 2-6, 2B
Tejada 1-5, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets dropped the opener to the Reds last night but look to get back on the right path as they play game two in Citi Field. Marcum got the Mets off to a rough start last night but was able to limit the damage for the rest of his outing (with the exception of one more run, which ended up being the difference). Byrd was able to tie the game with  homer but the offense as a whole wasn’t enough to keep the Mets going. Tonight it will be Jon Niese for the Mets as he squares up against Mike Leake.

Jon Niese is 3-4 over 9 starts this season with 48.1 innings of work while posting a 5.40 ERA. So far this season he has walked 24 batters while striking out 24. After two bad starts in a row (8.1 innings, 15 ER) he got back on the winning horse last time out with a 7.1 inning, 2 ER performance. Last year he had one start against the Reds where he allowed 4 ER and 6 hits over 7 innings. The Reds have the following numbers against Niese:

Phillips 5-13, 2B, 2 HR
Votto 2-10, HR
Bruce 2-8, HR
Choo 0-3
Cozart 1-4

Mike Leake is 3-2 this season over 8 starts with a 3.72 ERA while pitching 48.1 innings. He has walked 13 and struck out 34 in that stretch. He is coming off a rather interesting start, at least from a statistics stand point. Last time out against the Marlins, he pitched 6.2 innings allowing 9 hits, but no runs, which doesn’t bode well for the Mets who have the following numbers against him:

Byrd 3-15, 2B
Wright 1-10
Murphy 1-10, 2B
Ankiel 3-8, 2B
Davis 1-8, 2B
Turner 3-7
Duda 3-3

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets continue their tour against NL Central Teams, this time at Citi Field as the Mets open up their series with the Reds. THe Mets, who recently lost 6 games in a row, now have won 3 out of their last 4 and could use this week to build off of that. Tonight Shaun Marcum will get the nod as he goes up against Johnny Cueto.

Shaun Marcum is 0-4 on the season with a 6.75 ERA over 21.1 innings of work. His last start was the best of the season so far as he allowed 3 runs, 2 earned over 6.2 innings of work. Last year he allowed one earned runs over 6.0 innings of work while striking out 7 batters against the Reds who have the following numbers against him:

Paul 3-12, 2B
Phillips 0-12, 3 K
Votto 5-9, HR
Bruce 2-8, HR
Choo 2-9, 3B

The Mets bats will try to do some damage against Johnny Cueto who is 1-0 this season over three starts and 17.1 innings with a 2.60 ERA. This will be Cueto’s first start since mid-April due to oblique issues. Last year he made one star against the Mets where he allowed 1 earned run over 7 innings of work allowing 6 hits and striking out 8 Mets. The Mets have the following numbers against Johnny:

Wright 5-17, HR
Ankiel 7-16, 2B, HR
Byrd 6-11, 2B
Murphy 2-7
Davis 2-6
Turner 2-3, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

This weekend, the MLB did a soft release of the All-Star BP jerseys linking them to the online site. Since the late 90’s, All-Star Batting Practice jerseys have been made in the style of the host city. They range in styles and I’ve been waiting anxiously to see what the Mets one’s will look like. The American and National League uniforms look like this:

Let’s break it down. Both uniforms are in Mets colors and the main logo features the skyline on the Mets circular logo. The standard All-Star patch is on the sleeve. I imagine when the team logos are placed on the jerseys, for the Mets it may look redundant but I’m ok with that. The secondary All-Star logo is featured on the laundry tag.

Thankfully, the different color color on the top back of the jersey was ditched. This is featured on about half of the leagues BP uniforms and the All Star BP jerseys last year. Instead we have a striped color which looks pretty nice. Also interestingly, the inside of the uniforms our swapped from each other.

Still to come: National League and American League hats, USA Jersey and World Jersey for the Minor League game.

While surfing around the internet today I came across this article with a picture of a delicious new ballpark concession item:

Mets go to Pittsburgh July 12th-14th. Lets get on this people.

The Mets look to bounce back from yesterday’s loss this afternoon as Dillon Gee takes on Travis Wood in the rubber game in Chicago. Yesterday the Mets just could not get it done on all fronts, but Rick Ankiel still hit a homer. Anyway, let’s hope for the the best today!

Dillon Gee is 2-5 on the season over 8 games with 39.2 innings of work while posting an ERA of 6.13. In the month of May he has made two poor starts sandwiched around a good start thus making 1-1 over 14.0 innings of work with a 6.43 ERA while walking 7 and striking out 9. Last year he was 1-1 over 13.0 innings with a 3.46 ERA. The Cubs have the following numbers against Gee:

Castro 3-9
Barney 2-9
Soriano 1-8, 2B
DeJesus 3-7
Rizzo 3-6, 2B

The Mets bats will get a crack at Travis Wood today who is 4-2 over 8 games and 53.1 innings of work with a 2.03 ERA. He’s 2-1 over 3 games over 21.1 innings with a 1.69 ERA while walking 6 batters and striking out 13 batters. Last year he was 2-0 against the Mets over 13.0 innings with a 1.38 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Wood:

Byrd 2-9, 2B
Tejada 0-8
Wright 3-9, 3B
Davis 1-5
Duda 1-6, HR
Buck 1-4, HR
Turner 3-4, 2B
Valdespin 0-1

Lets Go Mets!