213 Miles From Shea

The Mets leave Queens to go down to Atlanta to play a series with the Braves. Jon Niese gets the start for the Mets. On the season he is 12-9 over 183.1 innings while posting a 3.49 ERA. In the month of September he has pitched 18.1 innings while allowing 6 ER and he is 2-1 against the Braves this season while pitching in 3 games over 20.0 innings with a 2.35 ERA. The Braves have the following numbers against Jon:

Prado 6-27, 4 2B, 3B
Uggla 7-28, 3 2B
Chipper 4-20, 2 2B, HR
Bourn 6-16, 2B
McCann 1-12

The Mets draw Tim Hudson, who is 16-6 with a 3.61 ERA over 172.0 innings of work this season. He has made 5 starts in September pitching 31.0 innings while posting a 3.77 ERA and he has made one start against the Mets pitching 4.0 innings allowing 4 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Wright 15-65, 2 2B, 2 HR
Bay 7-23, 2 2B
Duda 4-17, 2B
Thole 4-14
Tejada 8-14, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets finish up their home schedule tomorrow as Mets look to take the series from the Pirates, but more importantly, R.A. Dickey goes for his 20th win of the season. Dickey is 19-6 with a 2.66 ERA while pitching 220.0 innings with 209 strikeouts. In his last 7 starts he has pitched 51.2 innings with a 4-2 record and a 1.92 ERA. In his one start against Pittsburgh this year he allowed only one run while pitching 7 innings and striking out 11 batters. The Pirates have the following numbers against Dickey:

Sanchez 8-21, 5 2B, HR
McCutchen 2-11
Tabata 3-12, 2B
Jones 4-13, 2B
Walker 2-12
Barajas 2-10, 2 2B
Barmes 0-1

Kevin Correia gets the start for the Pirates as he is 11-10 on the season while pitching 160 innings of work and an ERA of 4.11. In his last three starts he has pitched 19 innings allowing 8 runs, 6 earned. Last year he pitched 13.2 innings while allowing 6 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against Kevin:

Wright 11-14, 3 2B, 2 HR
Murphy 4-12
Bay 1-8
Lewis 4-7, 2B, 3B
Torres 0-4

Let’s Go Mets!

The Pirates put a stop to the Mets winning streak last night with a 10-6 score, so the Mets will try to get back on the winning track today with Hefner vs. Locke. Hefner is 2-7 over 79.1 innings this season with a 5.79 ERA. His last outing was abysmal as he allowed 6 hits and 7 earned runs without recording a single out. Hefner has never faced the Pirates in his young career, nor has he faced anyone on the roster.

Jeff Locke takes the hill for the Pirates. On the season he is 0-2 over 4 starts and 6 games total while pitching 24.2 innings with an ERA of 5.47. In his last two starts he has totaled 9.1 innings allowing 8 ER while striking out 10 batters. Jeff has never faced the Mets nor has faced anyone on Mets roster.

This is a game of mystery tonight.

Let’s Go Mets!

The World Baseball Classic is already started this month with some surprises.

In the first qualifier, Israel, Spain, France and South Africa were all trying to advance to the next round. Israel was the favorite going in as the WBC allowed Jewish players in minor league baseball (or former major leaguers) to play for team Israel. France and South Africa were eliminated first, and in an extra inning victory, Spain beat Israel, which makes the actual WBC a lot less messy as Jewish baseball players (Braun) would have had the option to play for Israel or the USA.

In the second qualifier, Canada beat out Germany, Great Britain, and the Czech Republic. This isn’t really a surprise. Canada didn’t win a game in the last tournament so they had to do play in this round.

To make a long story short, in the first two qualifiers, Israel, France, South Africa, Germany, Great Britain and the Czech Republic have all be eliminated.

Spain and Canada are moving on, with Spain being the first surprise of the team.

There will be two more qualifiers coming up to get the last two spots in the March tournament. Also, I know this is hard to imagine, but you can already purchase hats for all of the countries, even the eliminated ones.

The Mets look to win five in a row tonight as they take on the Pirates for game 2. Last night Davis knocked two out of the park as he hit the 30 homer mark for the season. He and the rest of the Mets offense (although the Pirates starter is left handed, so I guess that means Davis gets the bench today?) look to back up Collin McHugh who is 0-2 in 5 games and 3 starts on the season with a 3.86 ERA while pitching 18.2 innings and striking out 14 batters. Collin hasn’t pitched against the Pirates yet in his career and no one on the Pirates roster has stats against McHugh.

Wandy Rodriguez is 11-13 on the season while pitching in 32 games making 31 starts over 193.2 innings with a 3.76 ERA. In his last three starts he is 1-0 with a 4.32 ERA while striking out 12 batters in 16.2 innings. He made one start against the Mets this year pitching 7 innings allowing only one earned run, the Mets have the following numbers against Rodriguez:

Bay 10-22, 4 2B, 2 HR
Wright 6-21, 2 2B
Hairston 7-16, 3 2B, 2 HR
Davis 0-5
Tejada 3-4, 2 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets start their final home series of the season tonight as they host the Pirates. Jenry Mejia gets the nod for the Amazins tonight as he looks to rebound from his first start of the season. So far in 3 games this season, he has allowed 6 ER in 6 innings of work, and in his last outing he allowed 3 hits and no runs in 1.0 innings of work. In 2010 he pitched 2.1 innings against the Pirates walking 2 batters and allowing one unearned run. The Pirates have the following numbers against Jenry:

Sanchez 2-5, 2 2B
McCutchen 0-1
Alverez 0-1
Tabata 0-1

McPherson is 0-1 over 8 games and 2 starts on the season pitching 16 innings with a 2.25 ERA. In his last start he allowed 2 ER over 4.1 innings while allowing 7 hits. Kyle has never faced the Mets at the major league level as a rookie this year, thus has no official AB’s against the Mets. Total mystery.

Let’s Go Mets!