213 Miles From Shea

The Mets and Cardinals play an afternoon game today as R.A. Dickey gets the nod against Adam Wainwright. Dickey is 17-4 on the season with a 2.63 ERA over 191.1 innings and 190 strikeouts. Dickey was amazing in his last start as he held his opponents to 5 hits in a complete game shutout. On top of that he has a 0.78 ERA in his last three starts. Earlier this season he held the Cardinals to 7 hits in a complete game shutout. The Cardinals have the following numbers against Dickey:

Beltran 5-18, 2B, HR
Holliday 3-10, 2B
Jay 1-5, 2B
Molina 2-7
Freese 0-6

Adam Wainwright is 13-11 over 27 starts and 168.2 innings with an ERA of 3.90. His last start was a rough one as he allowed 6 ER in 2.2 innings of work. Against the Mets this year he allowed 7 ER over 6.1 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Adam:

Bay 6-18, 2B
Cedeno 6-19, 2B
Wright 1-9, 2B
Davis 1-5
Thole 0-4
Duda 1-2, HR

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets will try to move beyond yesterday’s frustrating game and get back on the winning page against the Cardinals tonight as Matt Harvey takes on Jamie Garcia. Yesterday the Mets got into a hole early but scratched back thanks to two 2-Run homers. At the end, the Mets couldn’t drive in runners in scoring position and a little scuffle with the umpires brought the Mets down. But enough about yesterday, let’s move on to today. Matt Harvey is 3-3 in 7 starts this season with a 2.76 ERA over 42.1 innings. He is 2-2 in his last four starts with a 2.08 ERA pitching 26.0 innings while striking out 26 batters. Matt Harvey has never faced the Cardinals or anyone on their roster, so he has no stats against anyone in the lineup tonight.

Jamie Garcia is 3-6 over 14 starts this season pitching 85.2 innings with an ERA of 4.52. In his last two starts he has pitched 11.1 innings while allowing 10 ER. Garcia hasn’t faced the Mets yet this season, last year he pitched 7.0 innings against the amazin’s and allowed 4 runs and 0 earned runs. The Mets have the following numbers against Garcia:

Wright 2-8
Cedeno 2-6
Torres 1-5, 2B
Bay 0-4
Hairston 2-3, HR
Turner 0-3
Duda 0-1

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets bring their newly competitive selves to St. Louis today to try to slow down the Cardinals. The Mets are winners of seven of their last eight games and could help to derail the Wild Card party in St. Louis with a good series. Today Collin McHugh makes his second start of the season as he goes up against Joe Kelly.

Collin McHugh had an excellent major league debut last month when he pitched 7.0 innings allowing 2 hits and striking out 9 batters (becoming second only to Matt Harvey for strikeouts in a major league debut). After that start he was sent down to make room for Hefner’s return, a move that was criticized but Hefner has pitched well since coming back to the rotation. Anyway, Collin was 7-9 over 25 starts in the minors this season with a 2.91 ERA. Since his only major league start was against the Rockies, the Cardinals do not have any major league numbers against him.

Joe Kelly is 4-6 over 15 games and 13 starts this year pitching 82.1 innings and posting a 3.61 ERA. Kelly is coming off of his worst start of the season where he allowed 5 ER over 5 innings of work. Before that in August he was in 5 games pitching a total of 25.1 innings with a 3.81 ERA. Kelly is a rookie and has never faced the Mets or anyone on the Mets roster.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets go for a sweep, yes a SWEEP, today in Miami as the suddenly resurgent Mets try to cap off last night. Yesterday the Mets struggled offensively until the ninth inning when they scored 4 runs and took the second game from the Marlins. This afternoon Chris Young will get the start as he goes up against Mark Buehrle.

Chris Young is 3-7 over 15 starts this season totaling 85.1 innings of work with a 4.64 ERA. The month of August was an odd one for Young who had a 4.76 ERA over 5 starts. He had two great starts, one start were he was hurt by the defense and then two torrid starts, including his last one. One of his bad starts was against Miami where he allowed 7 ER in 4.1 innings of work. The Marlins have the following numbers against Young:

Reyes 2-14, 3B, HR
Dobbs 3-13, 2B
Lee 3-8
Kearns 2-5
Buck 1-3, 2B
Peterson 0-3
Stanton 3-3, 2B, 2 HR

The Mets will get a look at Mark Buehrle who is 12-11 over 166.2 innings with a 3.62 ERA in his first season as a Marlin. In his last three starts he has pitched 19.2 innings while allowing only 5 ER. In two starts against the Mets this year he has pitched 13.2 innings while allowing only 4 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Bay 4-17, 2B
Shoppach 8-18, 2 2B, 4 HR
Cedeno 5-11
Torres 1-7
Davis 1-6, HR
Duda 3-6
Wright 3-6, HR

Let’s Go Mets!