213 Miles From Shea

A lot of people deal with stress and hard times at work the same way, they go on vacation. Popular vacation spot in the Summer? Florida. So the Mets are going down south for three days in an attempt to get their season back on track. A week ago the Mets were one of the best teams in baseball. After last week, that feeling has evaporated. As quickly as that feeling disappeared, I’m sure it can come back. Tonight Chris Young plays stopper as he takes on Alex Cobb.

In his first start since coming back, Young pitched 5.0 innings allowing 6 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned while walking one and striking out 2. Chris Young has only made one career start against the Rays where he has allowed 7 ER over 3.1 innings of work. Very few Rays have stats against Young:

Matsui 3-5, 2 2B
Pena 0-3
Molina 0-2

The Mets bats will get a crack at Alex Cobb tonight. Cobb is 2-2 this season over 4 starts and 24.0 innings of work with a 4.13 ERA. Last season Cobb was 3-2 with a 3.42 ERA over 9 starts and 52.2 innings. Cobb is a young pitcher who, due to the nature of interleague play, has never faced the Mets before.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets try to salvage the series today as they take on Andy Pettitte for game three of the Subway Series. The Mets have dropped the first two games of the series and really need to bounce back. Yesterday the Mets had the pitching but outside of solo homers, the offense fell short. Niese will try to get the Mets back on the right track today.

On the season he is 4-2 with a 4.11 ERA over 11 starts and 61.2 innings. His last outing was a good one as he allowed 0 runs over 6.0 innings, his start before that was rough (4 ER over 5.0 IP) and before that he pitched 7.2 innings allowing only 1 ER. Last year he picked up the loss against the Yankees as he allowed 3 ER in 6 innings of work. The Yankees have the following numbers against Jon:

Ibanez 4-16, HR
Swisher 1-4
Cano 2-3, 2B
Granderson 1-3
Jones 0-3

Pettitte is 3-2 this season with a 2.78 ERA over 35.2 innings of work. Two starts ago was his worst of the season as he allowed 5 ER over 7.0 innings, but he bounced back nicely in his last start as he allowed no runs in 7.0 innings of work. The last time he faced the New York Mets was in 2009 where he allowed 5 ER in 5.0 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Bay 14-32, 2B, 3B, HR
Wright 10-21, 2 2B, 2 HR
Hairston 4-12, 2 2B, HR
Torres 1-4

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets will try to forget last night’s “game” as they taken on the Yankees for game 2 of the Subway Series tonight at 7:00. Last night the pitching wasn’t there for the Mets and the bats took the night off. As good as the Mets have been this season, that has also been a trademark feature of the Mets. When they lose, they really lose. However another trademark for this team is they come back hard after terrible losses. Dillon Gee will lead the way for the Mets tonight as he takes on Phil Hughes.

Gee is 4-3 on this season with a 4.48 ERA over 11 starts and 70.1 innings of work. Gee has been good of late. In his last three starts he is 1-0 (although the Mets are 1-2) as he has pitched 20.0 innings with a 2.18 ERA striking out 22 in that stretch. Last year he faced the Yankees once last season losing the match by allowing 4 ER over 7 innings. The Yankees have the following numbers against Gee:

Granderson 1-3, HR
Ibanez 0-4
Tex 1-4
Cano 1-3, 3B
Martin 0-2
A-Rod 2-3

Hughes is 5-5 on the season with a 4.96 ERA over 11 starts and 61.2 innings. Hughes season has been marked by great outings and the occasion terrible one that wrecks his numbers. His last two starts are a great example of that. Last time out he allowed one run over 9 innings of work. His outing before that he allowed 7 earned runs in 5.1 innings of work. He hasn’t faced the Mets since 2010 when he made two starts with a 4.97 ERA over 12.2 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against Hughes:

Bay 5-12, 2B

The natural story line for this game would be Subway Series, is Interleague play relevant, last actual event of interleague play, blah blah. However, today the story line is Johan Santana. Eight days ago Johan made history as he became the first pitcher in Mets history to throw a no-hitter and raise the spirits of queens. On a week’s rest after throwing more pitches than he has ever in his career, Johan will take the mound again tonight as faced Hiroki Kuroda and the Yankees. On the season Santana is 3-2 over 11 starts with 68.0 innings of work with a 2.38 ERA. You probably already know this, but in his last 18 innings he hasn’t allowed any runs in that time he has thrown 17 strikeouts.  In 2010 he made two starts against the Yankees with a 1-1 record over 13.2 innings with a 3.29 ERA. The Yankees have the following numbers against Santana:

Ibanez 16-46, 2B, 2 HR
Jeter 19-43, 5 2B, HR
Chavez 5-37, 3 2B, HR
A-Rod 7-33, 2 HR
Tex 8-32, 2B, 2 HR
Swisher 4-22
Cano 8-22, 2B
Granderson 1-15

The Mets draw Kuroda tonight who gets a start against a familiar National League team. Kuroda is 4-6 this season with a 68.1 innings of work and a 3.82 ERA. Kuroda was struggling a lot earlier this season but has turned the corner in his last two starts allowing only 2 ER over 15 innings of work. He was 0-2 agaisnt the Mets last year with an ERA of 6.94. The Mets have the following numbers against Kuroda:

Wright 6-14
Bay 2-12, HR
Davis 2-7, 2B, HR
Hairston 3-8, HR
Murphy 2-8, 2 2B
Thole 3-8, 2B
Duda 2-3, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets try to avoid the sweep today as they finish off their series in Washington. Yesterday the Mets just fell short of the Nationals as they lost by a score of 5-3. This afternoon should be the last game that the Mets have to play light handed as they should get a full roster back that is hopefully healthy enough to play over the weekend. Today R.A. Dickey looks to continue his incredible stretch as he takes on Chien-Ming Wang.

Dickey is 8-1 on the season over 11 starts over 73.2 innings of work with an ERA of 2.69. In his last three starts he has pitched 23.1 innings of work with an amazing ERA of 0.39. Last season he had a 1-3 record against the Nationals with a 3.82 ERA over 30.2 innings and 5 starts. The Nationals have the following numbers against Dickey:

Ankiel 9-23, 3 2B, HR
Zimmerman 4-19
Desmond 2-16, HR
Morse 4-15, 2B
Espinosa 0-11
LaRoche 2-9

Chien-Ming Wang is 1-1 on the season with a 6.43 ERA over two games, a start and 7.0 innings of work. In the minors this year he was 3-0 with a 3.52 ERA. Against the Mets last year he made two starts totaling 9.0 innings  with a 6.00 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Wang:

Wright 4-16, 2B
Duda 3-4
Murphy 1-5
Thole 1-2, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

After a disappointing loss last night, the Mets go back at it again in DC. One of the trademarks of the 2012 team is they seem to bounce back from tough losses with good form, so lets hope that continues again tonight. Anyway, the short handed Mets go with Jeremy Hefner tonight as he takes on another new addition to the Nationals team, Edwin Jackson. Hefner is 1-2 on the season with a 5.60 ERA over 17.2 innings. Hefner made a good start back on May 29 where he allowed 3 ER over 6 innings of work. Being a rookie, he has never faced the Nationals and never faced anyone on the Nationals roster.

Edwin Jackson is 1-3 on the season with a 3.17 ERA over 10 starts and 65.1 innings. The month of May was almost exactly like his yearly numbers as he made 6 starts with a 3.18 ERA. His season debut this year was against the Mets where he pitched 5.0 innings allowing 3 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against Jackson:

Torres 2-7, 2B, 3B
Hairston 0-7
Wright 1-5
Duda 1-4, 2B
Thole 1-4
Muphy 1-3

Let’s Go Mets!