213 Miles From Shea

I’m a huge fan of the Daily News’ back page today. Post, step your game up.

The Mets got off to a strong start over the weekend as the Mets swept the Braves to open the 2012 season. During the three game stretch, the Mets bats hit double digit hits in two games in a row and the Francisco saved three consecutive games. The Nationals also got off to a strong start as they went 2-1, with two come back wins. Today Mike Pelfrey will get his first start of the season for the Mets as Edwin Jackson makes his Nationals debut.

Pelfrey struggled over Spring Training until his last start where he allowed only one earned run in 6 innings of work. There was actually a point during the spring where there was some talk about possibly releasing him. Anyway, Pelfrey last season pitched 193.2 innings with a 7-13 record and an ERA of 4.74 over 34 games (33 starts). Last season Pelfrey pitched only two games against the Nationals where he was 0-1 over 11 innings of work with an ERA of 2.31. The Nationals have the following numbers against Pelfrey:

Zimmerman 11-50, 2B, HR
Werth 9-33, 2B, 3B
Desmond 5-18, 2 2B, 3B, HR
Bernadina 2-10, 2B
Espinosa 5-10, 2B

Edwin Jackson is another new addition to the Washington Nationals, as he signed as a Free Agent in early February. Last season for the Cardinals and White Sox (2 teams), Jackson pitched 199.1 innings over 33 games (32 starts) with an ERA of 3.79. He faced the Mets only once last year where he pitched 5 innings, allowed 9 hits and 5 earned runs. The Mets have the following numbers on Jackson over his career:

Bay 3-10, HR
Hairston 0-7
Duda 1-2, 2B
Thole 1-3
Wright 0-2
Pelfrey 1-3, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets continue to grab the back pages, and in the case of the New York Post, also the front prage:

Some numbers sound so much better than others. No one would have complained with a 2-1 start. But 3-0 sounds so much better than 2-1.

The Mets have a difficult schedule in April due to the amount of NL East opponents they play, starting off 3-0 against the favorites for the Wild Card is a great way to start the season.

The major story line through this game would be Jon Niese, who took a no hitter into the 7th inning. His first two innings were a little rocky with 3 walks but after that he settled down and started to strike batters out. His line of 4 runs, 3 earned over 6 + does not do Jon justice on how well he pitched today. On top of that, it would be easy to understand the amount of pressure that could have been on him today with the combination of his first start of the season and the big contract. The success of this team in the first three games has been the good starts by the starting pitchers, who then have handed the game over to a nearly perfect bullpen, included Francisco who set a Mets club record for saving the first three games of the season.

On the side of the ball, the Mets bats had another double digit hit day. The difference today would be hitting with RISP. The Mets failed in the first two games to bring in runs on base, but today they were able to bring those runners home. Probably the turning point of the game in terms of, “Oh, the Mets are going to win this” would be Murphy’s two RBI double.

Speaking of hitting, congrats to Ruben Tejada who had 4 hits on the day, with .368 BA on the year, nearly 90 points better than Jose Reyes. (Although it would be reckless to think Tejada would hit .368 all season).

The Mets go for the series sweep today at Citi Field as the Mets take on the Braves for game 3 of the season. Yesterday the Mets beat the Braves 4-2 thanks to a good outing by Dickey, a strong bullpen, and homers from Wright and Duda. Last season the Mets only had 9 games all season where they went yard a collective three times, but it already happened in 2012. As a whole, the Mets will look to improve on hitting with runners in scoring position (1-8 yesterday) as they take on Mike Minor and the Braves.

The Braves bats will have to deal with Jon Niese in his season debut today. Niese last season had a 11-11 record with a 4.40 ERA over 157.1 innings. His 2011 season was cut short due to injury. This past spring Jon pitched 22.0 innings with a 5.23 ERA. Last year against the Braves Jon totaled 19 innings in 3 starts with a record of 2-0 and an ERA of 4.26. The Braves have put the following numbers on Niese in his career:

Uggla 7-23, 3 2B
Prado 5-19, 3 2B, 3B
Ross 6-13, 2B, 3B, HR
Diaz 1-8
Bourn 4-7
Heyward 4-8, 2B, HR
McCann 0-6

The Mets bats will look to continue hitting today against Mike Minor of the Braves. Minor was 5-3 last season over 15 starts and 82.2 innings pitched where he posted an ERA of 4.14. During that time he faced the Mets three times with a record of 1-0 over 15.0 innings of work an an ERA of 7.80. The Mets have the following numbers on Mike Minor:

Turner 3-7
Wright 1-8, 2B
Bay 3-6, HR
Tejada 2-7
Duda 2-3, 2B

Let’s Go Mets! Sweep the Braves!

After yesterday’s home run show, the New York pages actually ignored the 0-2 Yankees to write about the Mets:

I do have to admit that the puns for the Yankees on both papers were pretty good (the “Woe and Two” and the “Kuroda to Nowhere”)

The Mets clinched their first series win of 2012 today as they took down the Atlanta Braves by the score of 4-2. Just as impressive as the score for today’s game was what the Mets bats were able to do. The Mets hit three solo home runs today, one from Wright, two from Duda. Last season, the Mets  had only 9 games where the team hit a combined 3 homers or before. It also puts the Mets on pace, albeit very early (so don’t take this next sentence too seriously) for at least a homer a game, something only 6 National League teams did last year.

Anyway, Dickey had a good outing for the Mets today as he allowed only 2 runs over 6 innings. The toughest stretch for him last season was April. He is on record saying that a great knuckleball doesn’t care about the weather but a mediocre knuckleball is impacted by the wind, and April is the month of cold winds. On the same side of the ball, while it would have been tempting to go with the same combination as Thursday, today’s bullpen was just as effective. Parnell shut the door in the 7th, followed by Rauch again and then by Francisco, who made it interesting but still kept that door closed for the Braves.

The disturbing trend that continued from Monday’s game was the Mets left too many runners on base. For all of the hits today, they should have had more runners crossing the plate. Today was better, but not perfect. If you missed the game, the stars at the plate would be David Wright (3-5, HR), Duda (2 HR’s), and Thole with the go-ahead RBI. Also Captain Kirk had two hits in his major league debut.

Let’s Go Mets! Sweep the Braves tomorrow!

The Mets play game two of the season this afternoon as they take on the Atlanta Braves. The Mets pitching locked down the Braves in the Home Opener as Santana pitched 5 scoreless and a near perfect bullpen closed the door behind them. On the other side of the ball, the Mets were able to get runners on the bases, but bringing them in was a major problem as they beat the Braves by 1-0. The smudge on an otherwise great day would be losing Torres to the DL, but the Mets have called up Captain Kirk.  The Mets looked to continue the pitching and improve on the hitting today as Dickey takes on Jurrjens.

R.A. Dickey last season was 8-13 with a 3.28 ERA over 208.2 innings pitched. Last season he pitched in 5 games making 4 starts against the Braves totaling 27.2 innings with a 2.60 ERA. In the Spring, Dickey recorded 17.1 innings with a 3.63 ERA. The Braves have the following the numbers against the Knuckleballer:

Bourn 5-21, 3B
Hinske 3-20, 2 2B
Uggla 0-21
McCann 3-14, HR
Prado 2-17
Freeman 3-9, 2 2B

Jair Jurrjens will make his season debut today. Last season he was 13-6 with a 2.96 ERA over 152.0 innings of work.  Last season he made three starts against the Mets pitching 18.2 innings with a 1-2 record and a 3.38 ERA. In 2010 he pitched 12.1 innings against the Mets with a 4.38 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers on Jair:

Wright 6-29, 2B, 3B, HR
Murphy 7-23, 2 2B, 3B
Bay 3-15, 2B
Thole 3-11, 2B, 3B
Davis 0-7

Let’s Go Mets!