213 Miles From Shea

The Mets try to slow their losing roll tonight as they take on the Phillies for game two of the series. Last night the Mets got outplayed in essentially every category as the Phillies took the game 10-0. Tonight, Niese looks to get the Mets back to playing baseball as he takes on Vance Worley.

Niese is 11-10 this season with a 4.05 ERA. In his last two starts he has pitched 13.2 innings with a 3.29 ERA. Against the Phillies this year he has pitched in four games over 23.2 innings with a 3.42 ERA, which is even more impressive when you remember that his first start against the Phillies this year was a 4 inning, 6 earned run disaster. The Phillies have the following numbers against Jon:

Ibanez 4-16, HR

Rollins 4-16

Valdez 6-17, 2 2B

Francisco 1-10

Howard 1-13

The Mets get another look at Vance tonight who is 8-1 on the season with a 2.76 ERA. In the month of August, he has pitched in 14.0 innings with a 5.41 ERA (also due one bad start, a great start, and a shortened good start). He has a 3.77 ERA against the Mets this year in 14.1 innings of work and the Mets have the following numbers against him:

Bay 2-6

Thole 2-5, 2B

Turner 2-6

Pagan 1-5

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets try to break out of their slump tonight as they make a visit to the city of Brotherly love to start a series with the Phillies. The Mets are on a streak right now similar to the start of the season, and will look to Dillon Gee to help raise them out of it as he takes on Cliff Lee.

Dillon Gee is 11-4 this season with a 3.94 ERA. After two poor starts in a row, he posted a positive one his last time out where he went 6.2 innings allowing only one earned run. This season he has faced the Phillies once as he came out of the pen, pitched 1.2 innings while allowing 4 ER. The Phillies have the following numbers on Gee:

Howard 2-4, 2 HR

Ibanez 0-4

Pence 0-2

Ruiz 0-3

The Mets bats will deal with Cliff Lee tonight who is 13-7 this year with a 2.82 ERA. In his last three starts he has pitched 24.0 innings with a 0.75 ERA (a complete game shutout, 8 innings of shutout, 7 innings 2 earned runs). Against the Mets this year he has made one start where he allowed 8 hits over 7 innings, which produced only one earned run (and only one run total). The Mets have the following numbers against Lee:

Bay 3-9

Turner 0-3

Wright 2-4

Pagan 1-3

Paulino 2-3

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets suffered a tough loss yesterday after making an epic comeback to rise over a bad start from Capuano, Izzy lost the game in the top of the ninth. The Mets try to avoid the sweep at home today as Dickey faces a tough foe in Gallardo.

Dickey is 5-11 this season with a 3.77 ERA. In the month of August he has made three starts pitching 19.1 innings posting an ERA of 3.71. He has not faced the Brewers yet this season but last year he pitched two games against the Brew Crew where he totaled 14.0 innings with an ERA of 3.21. The Brewers have the following numbers on Robert Allen:

Kotsay 4-9, 2 HR

Morgan 1-11

Braun 0-7

Fielder 1-7

Hart 1-7

The Mets bats face one the aces of the Brewers rotation today in Gallardo, who is 13-8 on the season with a 3.55 ERA. In his last six starts he has pitched 41.0 innings with a 1.98 ERA. He had a bad start against the Mets this season as he pitched 4.0 innings allowing 4 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against Yovani:

Paulino 2-13, 2B

Wright 2-11, HR

Pagan 3-10, 3B

Tejada 2-4

Duda 2-3, HR

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets try to look past yesterday as they take on the Brewers for game two of this series. Yesterday, after a very long rain delay, the Mets lost by a score of 6-1. Today they look to Capuano to lead them to victory against Randy Wolf.

Capuano is 9-11 on the season with a 4.58 ERA. He has thrown two nearly identical starts his last two times out where he has pitched 12.0 innings and has allowed 8 runs in them (6 innings per game, 4 runs per game) while also allowing 9 hits per game. When he faced the Brewers earlier this season he allowed only one earned run against them in 6 innings of work. The Brewers have the following numbers on Chris:

Hairston 5-20, HR

Lopez 6-14, 2B, HR

Braun 0-3

Fielder 1-3, HR

McGehee 0-3

The Mets have to deal with Wolf today who is 10-8 with a 3.30 ERA. In his last two starts, he has been very effective pitching a combined 16 innings allowing only one earned run (however in his last start, he also walked 5 batters). Against the Mets this season he pitched 6.2 innings allowing only one earned run. The Mets have the following numbers against Randy:

Wright 9-30, 3 2B, HR

Bay 5-12, 3 2B, HR

Hairston 4-13, 2 2B, HR

Pagan 4-11, 2B

Paulino 5-7

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets and the Brewers start a series tonight as the Mets return home to Citi-Field. The Mets finally won a series in San Diego, and look tonight to continue on their journey back to .500. Pelfrey will be getting the start tonight as he faces Marcum of the Brew Crew.

Pelfrey is 6-9 with a 4.58 ERA this season. In his last start, he had to make an early exit for an injury concern. Overall in the month of August, Pelfrey has pitched 16.2 innings with a 4.86 ERA (a number that is inflated in his relief outing against the Padres, where he retired one batter and had a run charged to him). Against the Brewers this season, Pelfrey pitched 6.0 innings allowing 2 ER. The Brewers have the following numbers on Big Pelf:

Morgan 3-20

Hairston 1-14

Fielder 3-9, 2B, HR

Hart 2-9, HR

Braun 3-6, 2B

The Mets will get a look at Marcum tonight who is 10-3 on the season with a 3.50 ERA. In the month of August he has made three starts totaling 19.2 innings of work with an ERA of 4.58. In his start against the Mets this season, he pitched 6 scoreless innings where he allowed only two hits. The Mets have the following numbers on Shaun:

Bay 1-5

Hairston 1-3

Pagan 0-2

Turner 0-2

Tejada 1-2, 2B

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets and Padres close out their series today as the Mets try to avoid losing another series in Petco Park. The game time, about 6:00 here, is rather interesting because it is essentially a night game here but a day game out west. Anyway, the Mets will be behind Dillon Gee tonight as he takes on Latos, the laid back starter the Mets missed the last week when the Padres came to town.

Gee is 10-4 on the season with a 4.07 ERA. His last two starts have been statistically rough as he has allowed 9 ER in 10 innings of work. In his short career he has never faced the Padres franchise nor has he faced any body on the Padres roster.

Mat Latos gets the start for the Padres and he is 6-11 on the season with a 3.80 ERA. So far this month he has made three great starts where he has pitched 21.0 innings allowing 5 ER (an ERA of 2.14). In his career he has faced the Mets twice pitchign 12.0 innings against the Amazins with a 2.25 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Mat:

Pagan 0-6

Wright 0-4

Harris 1-4

Bay 0-3

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets finally ended their five game skid last night as they beat and the Padres in the opener of the series. Last night was a pretty good night all around for the Amazins as Duda hit a homer, Izzy got save 300, the Mets almost lost it but came back and won it and finally they signed their number 1 overall draft pick. Niese will get the start for the Mets as Luebke gets the nod for the Padres.

Niese is 11-9 this season with a 4.03 ERA. His last start was a good one, and it was against the Padres as he pitched 7.2 innings allowing 3 runs, 2 earned. Sadly, it wasn't enough for the Mets as he got saddled with the loss. The Padres have the following numbers against Jon:

Maybin 6-19, HR

Blanks 0-3

Forsythe 0-4

Darnell 0-3

Luebke is 4-6 on the season with a 3.09 ERA. He got a no decision in his last start (which was against the Mets) as he lasted 5 innings, allowing 3 hits and 2 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against Cory.

Bay 1-3

Duda 1-3, 2B

Evans 0-3

Wright 1-2

Let's Go Mets!

Earlier this season the Brewers became the Cerveceros and donned really nice gold uniforms.

This past weekend they became the Bierbrauer and donned uniforms that look just like their Navy Blue uniform, just with a different name.

Here's a picture of the Cerveceros if you forgot what they look like.

Here's a picture of the Bierbrauer uniforms if you want to see what they look like.

In normal Mets fashion, when something positive actually happens to the team or an individual player, something else happens else where in baseball that covers up the occasion. So, as Thome hit homer 600 last night, which is a huge accomplishment, but it blocked Izzy who reached save 300, which is also a huge accomplishment.

(The “and David too” was for Wright who last week who became the team leader in Total Bases, but I'll give him an article about that some other time).

It's hard to think about this as a Mets accomplishment, but Izzy started with us, and has now returned. We get a chance to celebrate his career that he made with other teams, and him as a baseball player.

Now granted, there are 23 players with 300 saves, plus Krod who will probably make it eventually. Knowing that, I can see why they are giving Thome more press since he is only the 8th player in history to hit 600 bombs. However, Izzy wasn't even an image to pick on the MLB.com main page. If I had to guess, it is because Izzy completed a pitching record and outside of Perfect Games and No Hitters, no one really clamors for. People barely show up to the ball park for hitting records anymore.

So once again, congrats Izzy. Wish we would give you more attention, but that just is not the Mets way.

The Mets start another series with the Padres (they just faced them the series before the Diamondbacks) tonight. The last time the Mets faced the Padres, they won the first two games of the series in dramatic, comeback fashion. They then lost the next two games against the Padres and were then swept by the Diamondbacks. The Mets try to get back in the right direction tonight behind Dickey who faces Harang.

Dickey is 5-11 on the season with a 3.75 ERA. In his last four starts he has pitched 25.2 innings with an ERA of 3.51. His last start was against the Padres where he allowed 5 runs, only 3 earned in 6 innings of work and was saddled with the loss. The Padres have the following numbers off of Dickey:

Maybin 3-9

Gonzalez 1-4

Bartlett 0-3

Forsythe 1-3, 2B

The Mets get to face Aaron Harang again today as he is 11-3 on the season with a 3.93 ERA. In his last four starts he has pitched 22.1 innings with an ERA of 6.85. Last time he faced the Mets, in his last start, he allowed 10 hits and 3 ER in 5.2 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against Aaron:

Bay 17-49, 6 2B, 3B, 5 HR

Wright 9-15, 3 2B, HR

Pagan 2-5

Tejada 2-3, 2B

Thole 3-3, 2B

Let's Go Mets!