The final stop in our three day tour of July 2011 is the Mets as they have one gem this month they are giving out. Anyway here is the promotion schedule:
July 1st-3rd: Cap Trade. The annual Cap Trade this year is vs the Yankees. Anyone know if this has happened before.
July 15th: Pyrotechnic Night
July 16th: 1986 Anniversary Cap Night. 25 years since the last World Championship for the Mets and we get a hat! But sorry no pic yet.
July 17th: MetroCard!
July 19th: A bobblhead of Ike Davis!
The Mets go for the series win in Detroit tonight as they take on the Tigers. The big relief story from the series opener was the Mets ended a 299 game, nearly two year stretch of not hitting any grand slams as both Jason Bay and Carlos Beltran hit big bombs in consecutive innings. This ball club that has shown a severe lack of power (playing without Wright and Davis since May) hit a total of three homers last night and now have scored 36 runs in the last three games. They look to continue this offense output and back up Chirs Capuano tonight.
Chris is 6-7 on the season with a 3.99 ERA. He has been on his top game in his last four starts as he has pitched 25.0 innings with a 3-1 record and a 1.08 ERA. In his career he has made one start against the Tigers where he pitched 7 innings against them and allowed 3 ER on his way to pick up the win. The Tigers have the following numbers against him:
Cabrera 7-19, 2B, 2 HR
Inge 0-4
Martinez 1-3
Ordonez 0-3
The Mets bats look to continue their ways against Phil Coke tonight who is 1-7 this season with a 4.32 ERA. He has made four starts in the month of June with one being great (6.1 scoreless innings) and the rest being bad, making his numbers 1-3 over 21.0 innings with a 5.57 ERA. In his career he has pitched 3 scoreless innings against the New York Mets who don't really have that much experience against him:
Bay 0-2
Harris 0-2
Murphy 1-1
Let's Go Mets!
Just like yeysterday we were able to look at the promotions in the American League for the month of July, today we will look at the surprises the National League has cooked up. However, we won't do the Mets today, who will get their own article tomorrow. Without further delay, your interesting National League promotions:
Washington Nationals: I love when teams give away hats that used to cost $37 if they were fitted and structured.
Chicago Cubs: Sadly no picture for this, but the Cubs will be giving a chip and dip platter this month.
Pittsburgh Pirates: I cannot even begin describe what these are.
Cincinnati Reds: This is awesome. It's a bobble head that is also a toothpick holder. They also join the list of clubs that will be giving out Jerseys this month (they are doing Rollen)
Milwaukee Brewers: There are two awesome bobbleheads coming up. They have a racing mascot and a beer mascot.
San Francisco Giants: If you watch any Giants games, you know that they have some awesome socks as part of their uniform, and they are giving them out!
This isn't some false reality folks, this is real. The Mets are above .500 tonight after a win against the Tigers and the Mets ended their Grand Slam drought tonight.
Every time this year when the Mets have loaded the bases, someone in the booth has had to make a mention of the long time between Grand Slams. The exact count tonight is 299 games the Mets went, nearly two years, without hitting a Grand Slam. While one does not need to hit grand slams to win a ball game, it certainly does not hurt as a Grand Slam generally provides a moral boost for the team who hits it, and daunting task for the other team (something the Mets have faced way too much in the last 299 games).
Jason Bay in the third inning hit the Grand Slam, capping a 7 run inning for the Amazin's. For Bay, this is crucial because he was brought here to hit home runs and he finally succeeded in a situation that we needed him too. He also hit a homer last week, so maybe this is the start of something. Not to be outdone, Carlos Beltran hit is his 11th homer of the year in the next inning, and that too was a grand slam.
The Grand Slam story line also suppresses other incredible stories from the night. For example, Jose Reyes was 2011 Jose Reyes. He stole base 29 of the season, he went 4-4 with a double and triple, he walked and he scored 3 runs. There hasn't been a player like Jose Reyes in a really long time and it has been great watching him play this season. Pagan also had a perfect night at the plate as he went 3-3 with 2 runs scored, 2 walks, a double and an RBI. Josh Thole showed some power tonight with a solo blast. Dickey had a strong outing and the bullpen was basically perfect.
All around great, and unbelievable game.
The Mets try to push themselves over .500 tonight against the Tigers in Detroit. After playing horrible on Friday night, the Mets roared back in their last two games winning 14-5 and 8-5, scoring all of those runs without the long ball. The Amazin's will look to keep up their hitting ways tonight and back up starting pitcher, R.A. Dickey.
Dickey is 3-7 this season with a 3.76 ERA. He is coming off of a no decision, where he pitched brilliantly allowing only one earned run in 8 innings of work. It was also a rebound start for him as in his previous start he allowed 6 ER in 4 innings of work. In his career he is 3-2 over 56.0 innings against the Tigers with a 4.02 ERA. Detroit has the following numbers on Robert Allen:
Ordonez 5-18, HR
Inge 5-17, HR
Cabrera 4-13, 2B
Peralta 1-8
The Mets batters tonight will get a look at Rick Porcello who is 6-5 this season with a 4.54 ERA. His last two starts have been quite rough where he has pitched a combined 7.2 innings allowing 14 runs, 11 earned. Rick has never faced the Mets in his career (I have lost count the amount of times I have written that in the last week) but he has faced Scott Hairston, who is 0-3 and Jason Bay, who is 1-2 with a homer.
Let's Go Mets!
July is here! The baseball season is half over and teams are keeping an eye on their attendance. Teams that knew they would be struggling at this point in the season were thinking during the offseason on how to keep attendance up, and a great way to do this is through promotions. As always, today we will look at the American League, tomorrow we will look at the National League, and the next day we will look at the Mets.
Baltimore Orioles: They are having a “BP Redemption Night” which is where if fans go get gas at BP, they will get free tickets to the ball park. I was disappointed with this because it sounded like they may do something with the spill from last year, but nope. Just some corporate bull.
Tampa Bay Rays: What? A DJ Cat Puppets?
New York Yankees: This is one of my favorite reoccurring promotions.
Cleveland Indians: This is a classic, tasteful tribute. Well Done.
Kansas City Royals: Another Team doing a cape. Also, this is just too awesome.
Los Angeles Angels: They have a real knack for bringing back children things, this time a sock monkey
Oakland Athletics: This is just too awesome. MC Hammer. Done.
Seattle Mariners: The Mariners make some of the best bobble heads ever. This is no exception here.
Texas Rangers: They are giving away two jerseys next month. An Ian Kinsler and a Josh Hamilton. Sadly no pictures yet.
The Mets go for a series victory today in Texas as they take on the Rangers. After being beaten in every way possible on Friday night, the Mets had a difficult task coming into Saturday. Yesterday they faced one of the better rookies on the Rangers staff and they had to do without Turner and without a suddenly productive Jason Bay. The Mets “B” lineup, which due to team injuries is really a “C” lineup, played like an “A+” lineup as they scored 14 runs without a homerun. This sort of offensive burst seems like a familiar theme this year where the bench players, when playing together seem to get a lot of hits. Anyway, the Mets look to repeat that this afternoon behind Dillon Gee.
Dillon Gee suffered his first loss of the year in his last start, making his record 7-1 with a 3.21 ERA. Today is a big day for Gee as he will be pitching in his home state where he played High School and in College. Before his last start, where he allowed 4 ER in 4 innings of work, he pitched 19.0 innings over three games while allowing only one earned run. Dillon has never faced the Rangers organization and has never faced any batters in their lineup.
The Mets batters will try to repeat Saturday against Derek Holland today who is 6-2 this season with a 4.69 ERA. In his last three starts he has pitched 19.2 innings with an ERA of 5.95. The only Mets who have seen Holland are Jason Bay who is 2-6 with a home run and Hairston who is 0-6. Holland has never faced the Mets organization before, which has become a common theme this interleague play.
Let's Go Mets!
The Mets will look to bounce back from a disappointing last night this afternoon as they play the Rangers in Texas in a nationally broadcasted game. Last night the bullpen and the starting pitching couldn't handle the Rangers bats as the long ball helped the Rangers jump to 8 runs. Meanwhile, the Mets bats, who have not seen a familiar foe in quiet some time now, were shutdown whenever they were about to ralley. The Mets look to Jon Niese today while the Mets bats will hope to hit off of Ogando.
Niese is 6-6 this season with a 3.70 ERA. Before his last start, he had a streak of 33.0 innings of work where his ERA was 1.91 however in his last start he lasted only 4 innings as he allowed 5 runs, 4 earned. As you would imagine, Niese has never faced the Rangers before as a franchise and the only player on the Rangers he has ever seen before is Torrealba, who is 1-5 against him lifetime.
Ogando is 7-2 this seasonw with a 2.66 ERA. His last two outings were the most consecutive (as in no weeks skippd like he has done a lot this seaosn) and during his last two starts he is 0-2 over 6.2 innings with a 9.45 ERA. You probably guessed this by now but he has never faced the Mets in his career and the only player on the Mets he has ever seen is Paulino, who is 0-1 against him.
Let's Go Mets!
The Mets go into Arlington tonight to start a series with the Rangers after winning a series against the Athletics in Queens. Yesterday the Mets improved to one game below .500 as they beat the A's by the score of 4-1 behind good starting, relieving and hitting. Tonight Pelfrey will take the mound as he faces Matt Harrison starts for the Rangers.
Pelfrey is 4-5 this season with a 4.70 ERA and he is coming off of his complete game outing which was his first since 2008. In his last three starts he has pitched 22.0 innings with an ERA of 2.05. Mike Pelfrey has never faced the Texas Rangers franchise before and has only faced two players on the Rangers. Torrealbla is 1-6 against Big Pelf and Andres Blanco is 1-3.
Matt Harrison is 5-6 on the season with a 3.16 ERA. He's had a good streak of two starts where he has pitched 12.1 innings allowing only 2 ER during that time (however, 5 total runs overall in that span). Harrison has only been in the league since 2008, and has never faced the Mets. The only players who have faced Matt are Jason Bay who is 1-3 and Paulino is 1-1.
Let's Go Mets!
The Mets face the Athletics this afternoon for the concluding game of this series. Oakland took the first game of the series and rallied to tie the second game of the series in the top of the ninth. The Mets would go on to win the thanks to a walk-off hit by pitch in the bottom of the 13th, which I guess is the universe's way of showing some pity from the walk-off balk loss from last week. Today's game will feature a common feature from most games in the last week, where the two starting pitchers have very little to no experience against the teams they are facing.
Chris Capuano is 5-7 this season with a 4.29 ERA. In his last three starts he has pitched 19.0 innings with a nice 1.64 ERA. Chris, a National League pitcher, has never faced the Oakland Athletics franchise and has only faced two batters on the Athletics. Conor Jackson is 2-12 in his career against Chris, both hits being homers while Josh Willingham is 4-8, with one homer. Besides that, he will be new to this Oakland lineup.
The Mets bats will get a surprise when they face Graham Godfrey who will be making his third major league start of the season. So far he has pitched 11.1 innings in 2 games while allowing 7 runs, 6 earned (4.76 ERA) on 15 hits (two homers) and 2 walks while striking out 5. As you would expect, there is no one on the Mets who has seen Godfrey in his short major league career.
Let's Go Mets!
