213 Miles From Shea

The Mets lost a close one last night in Colorado where they couldn't capitalize with runners in scoring position, ultimately wasting a good performance by Chris Capuano and causing the Mets another loss. Tonight the Mets look to rebound behind Mike Pelfrey as he takes on the Rockies for game two of this series. The Rockies tonight will send out Jason Hammel.

Big Pelf had a great outing last time his spot was up in the rotation, reminding us all why he is actually the ace of the team. In his last outing he logged 7.2 innings while allowing only 1 earned run. this dropped his season ERA from a terrible 7.39 to a, well still terrible 6.06, but it is heading in the right direction. Earlier this season he faced the Rockies posting 3 earned runs in 5.1 innings of work. The Rockies have the following numbers on Big Pelf:

Tulowitzki 6-17, 2B

Helton 6-10

Fowler 2-12, 2B

Stewart 3-11

The Mets will get another shot at Jason Hammel today, who has a 2.63 ERA this season in 37.2 innings of work. In his last three games he has been on fire with a 0.87 ERA. Earlier this season he pithed the definition of a quality start against the Met logging 6 innings of work while allowing 3 earned runs. The Mets have the following numbers on Jason:

Harris 3-11, 2B

Reyes 3-7, 3B

Beltran 2-7

Davis 1-6, 2B

Thole 2-5

Murphy 2-4

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets recent winning streak was snapped yesterday in a 4-2 loss in Queens, and the Mets look to get back on the right track tonight in Colorado as they take on the Rockies. The last time these two teams met this season was the low point in the Mets season as the Rockies were able to beat the Mets four straight in New York, really assisting in the 7 game losing streak. The Mets will try to return the favor behind Capuano who will be facing Chacin.

Capuano is 2-3 on the season with a 5.40 ERA. Two starts ago he had bad start where he allowed 4 ER in 5.2 innings of work, and responded last time going 6.1 innings, allowing 2 ER while striking out 5 batters. One of his worst starts of the year was against the Rockies, where he allowed 7 ER over 5.2 innings, so hopefully he will take his shot at redemption tonight. The Rockies have the following numbers on Chris:

Helton .364 BA

Tulo 3-3, HR

Spilborghs 3-5

The Mets batters will get a look at Chacin tonight, who is 4-2 on the season with a 2.85 ERA this season. However in his last three games he has an ERA of around 4.27, so he is in a bit of rough spot. The last time he faced the Mets was in his rookie season (2009) where he faced the Mets in relief, allowing no earned runs in 1.0 innings of work. The only Mets who have seen him are the new guys and they have all been perfect (Hairston 1-1, Hu 2-2, Paulino1-1).

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets go for their fourth win a row, and three game sweep this afternoon in Citi Field against the Dodgers. Yesterday the Mets rallied back late in a tied game to get the win behind a spot start from Dillon Gee and a great day at the plate from Jason Pridie. Today, R.A. Dickey will take the mound against Clayton Kershaw.

Dickey is 1-3 on the season with a 4.62 ERA over 7 games (6 starts) and 39 innings of work. Robert Allen strung two good starts together earlier, but in his last start against the Giants he fell flat, allowing 6 runs in 6 innings of work. Last season he pitched a scoreless 5.2 innings of work against the Dodgers who have the following numbers on Dickey:

Gibbons 1-6

Uribe 2-6, 2B

Barajas 1-4, 2B

Carroll 0-4

Ethier 1-2, 2B

Loney 0-2

The Mets bats will get a crack at Clayton Kershaw this afternoon who is 3-3 over 7 starts and 45.1 innings of work posting a 3.38 ERA. In his last three starts he has tossed 21 innings with a 3.86 ERA. He pitched a great game last season against the Mets where he logged in 8 scoreless innings against the Mets who have the following numbers on Clayton:

Hairston 5-13, 2B

Wright 1-7, 2B

Reyes 2-6

Paulino 2-6

Beltran 0-4

Davis 1-3, 2B

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets go for three straight tonight against the Dodgers at Citi Field. Last night, the Mets were trailing most of the game but they got some three-run pop out Jason Pridie, who would put the Mets ahead for good. Despite all of the negative feelings around this team, with trade talk rumors, the team is, maybe surprisingly, only 4 games below .500. Anyway, Chris Young gets the start for the Amazins tonight and he will face Jon Garland.

After Young's disappointing game in Washington when he returned from injury, he threw an absolute gem in Philly last Sunday night of 7 scoreless innings. However the Mets batters left a ton of batters on base, and the game would eventually go on for 14 innings. Anyway on the season he has pitched 4 games over 24 innings of work (about 6 innings a game, which is exactly what to normally expect of Young) with an ERA of 1.88. The last time he faced the Dodgers was in 2009 where he faced them 3 times totaling 18 innings and posting an ERA of 4.00. The Dodgers have these numbers on Chris:

Ethier 12-29, 2 2B, 6 HR

Loney 6-17, 2 2B

Kemp 5-15, HR

Uribe 2-11, 2B

The Mets bats will try to crack Jon Garland tonight with is 1-2 on the year over 4 starts with a 3.81 ERA in 26 innings of work. Last season he picked up the loss in one game against the Mets where he pitched 6 innings, allowed 3 ER over 8 hits. The Mets have the following numbers on Jon:

Beltran 11-37, 3 2B, 2 HR

Wright 1-13

Reyes 5-6, 3B

Murphy 1-4, 2B

Bay 1-3

Davis 2-3

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets and Dodgers open up their series tonight in Queens. (Side note, I wonder if the person who makes baseball schedules orchestrated that the Mets would play both “parent” clubs back to back at home) Yesterday, the Mets were able to avoid the sweep from the Dodgers main rival behind a great start from Pelfrey. Tonight the Mets will send out Niese who will go toe to toe with Kuroda.

Niese is 1-4 on the season with a 4.71 ERA over 36.1 innings of work. In his last three starts he has pitched 19.1 innings with a 2.79 ERA. So he has started to show signs that he is the pitcher we think he can be, but the offense just has not been producing consistently behind him. In his young career, Jon has never faced the Dodgers, thus there are only a few players on the team that have AB”s against him: Miles 1-3, Garland 0-2, Uribe 0-3. So for the vast majority of the LA ball club, Jon is a mystery.

The Mets draw Kuroda who is 3-2 with a 3.10 ERA over 6 games and 40.2 innings of work this season. In his last three starts he has pitched 20 innings with a 2.70 ERA. So as of now, both Niese and Kuroda are on similar paths, at least recently. He faced the Mets twice last season with a 1-1 record allowing only 2 earned runs in 14 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers on Hiroki:

Wright 6-12

Reyes 5-12, 2B

Hairston 3-8, HR

Bay 1-6, HR

Davis 1-5, 2B

Beltran 1-3, HR

Murphy 2-3, 2 2B

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets and Giants play again today, and this time the Mets hope to be in the correct column in the standings at the end of it. In yesterday's game, the Mets got really good pitching, but the bats fell silent to Lincecum and the Giants pen. They will have to face another strong pitcher into Jon Sanchez today while Pelfrey will try to rebound in this afternoon's game.

Mike Pelfrey returns to the mound today. In his last outing he struggled, giving up 4 ER in 4.1 innings of work. He was also coming off an illness that caused him to lose 11 pounds. Hopefully a healthier Mike will take the mound today, to improve his season numbers of a 7.39 ERA over 28 innings of work over 6 games. Last season, Big Pelf faced the Giants once getting a no decision in 7 innings of work while allowing 3 earned runs. The Giants have the following numbers on Mike:

Ross 7-20, 2 2B, 3B

Rowand 3-13, 2B

Huff 4-9

Sanchez 0-9

Tejada 1-6

The Mets batters go from dealing with one tough pitcher to another this afternoon in Sanchez (seriously, when you think about it, in the last five games the Mets have faced Halladay, Lee, Lincecum and now Sanchez). Jon is 2-1 this season with a 2.73 ERA over 6 games 33 innings of work. In his last three games he has an ERA of 2.20 over 16.1 innings. So he is slightly better of late, but still doesn't go deep into the game. Last season he posted a 3.68 ERA in 14.1 innings of work against the Mets. The Amazin's have the following numbers on Sanchez:

Wright 5-12, HR

Reyes 3-9, 2B

Paulino 3-6, HR

Davis 3-6, 2 HR

Murphy 0-3

Let's Go Mets!

For purists, the last two weeks or so of Mets baseball has been tough to manage. The Mets winning streak started when they were donning the black jerseys, thus in all baseball superstition, caused the Mets to wear them for what felt like half a season afterwards (because you know its not because Jason Bay was back in the lineup, it was because the shirt was a different color. Scientifically, peer-reviewed proven statement).

Anyway on Tuesday, in a direct response to killing of Osama Bin Laden, the Mets wore their stars and stripes hat last night which you can read about here. We can have a serious debate on whether this was an appropriate gesture or not (I am in the camp that it wasn't or as MLK would say, “Hate Cannot Drive Out Hate”). Of course like every notion of over patriotic overtones in baseball, it looked really bad. Why? Well the Mets colors are Royal Blue and Orange. The Blue on the hat is the navy blue on the flag. It just looks bad.

However the Mets made up on for all of this last night. Another story, for people who care about uniforms, for the Mets this year has been use of the hybrid hat (blue bill, black top) with the home snow white jerseys. Last night they wore the actual blue home hat! and Chris Capuano wore his socks over his pants! He did great! The offense not so much, but they didn't wear their socks over their pants! Obviously if they did this, we would win every game for the rest of the season.

The Mets lost the opener last night, and it was a rough one. It was a back and forth for the majority in the game and after a high energy top of the ninth where the Mets got out of a runner on third with no outs, they responded with putting runners on in the bottom of the ninth but couldn't get the job done. The Giants hit the go ahead homer in the top of the tenth. Tonight the Mets draw Tim Lincecum as they try to take the second game of this series.

For the Mets, Chris Capuano gets the call with his 2-2 record and 6.04 ERA so far this season. Two starts ago Chris was looking pretty good with a 7 inning outing allowing one run, but in his last outing he struggled allowing 4 ER over 5.2 innings of work. In 2010 he logged 1.2 innings against the Giants where he allowed 1 ER over 4 hits, a walk and a strikeout. The Giants have the following numbers on Chris:

Sanchez 9-21, 2 2B

Burrell 3-8, 2B, HR

Ross 3-7, 2B, HR

Huff 2-4

The Mets batters get to battle with the Freak tonight who has pitched 40.1 innings over 6 games and has logged a 2.90 ERA. He has been good by normal numbers against the Mets, but for overall numbers that Lincecum has posted against other teams, he has “struggled” against the Mets. In his career he has pitched 34 innings against the Mets over 5 games with a 3.71 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers on Tim:

Wright 2-15

Beltran 5-11, 2B, HR

Harris 3-10, 2 2B, 3B

Reyes 4-9

Davis 2-6

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets are coming off an off day after a rough 14 inning win in Philly, where the offense couldn't get it done early, but got done eventually as the pitching kept the Mets in the game all evening. The schedule doesn't get any easier as they start a home set against the San Francisco Giants tonight, and hopefully the Mets will be able to build some positive momentum. The Giants will be sending out Vogelsong tonight as the Mets look to ralley behind Robert Allen Dickey.

Dickey is 1-3 on the season with a 3.82 ERA over 33 innings of work. In his last two starts he has logged 14.2 innings with a 3.62 ERA while striking out 7 batters. Last season he was on the losing side of an amazing outing where he allowed only one earned run in 7 innings of work against the World Champions. The Giants have the following numbers on Dickey:

Tejada 2-8

Ross 2-7, 3B

Huff 1-6

Rowand 2-6

Sanchez 0-4

Posey 2-3

The Mets batters will get a look at 33 year old Vogelsong tonight. Ryan has bounced between the Giants, Pirates and Giants thoughout his career and has a lifetime ERA of 5.73. Before this season, the last season he pitched was way back in 2006, and this year he has had a great start to the year. He has pitched in three games, with one start where he logged 10.1 innings with a 1.74 ERA. In his first start of the year, against Pittsburgh (the baseball universe is a funny one) he logged 5.2 innings allowing 2 ER. His lifetime numbers against the Mets he has made one start and three total appearances totaling 9 innings with a 1.00 ERA. The Mets have these numbers on him:

Wright 2-5

Beltran 1-3, 2B

Hairston 2-3

Reyes 0-1

Let's Go Mets!

Nearly ten years after one of the emotionally charged Mets games in history due to the intersection of reality and sports, the Mets find themselves in a similar situation again where patriotism overrides rivalry.

Before we start, it is important to make clear that I am not asserting that last night's Mets game was even on the same level of emotion as the September 21, 2001 game against the Braves. That night, the first major sporting event in New York after one of the darkest days in American history still brings up an incredible amount of emotion, especially the fan reaction when Mike Piazza hit the homer to put the Mets ahead of the Braves. It maybe the only homerun hit that wasn't a milestone (as in like #700) or in a playoff game that will be mentioned on a Cooperstown plaque.

During the bottom of the eighth last night, it became apparent, if you were on news sites, it became apparent that President Obama was going to make a major announcement regarding Bin Laden, and it became apparent in the ninth inning in the stadium, of what just transpired. According to the reports (I stopped watching the game at this point, to return in the bottom of the 13th), chants of USA started in stadium where Phillies fans and Mets fans were all the same for the rest of the game. Rivalries aside, both fan groups were American and both groups realize the amount of emotion that comes with this type of news. News shows this morning were showing clips of the fan reaction because it was the only national sporting event that was occurring at the time when the news broke. So once again the Mets are the sport team that is involved in the intersection of reality and sports. This becomes more interesting when you think about what sport, especially baseball, means to national identity, and then when news stories center around national identity.

It is also very easy to see how the meaning of last night's win changed with the news of the night. I forgot which commentator said it last night, but last night's game was just another win or a loss for the Phillies, but so much more for the Mets. It was a representation of a complete slide from the 6 game win streak, or another stop and then a step forward. What would normally be a very jubilant night (beating Lee, surviving 14 innings, not getting a crushing defeat) was also immediately scaled with the national news.

Last night was one of those night that will prompt the question, “Where were you when you found out [major political/cultural event]” and for many of us, we were watching our favorite baseball team.