213 Miles From Shea

The Mets are on a slide right now, and they will look to Jon Niese to pull the team up. Last night the Mets and the Rockies went back and forth and then sadly the bats couldn't squeeze another run out and the bullpen couldn't stop the bleeding. Jon Niese is coming off of a bad game after a great game. He is now 0-1 on the season with a 6.55 ERA over 11 innings pitched. Last season he faced the Rockies twice, pitching 12 innings while posting 4.50 ERA. Over those 12 innings he walked only one batter while striking out 9. The Rockies have these numbers on Jon:

Helton 4-10, 2 2B

Tulowitzki 2-7

Fowler 1-6

Iannetta 2-5

Gonzalez 0-3

The Mets batters will deal with Esmil Rogers tonight, who allowed one earned run in 7.1 innings of work in his first start of the season. Last season he was 2-3 over 72.0 innings of work while posting a 6.13 ERA. Last season he pitched in relief for three innings over two games against the Mets allowing one earned run. The Mets have the following numbers on Rogers:

Wright 0-0, 2 BB

Reyes 1-1

Pagan 1-1

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets start their second home series of the season tonight with the Rockies. The Mets were cruising to a victory yesterday until the some hiccups in the bullpen and inability to bring runners home from third cost the Mets the game and the series. Tonight's game should be interesting as the Mets look to see if Mike Pelfrey will look more like the ace he has the ability to be. In his first two games of the season he is 0-1 with an ERA of around 15. Last season he was 2-0 with allowing 0 ER over 14 innings of work against the Rockies. Hopefully he can channel that into his game tonight. The Rockies have the following numbers on Big Pelf:

Tulowitzki 5-15, 2B

Helton 6-10, HR

Fowler 2-10, 2B

Wiggington 1-8

Gonzalez 2-5, 2B, HR

Jason Hammel will be getting the start for the Rockies tonight and he is looking to bounce back from a rough first start of the season where he allowed 4 ER over 6 innings. Last season Jason was 10-9 with a 4.81 ERA over 177.2 innings. He lost his only start against the Mets last year pitching 7 innings allowing 4 ER. The Mets have the following numbers against Hammel:

Pagan 2-6

Reyes 2-4

Beltran 2-3

Davis 1-3, 2B

Murphy 1-1, 2B

It's worth nothing that the Mets have a .359 BA against Hammel, 14-39, but only two extrabase hits.

Let's Go Mets!

I wouldn't say 4-5 is a failure at this point, but the Mets could be better than. Part of the problem has been the bullpen, and I think after 9 days it is time for a change. Boyer did a good job in Spring but just couldn't get it done right now in the major leagues. Luckily the Mets have depth, because you need depth in these situations, and the Mets were able to bring up two pitchers to help out with consistency in the pen.

(It is worth noting that the pen has had to get through a lot of work in this opening week as the starters are still building arm strength, which seems to be a phenomenon across the league and I wonder if moving the season up by half a week has had an impact on the time pitchers were able to get ready this season).

Anyway, Izzy says he is ready, and he could be a nice addition to the pen. Also Igarashi has shown in the past that he can be very effective, and the opposite is also true. I think this is a good move just to bring some additional consistency in the pen.

With regards to Duda, we have learned in the first week that Harris is a threat with the bat, so it is detrimental for Duda to be in the majors at this point. He needs to play everyday or near everyday, which was not happening with the big league club.

We all know that we are in the age of mass exploitation. You win a world series? Fantastic! You have the right to buy shirts, hats, sweatshirts, blankets, posters, bumper stickers, furniture, any thing you can think of with your team and World Series Champions covered all over it.

I also like the ring ceremony for the winning team. It's nice. The rings look fantastic, the players look so happy and the fans usually get in on it with some nice replica rings.

However this maybe taking it too far.

You can now buy shirts that commemorate the ring ceremony? Really? I'm not surprised but, really MLB?

Three series played in 2011. Three rubber games played. In the first series of the season, the Mets were able to take the rubber game on the road against the Marlins, something they struggled to do all last season. In the last series against the Phillies, the Mets were not able to win the rubber game. Now the Amazin's are at home against the Nationals and have another shot at winning a rubber game. In the first game of the series the Mets were wild and it cost them the game. Last night they stuck around all night, constantly scratched back and were able to get out with a 8-4 win. This afternoon Jason Marquis will get the ball for the Nationals while the Mets send out the tallest person ever in Chris Young.

Chris had a very memorable first game as a Met, and it wasn't for his pitching. Going 5.1 innings, allowing only one earned run and striking out 7 in Philly for your Mets debut is memorable but he also made Mets history with his bat. Young became the first Mets pitcher ever to have two hits in the same inning, and would go on to have a 3-3 day at the plate. The last time Young has pitched against the Nationals was back in 2008 where he picked up the win in 7 innings of work allowing 0 runs over 2 hits, 4 walks and 5 K's. The Nationals have these numbers on Young:

LaRoche 3-18, 2B, HR

Zimmerman 3-11, 2B, HR

Pudge 0-6

Werth 0-4

Ankiel 0-3

The Mets will see a familiar foe in Jason Marquis today who in his first start pitched 6.2 innings allowing 2 earned runs. He hasn't seen the Mets since 2009 where he went 0-2 over two starts and 11 innings pitched allowing 8 runs (7 earned). The Mets have the following numbers on Jason:

Wright 12-30, 2 2B, 2 HR

Reyes 9-28, 2B

Beltran 4-21, HR

Murphy 3-9, 3 2B

Pagan 2-10

Capuano 2-5, 2B (For Real)

Let's Go Mets!

The Mets and Nationals play game two tonight in Citi Field. Both teams will have starters making their first start of the season as the Mets will try out new pitcher Chris Capuano and the Nationals will try out their new pitcher in Tom Gorzelanny. Last night was a fairly frustrating game to watch as walking 9 batters just does not sit well. The Mets look to reverse that tonight and get some hits on a way to a victory.

Chirs Capuano has pitched .2 innings this season allowing one earned run. Last season he had a 3.95 ERA in 66.0 innings of work, and that was his first time back in the majors since 2007 due to injury. In his career he has faced the Washington Nationals 4 times with a 1-2 record over 27.2 innings of work and a 3.58 ERA. The Nationals have the following numbers on Chris:

Hairston 4-14, HR

LaRoche 2-7

Zimmerman 4-7, 2B, HR

Werth 1-5

Ankiel 0-3

The Mets will face former Chicago Cub Tom Gorzelanny who was 7-9 with a 4.09 ERA over 136.1 innings last season. He faced the Mets once last season picking up the loss in 5.2 innings of work allowing 2 earned runs, 4 runs total over 4 hits, 2 walks and 7 strikeouts. The Mets have the following numbers on Tom:

Reyes 2-10

Wright 3-10, 3 2B

Beltran 0-2

Davis 2-3

Lets Go Mets!

Hope Opener! The Mets play their first game of 2011 in Queens this afternoon after a successful road trip. Yes, it is a little disappointing that the Mets lost the last two games but overall, going .500 on the road was a big step forward for this ball club. Last year the Mets were a much better team at home than on the road (which is more of a statement of how bad they were on the road). The Mets get to face off with the Nationals for their first of 81 games at Citi Field.

Dickey will get his second start of the year tonight. He had an interesting game against the Marlins earlier this week where he was a mix of effective where it counts, and was able to squeeze out of his moments of ineffectiveness. He pitched 6 innings allowing 0 earned runs (1 run total), 5 hits, 3 BB while striking out 7. Last season he was 1-0 against the Nationals pitching in 4 games (3 starts) over 20.0 innings with a 1.80 ERA. The Nationals have these numbers against Robert Allen:

Werth 3-11, 2B, HR

Stairs 5-11, 3B, HR

Zimmerman 1-8

Desmond 1-7

Espinosa 0-3

One of the young pitching stars for the Nationals gets the start today in Jordan Zimmermann. In his first game this year he pitched 6.0 innings allowing 3 runs total, 2 earned over 4 hits, 3 walks and 2 strikeouts. He pitched two games against the Mets last season totaling 10 innings with a 1.80 ERA. In his career he has pitched 20.1 innings against the Mets with a 3.54 ERA. The Mets have these numbers against Jordan:

Pagan 3-9

Wright 1-7

Murphy 2-6, HR

Reyes 1-5

Davis 1-2, HR

Thole 2-3

Lets Go Mets!

We are about to go into the the third set of series in the 2011 season, and we still have one undefeated team, and two winless teams. By now, all of the teams in the National League have either lost a game or won a game, but that cannot be said for the American League.

The last undefeated team is the Texas Rangers who are showing all the critics, myself included, that they do not need pitching help and they got this under control. The Rangers will try to keep their winning streak going tonight against the surprising 5-1 Orioles in Baltimore.

There are two teams in the AL East that have yet to win a game. The first one is semi-surprise in Tampa Bay. They were going to get off to some struggles this year, but not like this.I still think that these first 6 games are not a sign of things to come for the Rays, but whenever you start off 0-6, it's hard to think about anything else.

Then, there are the Boston Red Sox. An obvious World Series pick at the start of the season they just have not gotten it together at all. This is not how they will play for the rest of the season, but the 0-6 start is disconcerting, if you panic about these types of things. It has been fun to watch the Red Sox fans panic though.

For those of us who remember 2005, although it seems like several decades ago, the Mets started of 0-5. It was supposed to be the year the Mets made noise in the Braves dominated NL East. We two new stars in Pedro and Beltran. Then the Mets turned it around, and were in the playoff hunt until September when Beltran and Cameron collided in the outfield, and things fell apart.

For the second time this season the Mets face a rubber game, this time against Roy Halladay and the Phillies. In last night's game the Mets made a pretty massive comeback, but then couldn't complete the job. Hopefully the Mets can get at Roy behind Jon Niese. Niese was nice in his first game of the season as he pitched 7 innings, allowing 2 runs and striking out 3 batters. Going a little deeper than that box line, he struggled in the first inning (where he allowed the two runs) and then was solid from the second inning on. Last year he was fantastic against the Phillies as he was 1-1 in three games over 21.0 innings pitched with a sparkling 2.14 innings pitched. The Phillies have the following numbers on him:

Polanco 2-10, 2 2B

Ibanez 2-9

Valdez 1-7, 2B

Howard 1-6

Rollins 0-3

The Mets draw the ace of the Phillies rotation in the rubber match. In his first start of the season, Halladay allowed 1 earned run over 5 hits and 6 innings while striking out 6 batters. Last season he was 4-0 against the Mets in as many starts over 31.2 innings while posting an ERA of 2.56. (In other words, he was very Roy Hallladayish). The Mets have these numbers on Roy:

Beltran 12-38, 2B, 2 HR

Reyes 8-19, 3 2B, 2 3B

Wright 2-15, 2B, 3B

Davis 3-12, 2B

Thole 6-9, 2B

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets and Phillies play game two tonight as the Mets try to take the series in Philly. Last night the Mets were able to chase starter Cole Hamels out of the game after 2.2 innings, and were able to keep the Phillies' bats in check on the way to a 7-1 victory. Tonight the Mets will try to do it again against the number 5 starter in the Phillies rotation. The Mets will be sending out Mike Pelfrey to take on Joe. In the opener, Mike was doing fine until the bottom of the 4th when the wheels came off and he allowed a grand slam. Overall he lasted 4.1 innings allowing 5 ER. Last season he was 2-2 against the Phillies in as many starts as he pitched 25.1 innings and had an ERA of 3.91. The Phillies have the following numbers on the Big Pelf:

Victorino 11-37, 2 2B, HR

Howard 11-30, 2B, HR

Rollins 7-27, 3B, HR

Polanco 1-11

Valdez 0-7

The Mets batters will get their first look at Joe Blanton this season tonight. Blanton last year was 9-6 with a 4.82 ERA over 175.2 innings of work. He was 1-1 in three starts over 19.1 innings against the Mets where he posted an ERA of 4.19. The Mets have the following numbers on Joe:

Reyes 2-18, HR

Wright 5-19, 3 2B

Harris 5-15, 2B, 2 HR

Davis 4-8, 2B

Pagan 4-9, HR

Let's Go Mets!