213 Miles From Shea

The Mets go for the road series sweep this afternoon as they take on the Pirates and Zach Duke. Last night the Mets beat the Pirates in a rain-shortened evening game by the score of 5-1 which featured a “complete” game 5 inning performance allowing only one earned run as David Wright smacked a three run shot. The Mets hope to keep the offense this afternoon.

Johan Santana gets the nod for the Mets and he was the hard luck loser in his last start. He had a horrible first inning allowing three runs on a homer and then would pitch through 8 innings, before allowing a solo shot to make the score 4-3 and the game would stay that way. In 31.1 innings this month he is 2-2 with a 2.30 ERA. Last season he pitched a quality start against the Pirates allowing 3 earned runs over 6 innings and picked up the loss. The Pirates have these numbers against Johan:

The Mets have had success with the bats in the first two games of the series and they hope to continue that against Duke who is 5-12 this season with a 5.33 ERA. In the month of August he is 0-4 with 22.2 innings logged and a 6.35 ERA. Last season he had a brilliant start against the Mets where he picked up the win while allowing one earned run over 7 innings. The Mets have these numbers on Zach:

Lets Go Mets!

Mark your calendars because it finally happened.

On August 21st, 2010, the Mets finally won a road series in the National League guaranteeing that they would not be the first team since the 1909 Washington Senators to go the entire season without winning a road series in their league.

The Mets beat the Pirates by the score of 5-1 in a rain shortened game (ending in the sixth) where the Mets won thanks to starting pitching and hitting. The pitching was fantastic again tonight as Niese picked up his 8th win of the season pitching a complete game 5 innings, allowing one earned run, walking one batter and striking 5. He didn't have his best outing of the season tonight but he was able to get himself out of trouble which kept runs from coming across the plate.

The Mets bats played aggressive from the start of the game. In the first inning, with runners on first and second, as Carter struck out and the pitch was sent to first base, Reyes went home to score and Pagan advanced to third base. It was that type of play that dictated the game. The Mets would later score a second run on a sacrifice fly by Tejada.

The big blow in the game that put it away for the Mets came from David Wright as he crushed his 19th homer which was a three run shot increasing his RBI total to 81 on the season.

Up next for the Mets is a Sunday game against the Pirates as they hope to continue the offense production that they have seemed to find in Pittsburgh. Lets Go Mets!

The Mets try to make it two in a row tonight as they take on the Pirates for game 2. Yesterday was an all around great game for the Amazin's as they pitched well (starting with a great outing by Big Pelf and finished off by Parnell) and hit well (7 runs, 15 hits including 3 from each Wright and Reyes). The goal will be to keep that going with Niese on the mound and the Mets bats against McDonald.

Niese has been fantastic this season with a 7-5 record and a 3.38 ERA. In each of his last three starts he has allowed only one earned run while pitching 7 innings (or a 1.29 ERA over 21 innings pitched) while walking only 5 and striking out 19 batters. Last season he picked up a no decision against the Pirates as he allowed 2 earned runs over 6 innings of work. Even though he faced the Pirates last year, only three batters on their roster have had AB's against him (LaRoche 1-3, Cedeno 0-2, last night's SP Karstens 0-1).

The Mets bats look to duplicate last night agaisnt James McDonald who has turned his season around since joining the Pirates. He started off 2010 with the Dodgers where he allowed 7 ER over 7.2 innings. Since joining the Pirates he has allowed 5 ER over 17.2 innings (2.55 ERA). He made two relief apperances against the Mets this season in which he allowed runs in both. The combined numbers are 0.2 IP and 3 ER. The Mets have these numbers on James:

Lets Go Mets!

Remember back in the day when we had Paul LoDuca? Remember that 2006 NLDS where Paul LoDuca tagged out two baserunners trying to score on the same play? Long time ago.

Winning generally feels good no matter what the circumstance is. Winning feels great when you don't win for a while or win on the consistent basis that you are supposed to win on. Winning with an all around complete game effort in terms of offense, starting pitching, and bullpen help feels amazing, with a slight bit of pride when it is all of your guys doing it. When the players are all from your farm system, it almost feels like your own children are winning and that was last night.

In the starting lineup, the only player who was not a homegrown Mets talent was Carlos Beltran (I'm essentially counting Carter as home grown talent because he started off in the minors, and since we didn't pay big bucks for him, I see him as an adopted Mets child). Even taking substitutions into account, the only two players the Mets used last night that weren't from our farm system were Beltran and one AB from Francoeur (since we the help from the Bullpen was drafted Mets talent).

Despite our troublesome payroll, despite the troublesome team we've had for the last month or so, it was our guys, our guys, who went out on the field last night and registered 15 hits, crossed the plate 7 times, and only kept the Pirates to one earned run. It is just nice to see the farm system to come together like that for a change.

Granted, because this happened yesterday, it doesn't do much for helping our slim chances of making the playoffs, but on  a season with so many negative story lines, prima donna players (Oliver Perez),, disgruntled veterans (Castillo), and bad veteran experiments (GMJ), it is nice to have a “proud” moment of the season.

The Mets finally did it. Finally. The Mets offense finally broke out tonight for the first time in what seems like forever as the Mets scored 7 runs over 15 hits. The Mets all did it in clumps starting with 3 in the first inning with two, two run clumps later on. Before we get into specifics of who delivered, the whole team should feel good about that first inning where the Mets had 4 consecutive hits with two outs and as soon as players were getting on, on the subsequent hit they were running first to third. It was this type of play that caried on for the entire game.

The big providers in terms of hits would be Jose, David, Ike, Chirsand Thole. Reyes and Wright each had a three hit night as they eached scored 2 runs and each stole a base. Thole also had a big two hit night where he drove in two runs (continuing to prove that he should be the everyday catcher on this team with three catchers). Davis had a two hit night as well and drove in one run. Carter also hit a homer as the cleanup hitter and drove in two on the night.

The Bats were only half the story tonight as Pelfrey was fantastic, picking up his 12 win of the season. Despite his early struggles, Pelfrey went 8 strong innings allowing 2 runs, 1 earned while walking 2 and striking out 5. This was his third consecutive good start. The game was finished off with a clean inning from Parnell.

Lets Keep This Up! Lets Go Mets!

The Mets start a weekend set tonight it Pittsburgh against the Pirates. The Mets are coming off of a four game set with the Astros where they split the series despite good pitching every night (in other words, the offense is still struggling). Going to Pittsburgh means we get to visit with an old friend. Lastings Milledge! Break out those Milledge shirts if you bought them (honestly, I am surprised I am not one of those people)!

Tonight Pelfrey will get the start for the Amazins and he has been more like himself from earlier in the season over the last two games as he has now pitched 14 innings while allowing only 3 ER over that time. Last season he had one start against the Pirates and it was just awful. He pitched 3.2 innings while allowing 8 ER, 9 total, in a losing effort. The Pirates have these numbers against Big Pelf:

The Mets bats will get to try to break out against Jeff Karstens. Over the last four games the Mets were able to get 3 runs in 3 of those games, which by normal standards is terrible, however compared to the previous homestand, thats a 100% improvement runs scored per game. Anyway Jeff is 2-9 this season with a 4.59 ERA and over his last three starts he is 0-3 with a 5.40 ERA. Last season he had a no decision in one start against the Mets where he pitched 7.2 innings while allowing 4 ER. The Mets have these numbers against Karstens:

Let's Go Mets!

A few months ago I came across this video. After watching it, I made a note on a piece of paper to link it here on this site because I loved how short and sweet it was and of course I never did (oops). So, several months later, here is “Where Ike Davis Happens”:

Not about the Mets this time as the New York Post rips into Roger Clemens:

(NY Post)

(NY Post)

Well, at least they aren't making fun of us today.