213 Miles From Shea

The Mets try to split the series tonight as they face the Dodgers for the last game in the series. After winning on Friday, the Mets couldn't get it done last night as they fought back to make it a 2-2 game, but fell completely silent until the 13th inning where Loney won the game for the Dodgers against Oliver Perez. The Mets will try to reverse their fortunes with RA Dickey on the mound as they try to take down Clayton Kershaw.

Dickey (6-4, 2.73 ERA) gets the nod this afternoon. He has two losses in his last two games, however in those games he has pitched 14 innings and has allowed only 4 ER (in other he has fallen victim to low run support, shocking). Dickey wasn't with the Mets the last time they played the Dodgers. Surprisingly, he has not faced the Dodgers. However the following Dodgers have these numbers against RA:

The Mets bats will try to channel Friday night against Clayton who is 9-5 this season with a 3.15 ERA. In his last three starts this season he is 1-1 with a 3.93 ERA. Last year Kershaw pitched against the Mets once and he picked up the win as he pitched a 6 inning shutout where the Mets only got 3 hits. The Mets have these numbers agianst Kershaw:

Lets Go Mets!

The New York Post after last night's loss:

(NY Post)

The Mets and Dodgers play the third game of the series this afternoon on FOX as the Mets try to repeat what they did last night and win a game. On the topic of last night, it was great. The Mets hit, pitched, and played great defense and took the game 6-1. This is an important game for the Mets for another reason as Pelfrey really needs to perform this afternoon. I'm not going to spend time looking into his recent numbers. We all know they have been terrible. Last year, he made one start against the Dodgers and it wasn't good as he allowed 5 runs, 4 earned over 3 innings against the boys from Hollywood. The Dodgers have these numbers against him:

The Mets bats will try to repeat last night against Carlos Monasterios. In his rookie season, Carlos is 3-2 with a 3.61 ERA. For Carlos this will be his first start since June 18th as he has been used in multiple roles this year. He did pitch two innings against the Mets in April where he allowed a hit and that was it. Oddly enough, it was Castillo that managed the one hit. For the Mets bats they need to do what they did last night again, score runs early and then have someone play the Jason Bay role with the killer hit late in the game to put it away for good.

Lets Go Mets!

With our ace on the mound, things returned to normal tonight as the Mets fired on all cylinders with great starting pitching, great relief pitching and great production out of the bats. Also, the Braves loss so the Mets can officialy start their climb back into contention.

In my opinion the star of the game has to be Santana as he threw 7 innings, allowed one earned run, walked one, allowed five hits while striking out 4. He provided exactly what the Mets needed tonight giving everyone else on the Mets a chance to help win this game. This also marked the 13th time this season that he has allowed one run or less in a start (and yet he has only 8 wins, which speaks volumes on multiple levels).

Ike Davis. He was given absolute junk up there and yet he sent that 53 mph pitch straight into the night. Bay helped his own cause (showing his worth) by driving in a huge double and ending up with 3 RBI on the night.

The Mets also showed the night that they want to win. All three outfielders tonight showed hustle as they all made plays where they risked themselves for the team. Thats exactly what you want to see in a team that wants to win. Hopefully these good feelings tonight in defense, pitching and hitting will carry on for a while now, as the Mets try to reverse their fortunes since the start of the second half.

The Mets are in a tailspin and they look to their ace, their stopper, Johan Santana to help them out again. Santana pitched the only game since the All-Star break the Mets have won, and has re-stated himself as the ace of the staff. Johan is 7-5 on the season with a 2.87 ERA. In his last four starts, Santana has pitched 31.0 innings with a 2-0 record and a 0.58 ERA while walking 9 and striking out 21 in that stretch. Johan picked up a win earlier this season against the Dodgers while he recorded 6 scoreless, 4 hit innings against the Dodgers while walking 3 and striking out 6. The Dodgers have these numbers against Johan:

The Mets bats will try to breakout of their collective slump against Vicente Padilla tonight who is 4-2 on the season with a 3.65 ERA. He has been very good in his last three game posting an ERA of 0.87 over 20.2 innings walking 6 batters and striking out 16. He didn't pitch against the Mets earlier this season. The Mets have these numbers against Vicente:

Lets Go Mets!

Sorry, I couldn't resist.
(In case you're dense, this is not the All-Star Game Logo…yet).

As much of the attention in this tailspin has been (rightfully) focused on the Mets bats, the bullpen is a disaster waiting to happen. The Mets announced after the game that they were DFA'ing Fernando Nieve, and that it looks like Acosta (or as my friend, and major Mets fan Victorio likes to call him: Manny “Cost Us A Run”) will be called to replace him.

However that doesn't solve a problem* that I think hasn't really come completely into the open.

The Mets bullpen for the most part this season has been good, but when it comes time to (hopefully) make a move in the starting rotation or bring in someone for the pen, the entire picture is going to explode. The initial problem will be moving Takahashi into the bullpen, if the Mets acquire a starting pitcher. Technically right now, Oliver Perez has the role that Takahashi should have, and the first challenge will be moving Oliver Perez (which no team will probably take him, and Wilpon will force Omar who will force Jerry to keep him where he is).

The next problem is Acosta. I do not believe his the solution for Nieve. I'm glad at this point that Nieve has been removed, but I do not have a lot of faith in Acosta and really hope that the Mets bring in someone else because they have another glaring issue in ….

Krod. It seems when things are going wrong (like Feliciano and Parnell not getting into gear) Krod hasn't been incredibly efficient in cleaning up their messes, which is a shame because that is what he is supposed to do. As the closer he's keeping things too close. The Braves are having a lot of success this year on the apart of the effectiveness of Billy Wagner.

How is this problem fixed? Well removing Nieve is a good start. If the Mets could swing it (seriously no pun intended, but it would be nice if they actually could swing and connect on a few pitches) the next best move for them would be to acquire a starting pitcher, move Takahashi to the pen and just get rid of Oliver Perez in some way. Then if things are really going our way, find another good reliever, but at that point I think I'm talking in fantasy world.

*Alas, this would also all go away if the offense woke up again. That is why I feel the bullpen is a problem and that there really is no THE problem. If there was a THE problem, then it probably would have been fixed already. This potential problem in the bullpen is being compacted by the struggling offense. If the Mets bats can hit like they should be, then a lot of this would go away. That is why I'm worried about the bullpen becoming a major issue, because until the Mets bats come out, every game is going to be close.

The Mets lost a really tough one last night, especially when you consider that Oliver Perez pitched, and didn't cause the world to end (I was surprised). The Mets will try put the last three games behind them when they open up a series tonight with the Dodgers in an attempt to resurect this road trip.

This could very well be Takahashi's last start of the season tonight, especially if he pitches poorly again. On the season he is 7-4 with a 4.69 ERA and in his last three starts (and one relief appearance) he has allowed 15 ER in 16.1 innings of work, which is not pretty. Takahashi has shown brilliance at times this season and the Mets could really use one of those starts tonight, so hopefully he can provide it. He faced the Dodgers out of the pen this year picking up the win in 3.1 innings of work allowing only 1 ER. The Dodgers have these numbers on Takahashi:

The Mets bats will get Kuroda in the opening game who is 7-8 with a 3.74 ERA. He is 0-3 in his last three starts with a 6.75 ERA (mostly due a game where he pitched only 1.2 innings while allowing 6 ER). Earlier this season Hiroki picked up the loss against the Mets as he allowed 5 hits and 2 ER over 6 innings against the Amazins. The Mets have put these numbers on him over his career:

Lets Go Mets!