213 Miles From Shea

Trying to not talk too much about last night, the Mets dropped another game in the ninth inning or later which as we all know is extremely frustrating. Anyway, the Mets will attempt to put that behind them today as they go for a win on a National Holiday (Happy 4th Everyone!). The Mets will be sending out Takahashi who will go toe to toe with Stammen.

I'm not sure if you have noticed but Takahashi has two good games and then two bad games (He was good against the Yanks and Phils, then bad against the Padres and the Marlins, then good against the Orioles and theYankees and then bad again against the Tigers and the Marlins). He just finished his second bad game in a row, so I think its time for Takahashi to have a good game again. Takahashi hasn't faced the Nationals as a starter yet but as a reliever he is 0-0 while pitching 4.1 innings of shutout ball. The Nationals have these numbers on him:

Stammen has started 13 games this year for the Nationals and yet he only has 4 decisions to show for it as he is 2-2 with a 5.13 ERA. He missed sometime in June and in his last start back (June 29th) he picked up the win in 7.1 innings of work while allowing 2 ER and only 5 hits. He faced the Mets once this year where he had a no decision while allowing 4 ER in 5 innings on 4 hits and 4 walks. The Mets have these numbers against him:

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets play the 4:00 game today against the Washington Nationals and their star starting pitcher, Stephen Strasburg. Stephen has been dominating since coming up the majors (31.2 IP, 48 K, 2.27 ERA) however he has been plagued with a horrible curse. The Nationals just can't score runs when he pitches. That being said, I am worried about one aspect today when he pitches against us. When you look at the Mets as a team, we have a lot of free swingers at the plate, and lot of players that can easily fall to a strikeout. Strasburg is the type of pitcher that matches favorably against the Mets (for the opposition). The main strategy for Strasburg is to remember that he is a rookie and like all rookies, the Mets need to be patient at the plate. Take those borderline pitches, and force him the second time through the order to have to make those tough pitches.

The Mets will be sending out R.A. Dickey who will look to rebound from his last start. Up until his last time out, he was fantastic, and unbeaten, but we all know that streak had to end eventually and it did in San Juan. Overall on the season, R.A. is 6-1 with a 2.98 ERA over 51.1 innings. His first start was actually against the Nationals where he recieved a no decision while pitching 6 innings, allowing 2 ER, walking 4 and striking out 2. I feel its fair to say that he has become a different pitcher since that start, he has been made better with success. The Nationals have these numbers against Dickey:

Lets Go Mets!

With all of the coverage on politics these days (seriously, you turn on CNN/MSNBC/FOXNEWS and its just information about what politicians are doing, or opinions about them, and not the actual news) you would think an event like this would get more coverage, alas it doesn't (and that's probably a good thing). June 29th came and passed, and probably none of us realized that it was the annual Congressional Baseball Game. Honestly, I never even knew this was such a thing.

Anyway a bit of history. This is the 49th year of the Roll Call game and probably the 49th year of no one caring. Once again, that's not a problem. If you check out this album though, you will probably see the one redeeming aspect of the game, that every politician wears a jersey from their district (or that they are a fan of, I don't know enough about these people). Here's a photo of Representative Anthony Weiner representing the Mets:

(SBN Nation / NBC Washington)

If you are curious, the Democrats beat the Republicans by a score of 13-5. This was mainly due to a 9 run (yes 9) in the 9th inning. Thats a pretty big meltdown. Actually, I'm more impressed that they kept playing through all 9 innings.

*I don't live close to New York, I live outside of DC (thus why I'm even more surprised I didn't hear about this until now) and I'm assuming that this wasn't really covered up in New York. So if it was, my bad.

Some quick hits to go with your Saturday morning Potato Pancake:

The Mets suffered through a tough loss last night as they lost the game 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth. They try to move past that tonight as Niese takes the mound to battle Atilano. The problem last night for the Mets (overall) was that the offense couldn't actually get the ralley going. Hopefully that won't happen tonight.

Niese (5-2, 3.84 ERA) has been great since returning from the DL. Since coming back from injury he is 4-0 over 5 games and 33.2 innings pitched with a 2.67 ERA. He has faced the Nats once this season and the results were not that good. He allowed 6 runs over 4.1 innings however the Mets were still able to pick up the win. The Nats have these numbers against Niese:

On the other side of the mound will be Atilano (6-4, 4.33 ERA). In his last four starts he has pitched 21.2 innings with a 1-2 record and a 4.57 ERA. He has already faced the Mets twice this season with two very different outings. The first time he picked up win in 5.1 innings of work and didn't allow a run. He then faced the Mets pitchign 4.1 innings and allowed 7 runs, 6 earned. The Mets have these numbers against him:

Lets Go Mets!

Originally I had another Met favorite lined up for this week, but after last weeks beating at the hands of the Twins by old Yankee Carl Pavano, well I had to sorta tip my hat. Seriously, rocking this stache takes a lot of courage:

It looks like a perfect stache for well, There Will Be Blood, right?

(via Slash Films)

Well as long as we are going along with this theory then we should probably make an adjustment to Carl Pavano:

Some quick hits to go with your Friday morning Toast with Grape Jam:

The Mets won a late, close one last night and they hope that starts another streak as they take the show into DC tonight. The Mets still have not faced Washington in a hot streak yet, so they have, in some forms, under performed against the Nats this year. The Nationals have now started to falter this season, and the Mets will need to take advantage of that. Tonight's game will feature Johan Santana vs Livan Hernandez.

This may in fact be a very important start for Santana tonight. The star pitcher of the Mets is now 5-5 with a 3.55 ERA and has really struggled of late. He also did not have a good outing last time against Nationals. Centuries ago at the start of the season, Santana made his second start against the Nats where he allowed 5 ER and 5 hits over 5 innings of work while walking three and striking out three. It's almost at the point now that its hard to remember that he had a great stretch of games earlier this season, but without the runs support he has nothing to show for it. Hopefully its the ace Santana that shows up tonight. Here are some numbers the Nationals have on Johan:

The Mets on the other side will get the mysterious Livan Hernandez who since his scorching hot start has begun his discent back to Earth. He is now 6-4 with a 3.10 ERA. He has a 2-1 record in his last four starts while pitching 25.2 innings with an ERA of 5.61. He has faced the Mets twice this year with a 1-0 record while allowing only 2 ER in 13.1 innings of work. The Mets have been able to put these numbers on Livan:

Lets Go Mets!

Let's see what the creative minds in the marketing department for the Mets Minor League Teams have going this month:

Buffalo: Sadly no photo for this one, but at the end of the month the Bisons will be giving away their road jersey (which, if it looks like the authentic one, says Buffalo like how the Mets Jerseys say New York). Other than that, they are giving away a hat, a shirt, and a pennant, no photos for any of them.

Binghamton: Beach Towel on the 2nd, which is the most interesting thing they are doing. Yawn.

St. Lucie: Like many teams across the states, they will be celebrating Christmas in surprise with a special giveaway, that they haven't disclosed. As long as this is not a Santa hat, this could be pretty good.

Savannah: Nothing to write home about

Brooklyn: This is the main event. Check out these amazing giveaways:

Items too big to picture here:
Double Backman Bobble
T-Shirt

There were also several promotions not pictured, like the Brooklyn Cyclones Snuggie. I think my favorite promotion was going to the Backman Jersey or bobblehead, but then that Jersey Shore based Jersey popped up (pictured directly above). I am a sucker for puns, so yeah, I can't believe that actually exists. Well done Brooklyn, well done.

Some quick hits to go with your Thursday Morning Nothing*:

*Because some days you just forget to eat Breakfast