213 Miles From Shea

The Mets play game two against the Orioles tonight as they look to win a road series and enter (finally) into double digit road wins. The Mets last night got a great start out of Dickey who confused the Orioles batters (and Rod Barajas) and the Mets got an opportunity to give the Animal more AB's (and he took advantage of it last night with a great 3-run homer). The Mets tonight will send out Takahashi to battle Matusz.

Takahashi as a starter at first was amazing, but he has really struggled recently. First two starts 12 innings, no runs, 11 K's. Last two starts 9.1 innings with 11 runs. It is pretty clear that either when Maine gets healthy, or the Mets bring in another starter, Takahashi will probably be the pitcher to leave the rotation (but that is a discussion for another day). Hopefully Takahashi will be able to keep the Orioles off balance tonight and keep himself out of trouble. Takahashi being a rookie means he has not seen the Orioles at all in his few months in the majors. A trait he shares with the pitcher he will be facing on the other side.

The Mets will be facing the young rookie Brian Matusz who has been interesting year so far for the Birds. At the start of the year he was their best pitcher. In recent times, he has struggled with his command and keeping the ball in the park. On the season he is 2-6 with a 5.10 ERA. In his last four starts he has pitched 19.2 innings while allowing 16 ER. Since he is young, the key for the Mets will be to get in his head. If they can cause some damage early they can prevent him from getting settled and really cause some damage. Lets Go Mets! Take a Road Series!

After years of the Mets playing at Camden Yards, I finally was able to see it happen (since I live in Bmore, I ashamed that last night was the first time, but whatever). It was a pretty memorable game. At first I was surprised that there weren't as many Mets fans as I thought there would be, because I was expecting Yankee amount, but once the game started, it was clear there were a high percentage of Mets fans there and for the most part we were (maybe surprisingly?) really well behaved.

Except for my favorite Mets fan of the night. I was out on Eutaw around the fifth inning and there was a (rather intoxicated) Mets fan shouting “Phils Suck! Phils Suck! Phils Suck! 10-0 in Beantown” This seemed really out of place at first, and then I realized he was following two Phillies fans around the stadium giving them score updates. Classy.

Other key moment from last night was when I got tickets. Students on Friday Nights can get $6 seats. That was the price range myself and my friends were focusing on. On the way to the ticket booth a Mets scalper came up to us, in a perfect Brooklyn accent, “I just came down from New York and I have these extra seats in section 13 for sale” I responded, “Section 13 is out of price range”. His response “They're only 25 but I'll give em to you 5 off face value” We just walked away.

All in all it was a good game. Also it was the first time I've heard Oriole fans boo their own team. This happened during that key inning where the Orioles got the basesloaded with no outs and then Dickey just masterfully got out of that inning. Lets Go Mets!

While looking around the interwebs for some Mets information this morning, something on Amazin Avenue popped out.

They posted this tweet from Bob Nightengale who says that Selig will announce the next several seasons of All-Star games and the Mets get it in 2013. The list:

Selig's announcement, if it happens, should be about Weds. I believe it when I hear it.

Ha Ha, see what I did in the title? I used Niese instead of Nice because I missed a backpage about Niese. Anyway via the Daily News:

(NY Daily News)

Some quick hits to go with your Saturday morning Trix Yogurt:

Interleague play returns tonight as the Mets travel down to Baltimore to start a three game set. The Mets are coming off of a 5-1 homestand while the Orioles are coming off of a series against the other team from New York (whom they barely escaped being swept by). If you don't by now, the Orioles have been abysmal this season so this is a series on the road that the Mets need to win.

The Mets will be starting off with R.A. Dickey tonight. Jerry has a plan. His plan this time is to have Dickey start the series because a knuckleballer can have ripple effect on a batting order for the entire series. Anyway Dickey (3-0, 3.20 ERA) has been great for the Mets this year as he has delivered every time he's gone out to the rubber. Even though Dickey was in the American League last year, he didn't face the Orioles. The Orioles batters (well three of them) have these numbers against Dickey:

The Mets for the opener will draw the Orioles ace, Guthrie (3-6, 3.71 ERA). In his 12 starts this season 9 of them have been quality starts. He is 1-2 in his last three games with a 3.26 ERA. Last year he picked up the loss against the Mets as he pitched 6.1 innings allowing 5 runs, 3 earned. The Mets have these numbers on Guthrie:

Lets Go Mets!

The Orioles play in probably one of the most important ball parks in the history of the MLB from an architectural standpoint. Right before Camden Yards was built aprox 20 years ago (jeez that long already?), all new stadiums were Cookie Cutters. They were all either circular or nearly circular, many were multipurpose, and for the most part they all looked identical. That makes sense because they were all “stadiums”. Oriole Park ushered in a new era of Ball Parks.

That being said here is a quick list of things you need to see at Camden Yards this weekend:

What about the food?

Quick Reminder:

Some quick hits to go with your Friday morning Israeli Vegetable Salad*:

*I've been to Israel, this is in fact breakfast, and its quite good