213 Miles From Shea

The Mets finish the series against the Padres with the night cap of a day night double header. The night game will feature Jon Garland, another Padres pitcher who didn't see the Mets last week and for the Mets will feature Niese who made some positive noise in his last outing over the weekend.

Niese (2-2, 4.28 ERA) will be making his second start since returning from the DL tonight. Before going on the DL, Niese was one a roll for multiple starts, then stuttered (and then he got injured). On the fifth Niese went 7 innings and allowed only one earned run, allowed 6 hits, walked 1 and struck out 6. In Niese's limited Major League career he has never faced the Padres. In fact the only player he has faced on the Padres is Torrealba and he is 1-2 against Jon.

On the other side of the rubber is Jon Garland (6-3, 2.68 ERA). In his last four starts, Garland is 2-1 pitching 26.0 innings posting a 4.15 ERA. He pitched two games against the Mets last year going 1-0 over 15.0 innings with a 2.40 ERA (4 ER). The Mets have these numbers against Garland:

Lets Go Mets!

Originally I was going to do the Phillies and the Yankees first, but I just logged on to MLB.com, and saw the inevitable, the Mets have joined the party and released their line, and folks, its just as crazy as the Yanks and Phils and sadly more insane than last years experiment. In fact its so ridiculous that I'm going to share the Jerseys here in this post. Without further ado, here are all of the images, all from MLB.com:

Seriously? What is up with the obsession of putting player images below the numbers. They look ridiculous. Or putting things in the numbers, even more ridiculous. And then there is Jason Bay's. He might get some sales from Canada but I can't imagine that selling. Its like a WBC jersey that got caught in a Canada pride parade on the way to the ballpark. Side note, Frenchy looks like he took the Mets current stripe jersey smashed it into 80's racing stripe jersey, and then he took that design, which would have been ok, and had some animals walk on it.

The Mets and Padres play game two of the series and game one of the doubleheader this afternoon. Two nights ago featured
a real thrilling game that featured a great pitching matchup, and a
couple of jacks that sealed the deal for the Mets. The Amazin's hope to
continue their four game streak this afternoon as they send Santana tonight to
get the win and to clinch the series victory.

Santana (4-2,
2.76 ERA) has really been dominant as of late. In his last 5 games he
has pitched 36.2 innings and has an ERA of .074. Last week against the
Padres Santana pitched 7.0 innings allowing 5 BB, 3 K's and no runs.
His biggest enemy in that game was again the Mets offense who gave him
no run support and prevented him from getting a win. The Padres have
been able to scratch together these numbers on our Ace:

Latos
(5-4, 3.26 ERA) faces the Mets for the first time this season as he was
able to avoid the boys from Queens last week in San Diego. In his last
4 games he has pitched 23.0 innings with an ERA 3.13. Last season he
made one start against the Mets posting 6 innings, allowing 4 hits and
1 ER. The Mets have the following numbers on Latos:

Lets Go Mets!

Some quick hits to go with your Thursday morning Apple:

Mets Draft picks, Picking up from yesterday:

Also with the last pick in the draft, the Yankees selected (1525th overall) James Rice out of Western Kentucky.

UPDATE:
Game Called Due To Rain.
Day Night Doubleheader Tomorrow.

The Mets and Padres play game two of the series tonight. Last night was a real thrilling game that featured a great pitching matchup, and a couple of jacks that sealed the deal for the Mets. The Amazin's hope to continue their four game streak tonight as they send Santana tonight to get the win and to clinch the series victory.

Santana (4-2, 2.76 ERA) has really been dominant as of late. In his last 5 games he has pitched 36.2 innings and has an ERA of .074. Last week against the Padres Santana pitched 7.0 innings allowing 5 BB, 3 K's and no runs. His biggest enemy in that game was again the Mets offense who gave him no run support and prevented him from getting a win. The Padres have been able to scratch together these numbers on our Ace:

Latos (5-4, 3.26 ERA) faces the Mets for the first time this season as he was able to avoid the boys from Queens last week in San Diego. In his last 4 games he has pitched 23.0 innings with an ERA 3.13. Last season he made one start against the Mets posting 6 innings, allowing 4 hits and 1 ER. The Mets have the following numbers on Latos:

Lets Go Mets!

The Mets are making a trip to Baltimore this weekend and I figure that means a lot of Mets fans will also be making that trek down down to Charm City. Also, I was raised in the fascinating city that is Bmore so I know a lot about what you can do while you're down in my neck of the woods. In this first installment, we will look at some places to go in the city to kill some time, the next installment will cover baseball stadium itself.

In terms of history, like most cities on the East Coast, there are some key historical places you will want to check out. Two that immediately come to mind are Shot Tower and Fort McHenry. The latter of course is important because of the war of 1812 and played a key role in our national anthem. The former is an example of an old way to form bullets by dropping/free-falling molten lead.

Baltimore has a ton of museums that are worth checking out. The Maryland Science museum is a great place for kids and its huge, ie a fantastic place to spend an afternoon. Another great place to spend the entire afternoon is the National Aquarium. It's located on the harbor and is also huge. It features a dolphin show, a large rainforest exhibit, a fantastic Jellyfish display, huge shark tanks and a brand new addition for the Outback. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and recommend the National Aquarium as one of the best places to check out in Baltimore City. Other museums that are worth checking include the Baltimore Sports Museum, Museum of Industry, and all of the great displays on the historic ships in the harbor.

I'm not going to pretend like I know where to eat in Baltimore but I do know three things you need tho have. First are Maryland Blue Crabs with Old Bay. It will be messy and you will need a hammer and such, but its worth it. The next thing is Maryland Crab Cakes. Nobody makes these first two products like Maryland and Baltimore City. The second thing is a style of BBQ that is very popular in Baltimore called Pit Beef. I've had it at several places and its amazing. I hear the best place in the city is Chaps.

Some quick hits to go with your Wednesday morning Raisin Brain Cereal: