213 Miles From Shea

The Mets start their first road trip of the season this year at Coors Field in Colorado as they take on the 3-3 Rockies. Both starters tonight want to shed their last games and get back to pitching as both Maine and Smith had poor outings last week. (Fun Fact: So far this season the Mets have won the opening game of every series, and have done so by an average margin of 6 runs). Maine will be looking to bounce back from 4 ER over 5.0 innings (BB, 3 K) against a team he has not faced since 2008. In 2008, Maine faced the Rockies twice earning a 1-1 record over 12.2 innings and recording a 3.55 ERA. The Rockies over Maine's career have these numbers:

If Maine can get beyond his last start, hopefully he will be fine. The Rockies will be a good test for him because overall, this is a good baseball club. He would also benefit from the lineup scoring some runs tonight.

The Mets batters will be facing a pitcher they have never seen before. Greg Smith has pitched two seasons in the majors (08 for Oakland, and 2010 for Colorado). In 2008 he had a 7-16 record over 190.1 innings and a 4.16 ERA. In his first game of the season he picked up the loss after giving up 5 ER over 5 innings. Only two Mets have seen him:

The Mets will need to take advantage of Coors park tonight. Below are the career numbers for Wright and Jacobs in Colorado:

Those are the numbers that are always fun to report on game previews. Lets Go Mets!

You have probably already seen this by now, but I have to share it here. You probably remeber that David Wright has a deal with Vitamin Water. He recently filmed a commercial with The Situation. Mike, “The Situation” is a star from MTV's hit show The Jersey Shore. It was a pretty ridiculous show about a group of people that live in the Jersey Shore for the summer. I have watched the show a few times and its basically a train wreck that you cannot look away from, and The Situation, basically steals the show. Anyway here's the commercial:

Remember the Norfolk Tides? You know, our AAA team for decades. Well after we left them, the Orioles were able to pick them up and they changed a few things. One change was with the hats. That change was actually alright. They took the normal Norfolk hats, kept the design, but made them orange and black (basically looks like a fashion cap from the old  cap).

They also found it necessary to add an alternate uniform in Orioles colors. This would have been fine if they kept the typeface the same. However they didn't:

(From the Tides Shop Page)

Yes. That is actually their alternate Jersey. That type face is just awful. It looks like a great jersey idea for kids, but not for actual baseball players.

The Nationals and Mets play a rubber game this afternoon as the Mets send out their ace to get the job done. The Mets have lost all three games this season by a combined margin of 4 runs (while they have won two games with a combined score of 15-3). Anyway, the Mets will get to face a familiar pitcher from last season, Livan Hernandez, as he makes his first start of the season.

In his last outing, Santana was Santana. He pitched 6.0 innings, allowed one run and two walks while striking out five in his winning effort. Last season he was 2-0 in as many games against the Nationals over 12.0 innings with a 3.00 ERA, 7 BB and 21 K's. Over the years, the Nationals have been able to compile these numbers against Santana:

Part of Santana's success in his last outing was his ability to keep the ball in the park. If he can do that again, he will be fine tomorrow. The Nationals (believe it or not) have a few players that can really hurt if the ball is left up in the zone or hanging. As long as he is himself and makes his pitches, he will be fine.

The Mets will face Livan Hernandez, who split his time last season with us and the Nationals. He ended with a 9-12 record, 5.44 ERA and 183.2 innings pitched. In his career, he has a 11-13 record, 4.58 ERA and 206.1 innings logged against the New York Mets. Now since Hernandez has been in the league since 1996, there are plenty of Mets who have seen him often:

In terms of offense, the Mets just have to put yesterday behind them and channel Friday night. On Friday, they were patient, hit a few solo bombs and got to the bullpen pretty quickly. Once they got to the pen, they just kept getting on base, and scoring runs. It's that type of momentum the Mets need to create in the ball game. Lets Go Mets!

Searching around the internet the other day I came across the new alternative cap for the Buffalo Bisons. Below is their normal hat:

(From the Bisons Website)

The road version of this cap is all black. The Bisons changed the had design slightly to make an alternate version:

(From the Bisons Website)

Remind anyone of the New York Giants?

Overall I have to say, the Bisons have done a great job over the last two years overhauling the entire uniform and logo set to make it feel “Mets”.

The Mets lost their third game of the season today by the score of 4-3. They have now lost three games this season, and, in total, they have lost by  4 runs (two games by one run, one game by two runs). In contrast, they have won two games by a combined core of 15-3, or winning by an average of 6 runs.

Anyway Perez wasn't as bad as his stats suggest. He was good, then in the second inning he allowed 2, then he was good, then in the forth he allowed 2. It was typical in the sense that it seemed as if there were two pitchers on the mound at the same time. Once again, the Mets bullpen was able to hold down the fort after the starter left (including another nice outing by Mejia).

Reyes was back today (as you know by now) and was not a major factor in the game until the ninth inning where he got his first hit of the season, was bunted  over to second and then moved over to third thanks to a pair of walks. The Mets almost had it in the ninth when Barajas hit a hard ball to right, but  it was snagged in a nice diving play by Harris that sealed the game (had that ball dropped, it would have been a Mets win).

Besides that the offense was in general hit and miss today. Their were moments that were real good but the Mets were quite able to seal the deal. A pivotal moment was with the  bases loaded, Jeff Francoeur scraped the ball in his swing and had it go about 6 inches, which led to a double play (but honestly, that was about the only bad thing Frenchy did today as he had another 2-4 day and he got his third walk of the year).

So that puts the Mets in the position they were in earlier  this week, where they will need to win the rubber game in order to win the series. The Mets will face Livan Hernandez tomorrow and they will counter with Johan Santana.

This was posted on Uni Watch Blog a few days ago (If you have never been to that site, clear your schedule for the rest of the day, and check it, because the site is awesome). Anyway check out this picture:

Look at his name under the MLB logo. It actually says “Frenchy”. Nice.

The Mets and the Nationals play a Saturday day game this afternoon with two major events happening for the Mets today (more on that later). After dropping 2 of 3 to the Marlins in the previous series, the Mets roared to an 8-2 win where they pitched well and powered out 4 homers (bringing their season total to 5). Today's game will feature Oliver Perez vs the ace of the Nationals pitching staff, John Lannan, who needs an effective start to validate the Nats' pitching staff.

Oliver Perez is one of the two major storylines for this game. Perez has potential in him, however it has not been seen recently, and this team needs Perez to come up big. Last season he went 3-4 in 14 games over 86 innings pitched where he had an ERA of 6.82. He was horrible against the Nationals last year where in 2 starts and 10.1 innings pitched, he allowed 11 runs. That being said, here are the career stats the National have against Perez:

In yesterday's game the Mets pitching staff was effective from start to finish. If the Mets can do that again, they will be fine in today's game. For that to be true, Perez will need to turn the page from last season and this past Spring and be the pitcher that we know he can be.

Lannan gets the start for the Nationals. Last season he had a 9-13 record over 206.1 innings with a 3.88 ERA. He already pitched one game this season where he lasted only 3.2 innings and allowed 5 runs. Against the Mets last season, he had a 2-2 record over 5 games and 37.0 innings with a nice 2.43 ERA. Here are the Mets stats against Lannan:

Yes, you are reading Francoeur's numbers right. He has a .500 batting average against Lannan and he is one of the best htters on the Mets right now with his .429 BA, 2 HR and 6 RBI's over the Mets first 4 games of the season. The biggest story in the Mets lineup, and the Mets biggest story overall will be the return of Jose Reyes. This team thrives on Reyes and the spark he provides in the lineup, and it will be really great to see him in the lineup today. Lets Go Mets! Take this Series!

The Mets played a convincing game against a struggling club tonight as they beat the Nationals 8-2. Scoring wise, the Nats got out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning, but the Mets responded back in bottom of the second with a solo homer by Francoeur. Then in the 4th, Barajas hit a solo shot, and then he hit another one in the 6th. At that point the Mets had the 3-2 lead. Then the Mets opened up the gates as they put up a three spot in the seventh (thanks to Francoeur) and then 2 more in 8th. Thanks to the four homers in today's game, the Mets now have 5 homers in 4 games, at this point last year, the Mets had only had 3 homers.

While the hitting will get most of the attention tonight, the Pitching deserves some attention as well. Pelfrey was effective in his first game as he allowed only 2 runs over 6 while walking 4 and striking out 4. The Mets needed him to have a quality start and he delivered. Before today, the idea of only have Santana in the rotation was really weighing on the “Shea” faithful.

The rest of the bullpen also performed well. Takahashi pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout to get the hold. Then Nieve pitched scoreless hitless inning with a walk and strikeout. Finally Mejia had a real good looking inning (3 up 3 down) to close the game. All around it was a good game and thats what the Mets needed tonight.

Quick Notes:

The 1-2 Nationals take on the 1-2 Mets tonight. The Nationals got their first win of the season yesterday after getting blown out the first two games this season against Philly. Yesterday they had a convincing lead until the Phillies roared back. The Nats won yesterday thanks to a bloop double from Zimmerman off of Figueroa.

Pelfrey will get the start for the Amazin's as he looks to rebound from last season's campaign. In 2009 he was 10-12 over 184.1 innings with a 5.03 ERA. Against the Nationals last season he was 1-2 over 4 games and 26.2 innings with a 4.05 ERA (6 BB, 9 K). The Nationals have been able to get a lot of hits off of Big Pelf (career wise):

Overall, those numbers look pretty grim. There are three keys for Pelfrey in this game (and yes, they are very general, but very important). 1) Keep runners off the bases. 2) Keep the Ball in the Park. 3) If he gets into trouble, he needs to be able to stop the bleeding.

The Mets will face Mock in tonight's game. Last year Mock had a 3-10 record over 91.1 innings and had a 5.62 ERA. Against the Mets, Mock was 0-1 over two games (one start) last season pitching 8 innings and allowing 4 runs. The Mets have been able to put up these numbers on Mock over the years:

The Mets offense really clicked in the first game of the season. In the second game, the offense was able to get on base and score runs, but it didn't feel as productive as the first game did. Last night, the Mets offense did very little (1 runs, 7 hits, 0 walks). Tonight they need to come back to life and score some runs on this Nationals pitching staff that gave up a lot of runs to the Phillies over the last three games. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Nationals!