213 Miles From Shea

The Mets will try to hold onto first place today as they take on the Braves for the second game in a three game set. The Mets will be sending out the popular, but struggling, Pedro, while the Braves will be sending out the surprising, but recently struggling, Campillo to the mound today. Did you wake up with that good feeling your stomach today? I know I did, its that feeling after a big win, lets hope that feeling comes back with a win tonight.

Pedro, 5-5, has pitched 97 innings this season, so hopefully he breaks the 100 inning plane today. His season ERA is 5.47 and that really shows his struggles this year. He either struggles early or late, more Early than anything else, but beneath that it seems liek he's ready to shed all of this off (and he has had games where he has done that this year). In his last five games he is 1-2 with 28 innings ptiched, 9 walks, 22 K's and has an ERA of 6.75. His one game against ATL this year led to a No Decision after 7 innings pitched and 4 Earned Runs, backed with a walk and 6 K's. The Braves have done this against Pedro:
      Jones 9-47, 2B, 3 HR, 10 K, .191 BA
      Francoeur 3-22, 2 2B, HR, .136 BA
      McCann 4-18, 2 2B, HR
      Johnson 1-8
      Escobar 3-4, 2B, HR
The numbers are pretty self explanatory. He has had a lot of past success agianst this lineup, but their young guys like Escobar really know how to see and hit the ball from Pedro. With Pedro, the key is to not allow hits. I know that sounds obvious, but if people are not on base, there is no damage control. He's a hall of famer, so he knows how to do this.

On the pitching mound for the Braves today is Campillo who is 7-7 this seaso with a 3.79 ERA. In his last five games he is 0-1 with 23.2 innings pitched and a 6.46 ERA. Against the Mets this year he has pitched 3 games, 2 starts, to the tune of a 1-1 reocrd 11.2 innings pitched, 2 walks, 13 K's and a 2.31 ERA. The Mets scored all the runs this year against him in his last start where he lasted 3.2 innings, allowed 4 runs, 3 earned and 8 hits. If the Mets can do that again, they should be fine. They have to attack early, attack often, and most importantly, attack late:
      Reyes 2-6
      Beltran 0-4
     Church 2-5
     Delgado 1-5, 2B
     Wright 3-5, 2 HR
Wright was dialed in against him in his last start. He had two AB against him and watched both of his hits leave Shea Stadium for his 30th and 31st homers of the season. If he can lead an offensive charge today that would be great, if not as long as someone leads the charge, and as long as they score runs, things are going to go well. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Braves!

The end result is very, very good. The win today brought this team back in first, but they still need to fight their way and get a cushion now. There was good and bad like every game tonight, but it was so clear tonight that its really worth mentioning. The main thing that sticks in my mind was the errors tonight. This team has been so good defensively since the All Star break and in the last few games they have made a few major mistakes. A couple of nights ago in Washington, a Wright error put the Mets in a bad position in the bottom of the ninth. This game was close until the major break out int he eighth, and that was due to two unearned runs from errors. We gotta play good, smart baseball to win this division. That being said, the defense issues of the Braves eventually got us the win, with some excellent hitting tonight.

The Mets minor league players of the year, Evans and Murphy, both had big nights as Evans hit a big homer and Murphy hit a big double to help the team get that W. Also, Wright's 2 RBI were very important tonight. First, the 2-5 night was him breaking out of a slump, but his 2 RBI's bring his season total up to 116, which is tied with his season high he had in 2006. It looks like he will get a season hight in that department this year as well. His season high in doubles is 42, which he has had twice, (he has had 40 one other time as well) and tonight he got 41, so he has a shot of setting a season high in that as well. Its good to see the offense act alive for once and now with this win the Mets can hold their heads up high as they go for the next two and start to buckle down on this division.

On a Cubs note, since that series is looming, their elimiantion number is now 1, so when we play them they could very easily be in a very relaxed position.

The Mets start off a big series tonight against the Braves as they try to keep a playoff spot and take over the NL East. The Mets will be sending out Perez, who faced the Braves in his last start, to take on Jo-Jo Reyes of the Braves. With a series against the Cubs looming, winning this weekend is crucial.

Perez, 10-7 on the season, has already surpassed innings pitched from last year with 178.1 this season. His ERA is at 4.09 and he is looking to lower that tonight. In his last 5 games, he is 1-0 in 29.1 innings pitched and had a 4.91 ERA. His last game was against Atlanta where he lasted 7 innings, allowed 2 rens, walked 3 and struck out 8 and then saw his win taken away by the Mets pen. This season against Atlanta he has pitched 2 games with a 0-0 record over 13.1 innings and a 3.38 ERA. Here are the Braves against him:
     Jones 11-23, 2 2B, HR, 8 BB
     Francoeur 7-25, 2 2B, 2 HR
     McCann 4-19
     Johnson, Kotchman 0-12
Like always stay careful with Jones because he will get hits, he will get walks and he will find his way on base. His OBP is over .600 against Perez. The key for Perez, and he did this last time, is keep the walks to a minimal, less walks means less baserunners which translates into calmer innings.

The Mets will do battle against Jo-Jo Reyes today whe s 3-11 with a 5.50 ERA. In his last five games he is 0-1 over 24.1 innings pitched and has an ERA of 6.29. Against the Mets this year he has pitched two games losing one over 8 innings and a 6.75 ERA. The Mets have been able to put these numbers up against him:
   Reyes 1-3, HR, 2 BB
   Beltran 2-4
   Delgado 0-4
   Wright 1-3, HR
   Evans 2-3
The Mets will have to keep their offense that has scored on average 8 runs each of the last two games going during this series. Last weekend the offense wasn't there and with the bullpen caused two of the Mets losses. So if they hit, then they will win. Lets Go Mets. Beat the Braves!

The Mets finish off their series with the Nationals tonight as they go for the series split. The ace, Johan Santana, takes the rubber for the Amazin's as the teams bats try to recapture an image of last night and hope to put up runs tonight. For the Nationals, Redding will be attempting to get his second win against the Mets this year and lead the Nationals in the role of spoiler.

Santana, 13-7, has over 210 innings pitched this year, which is already more than any pitcher the Mets had on staff last year. He has 56 BB on the season against 179 strikouts and a nice 2.70 ERA. In his last five starts, he is 2-0 over five games and 33.1 innings pitched. His ERA over the stretuch is 2.43, 10 BB, 31 K. Against Washington this year he has 2 games pitched, has gone 2-0 over 14 innings pitched, an ERA of 3.21, 3 BB, and 10 K's. The Nationals have put these numbers agaisnt him:
     Belliard 4-23, 7 K
     Boone 2-17
     Guzman 6-10, 2B
     Zimmerman 2-9
Guzman and Dukes have been all over the Mets pitching this series, so as such, they are the two players to watch out for tonight. Guzman has good numbers against Santana and Dukes has never faced him. If the Mets can keep them at Bay, they can control this game and get the win. Of course, its not always that simple. The best thing Santana can do tonight, besides win, is to eat innings as the Mets used 8 pitchers last night and the pen could use some rest going into this weekend.

Redding, 10-9, makes the start for the Nats tonight with his 4.54 ERA. In his last five games he is 2-1 over 29.2 innigns pitched, 11 BB 16 K's and an ERA of 3.94. Against the Mets this year he has pitched 2 games with a record of 1-1 over 11 innings, 5 walks and 7 strikeouts. He posted an ERA of 3.27. Here are the Mets against Redding:
     Castillo 5-16
     Reyes 4-13, 3B
     Wright 3-10, HR, 2 BB
     Beltran 4-8, 2B, HR
     Delgado 0-6, BB
     Santana 1-1, 2B, BB
He has had success against this Mets team, but the Mets can beat him. I was at the game when the Mets beat him and it was Santana pitching earlier in the year. Myself and my friends were the idiots chanting silver slugger after Santana ripped a double off of him, which caused a lot of Nationals fans to stare at us and say some not so nice things. Lets hope the Carlos's and crew can do damage tonight and that Wright's bats wakes up from being asleep since Sunday's game. Lets Go Mets!

In what seems like a fairly new award, Radio Shack is sponsoring the Red Hot Player of the Week award and up for nomination this week is David Wright. Last week Ethier won this award and the week before it was Pedroia (in what appears to be the history of the award). The stats are for September 8-14 and where he has he had a BA of .632, hit 4 homers, had 9 RBI's and scored 7 runs. Thats very good for one week.

His main competition is Zambrano, who had the No Hitter this week. Wright is facing Howard, Zambrano, Burnett, and Lincecum in the race. Zambrano leads with 42% and Wright is tied with Lincecum for third with14%. Lincecum, when you see his stats, they look incredible. If you want Wright to win this award, it will take a lot of voting because the stats this week for many players are incredible. I would want Wright to win, but I think Lincecum, 2 wins 17.1 innings, 1 run, 21 K's, is very hard to ignore (that being said, I still voted for Wright). You can start you popularity debate now if you want.

You can vote here

Beltran started off slow but now he is having a good year. He is one of those players who leads silently. Although he made claims at the start of the season (We're the team to beat) he's the type of player who when he starts putting up numbers, there is a lot going on around him. Maybe that's why he produces when he does, because there is no pressure around him. However you want to define it, his numbers are coming around, and it couldn't be at a better time. By month, these are his numbers:
(From Baseball-Reference.com)

I Split         G   GS  PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF ROE GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  BAbip sOPS+ tOPS+ Split
+-+------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------------+
   April/March   26  25 112  90  19  19 10  0  2  13  22   1  21   0   0   0   1   2   2  1  .211  .366  .389  .755  .254   107    76 April/March  
   May           28  27 123 108  19  33  5  3  3  19  13   2  15   0   0   2   0   2   5  0  .306  .374  .491  .865  .326   134    98 May          
   June          28  28 121 105  20  30  6  0  7  22  16   2  17   0   0   0   1   3   4  0  .286  .380  .543  .923  .284   144   110 June         
   July          25  25 115 101  15  25  3  1  3  18  13   3  16   0   1   0   2   1   5  1  .248  .333  .386  .719  .268    90    66 July         
   August        29  29 126 109  21  33  8  0  6  21  12   3  12   1   0   4   1   1   3  1  .303  .365  .541  .906  .284   136   106 August       
   Sept/Oct      14  14  60  51  16  19  6  0  5  13   9   1   7   0   0   0   0   1   2  0  .373  .467  .784 1.251  .359   226   181 Sept/Oct   

The Hits per month is a great way to start looking at how he is doing. We are little over half done with September, and he has already passed his April/March totals. This shows two things first is that he got off to a slow start, and second, that he is having a great month this month. The big show for this month is his overal average, its fantastic at .373. His power numbers are also starting to approach season highs when compared to the other 2008 months. As September has gone on, Delgado has slowed down a bit, and Beltran is picking up the slack.

Aside from troubles at the start of the season, he struggled in July. But as he struggled in hitting and power in July, his RBI totals were closer to his better months, rather than his bad start. This suggests that he must have been getting singles with RISP or his few doubles/triple/homers must have taken place with runners in scoring position. If he continues his production now, then this will be a great month. At the start of August I thought Beltran had no shot at 100 RBI's let alone 30 Homers, now he has the triple digit RBI's and he has a good chance to get to 30 homers (a goal that became much more realistic after last night).

It feels good to win one, doesn't it?

On a day when the Mets were getting bad news about resurgent players Tatis and Easely, and on a day after they lost the lead to the Phillies in the NL East, The Mets came out swinging. They actually scored runs last night. They put up that quick two spot in the first with homers from Reyes and Delgado and throughout the game two more homers were added from Beltran. Thanks to a 4 run third, it looked like they could put the game on crusie control. Of course as the theme with the Mets has been, keep the games close, stay nervous, the Bullpen let up some runs, ok a lot of runs, and the end score was 9-7.

I think the look on Ayala's face at the end of the game though explained it all. He came in to close out the game and he basically did an impression of Zambrano out there after he's done with an inning. It's a big game for this Mets team because tonight they Santana, and when Santana goes out there, he pitches like he expects to win. The Phils have Hamels going to tonight as well. Its a big night for baseball as the Mets will try to keep pace, keep winning, take over and just plain beat the Nationals.

As a side note, does it seem like Beltran is having an excellent September? Well he is. 14 games and 51 AB he has 19 H, 6 2B, 5 HR, 16 R, 13 RBI, 9 BB, 2 SB all adding up to a .373 batting average, .467 OBP and a .784 SLG percentage. He really is a silient hero on this team.

The Mets start their quest to regain their lead in the NL East and start their quest to find their offense tonight as they go against Nationals for game 3 in the 4 game set. In terms of pitching, both pitchers are really unknown. Knight will be making his second start and forth appearence this year and Martis will be making his third start of the year.

Knight has been around for a while. He was a rookie in 2001 and 2002 and didn't return to the majors till this year at the age of 32 for the Mets. He was a pitcher with team USA this year as well. In terms of stats he has pitched 7 innings this year with an ERA of 6.43 including one inning against the Nationals where he gave up a hit, a walk and a run. That was last week. In New Orleans this year he was good with a 5-1 record over 12 games 43.1 innings pitched and had an ERA of 2.28. He needs to ice the Nationals offense to give the Mets offense a chance to score. At the same time, the Mets bats need to wake up and realize they need to score some runs so they can win some games.

Martis, the pitcher for the Nationals tonight, is young. He is only 21 and making his third start this year. He has gone only 5 innings in both of his first starts and has a 0-2 record but he has pitched well and his ERA of 2.70 reflects that. He was good in the minors as well with a record of 1-2 ver 7 games over 41.2 innings and had an ERA of 3.02. The Mets need to slap him around a bit and show that they can score runs. Its going to be a tough game because the weight of 2007 is starting to return in the form of media harrasment, and the Mets are going to have to fend that off.

They can do this. They know they can do this. Now they just need to do this. Lets Go Mets! Get the Win!

Last night was killer emotionally. Pelfrey was really good last night. He got into jams, he got out of jams. He pitched well. The bullpen that came in for him also did really. The Mets pitching staff did a great job overall last night holding the Nationals to just one run. The bats lumber continued to slumber as the Mets got one hit by Perez. The Mets had runners in scoring position, but they couldn't do anything with it. Then the Braves came back in their game so for a moment it looked like things would be ok, but then the Phillies won and took over first place in the east.

Why no panic? Because its a half game, the Mets have sometime left in the season, and they have the fight. If they can bring out the fight they had last week, find the click, then they will be fine. Thats all they have to do. Lets see how they do tonight. If they can win, if the bats are on, if they can pitch, then they can get back the East. If not, then its going to be a long rest of the month. We are still in position with the Wild Card, a playoff spot is a playoff spot, but a division championship will be much better. We can do this! Lets Go Mets!

The Mets will try to get back on the right track tonight and defend their lead in the NL East by sending up the generally dependable Pelfrey against Perez, who the Mets have seen a lot of this season. The pressure is starting to mount right now but we all have to remember that we still have the lead right now and and we have control to keep it our lead, all we have to do is win, we cannot give up that luxary right now.

Pelfrey (13-9) is coming off a bad start against the Nationals where he was given a 7-1 lead, and then between him and the bullpen, the lead went away. Personally, he gave up 5 runs in 5 innings of work. On the seaosn he has pitched 181.2 innings now to the tune of a 3.77 ERA. In his last five, he is 2-1 in 36.2 innings ptiched with 9 BB, 18 K, and a 3.19 ERA. If you move back to the five games before his last start, his ERA drops down to 1.86, so he has the dominant streak in him still, he jsut has to dig it out. Overall this year against the Nationals in three games he has a 1-1 record over 19.2 innings pitched and a 2.75 ERA (which shows that he was once again real dominant against this team until last week. Here are the Nationals stats against Pelfrey:
     Zimmerman 5-20, 2B
     Belliard 3-15, 2B, 4 K
     Guzman 3-10
    Milledge 1-7, 2B, BB
Mike has his stuff in him, and he has been pitching confidently. He just has to forget about last week in terms of his performance and the teams performance from the weekend on and just pitch the best he can. He has proven to us this year that he can be the guy who brings us out of a slump, and we need him to do it again.

The Mets have seen Perez (6-10) a lot this year. He has pitched 142.2 innings this year and has an ERA of 4.48. In his last game, he played the Mets who lit him up for 7 runs in 3 innigns. Overall in his last five games he is 1-2 with 24.2 innings pitched and an ERA of 6.20. Against the Mets this year he has 4 games under his belt with a 1-1 record over 21.1 innings and has an ERA of 6.33. Here are the Mets stats against Perez. Unlike normal, these are not career stats these are stats only from this season:
      Beltran 6-11, 3 2B, BB
      Reyes 8-11, 2B, 3B
      Wright 5-9, 2 2B, 2 HR, 3 BB
      Delgado 1-8, 2 BB
Reyes continues to have excellent numbers against Perez this year. He is batting over .700 against Perez this year. The Mets bats were awesome last week against the Nationals since their time with the Braves and last night, their bats have been asleep. It is now the time for their lumber to wake from their slumber and get the Mets back in the win column. Lets Go Mets!