213 Miles From Shea

The Astros were a very scary team. They have destroyed the Mets in the two series that they have had this year. They were playing really well and they were making a run for the Wild Card. They looked like the dark horse that they were called in the beginning in the season. Then MLB made a very, very controversial call by moving the series to Miilaukee for the two games. What happens? Well its almost all Cubs fans (being only 90 miles from Chicago), Zambrano no hits them and then Lilly and crew one-hits them. At the same time, Astro players cannot reach their families to see how they are because they are being taken out of Texas and at the same time there is no cell service in Houston.

I have to agree with the majority opinion on this. This was a bad decision made by the MLB for not only the Astro's and their course of the season, but for the PR of baseball, it was also a bad decision. Yes losing these games would hurt the schedule but baseball is a resillent sport and the postseason schedule wasn't even out yet, the schedule could be have adjusted for the play of these games. Overall, it just made baseball look greedy, only caring about the money and not about the families of the players in Houston. On top of that, it made it look like they didn't care about city of Houston during this tough time for them.

The Mets open up a four game set against the Nationals today on the road as the pit Pedro against Lannan. The Mets are back to a one game lead in the division, and the road to protecting it restarts again tonight. Hopefully this time around against the Nationals not only will the Mets hit well, but hopefully they will also pitch well.

I said this last week, Lannan is having a good season and the Mets did a good job of roughing his numbers up a bit. On the season he is 8-13 over 163.0 innings pitched and has an ERA of 4.09. In his last five games he is 2-2 in 25.1 innings ptiched and has an ERA of 7.82. A lot of that is from his last game against the Mets where he allowed 5 runs over 3 innings. Against the Mets overall this year he is 0-1 in three games and 15 innings pitched with an ERA of 6.00 with 2 walks and 15 strikeouts. We need to keep the strikeouts down tonight and hopefully the Mets will be able to produce the same results as last week. The Mets bats will hope to build off of these numbers:
     Reyes 5-12, 2B
     Wright 4-12, 2 2B
     Church 4-9, 2 2B, 2 HR
     Beltran 2-8, 2B
     Delgado 3-7, HR
Church has some good looking numbers against Lannan. The key is to ralley build. The Mets can't wait for the long ball they need to buidl rallies and start knocking in those runs on doubles and singles. Do enough of that and then the game will be in control for the Mets and hopefully get Pedro's 6th win of the season.

Pedro on the year is starting to approach the 100 innings pitched mark. He is at 91.0 so he will hopefully reach that mark within his next two games. On the seaosn he is 5-4 with an ERA of 5.44. He has struggled of late going 2-1 over 29 innings pitched during his last 5 games and has allowed 6 walks vs 23 K's. His ERA during that stretch is 5.59. He has not faced the Nastionals this year but here are their numebrs against Pedro in the past:
     Guzman 7-21, 3 2B
     Orr 2-14, 5 K
     Belliard 1-4
     Zimmerman 0-6, 3K
Key for the game is the same as always which is to keep the Nationals off the bases. If they are not on, they cannot score. Another thing to watch out for with this club is that since the September callups not only have they gotten better, but they have gotten faster. It is a fast team that can cover a lot of distance on the field and can round the bases hard. It hasn't resulted in SB's yet, but that could be an expolosion for next year. Make them play our game, and we go home the victor.
Lets Go Mets!

We are mid way through the month of September, which means many teams are starting to drop and the playoff picture is starting to get constricted. Out of the 30 teams, 10 have already been eliminated mathematically from the division races and another slew of teams could be facing elimination this week:
      Detroit, 2
      St. Louis, Cleveland, 3
      Colorado 4
      San Francisco, Yankees, Toronto, 5
The basic trend that is occurring in most divisions is the races are really starting to narrow down to two teams. As of now for a few divisions, it looks like the division championship will go right down to the last week. Out of the 24 teams in the race for the Wild Card, a 14 of them have already seen their hopes disappear. With the recent shake ups, the races are getting hot. Its a four team race in the NL while it looks like Boston has it locked in the AL (or the Rays if they mess up). Here are the next Wild Card teams to be eliminated from the postseason:
     Arizona 4
     Toronto, Yankees 5
     Minnesota, Florida 8
This probably will not happen this week. But by the end of next weeks the races between who really has a good shot of getting to the playoffs. It's September Baseball folks!

In a game where the starter gives up 2 runs over 7 innings, where Delgado goes 3-5 and Wright goes 4-5 with Two homers, there is no reason, no excuse, to lose, but the Mets did. They had a complete meltdown at the end of the game but before we can go into that a major problem from this weekend needs to be addressed. When runners are on base, they need to cross the plate. Its that simple. That is how the Mets won those two games against Washington. You can imagine, if you will, this series as a flip, instead of having the offense, we had the starting pitching. We need to find that balance again between starting pitching, offense and the bullpen. That being said, a reall congrats to Wright, who hit a new season high in homeruns for a season with 31, and he's heading to a new one in RBI's as well at the rate he is going. Also a congrats to Reyes who has hit the 50 SB mark again this year.

If I was Perez, I would be very upset right now. If I was Santana, I would be very upset right now. They both pitch great games only to have them blown in the ninth and eighth inning by a shaky pen that was shaky, then sturdy and now again shaky. The pen in this game didn't even give the Mets a chance in the bottom of the ninth as the Braves put up a five spot, a five spot in the ninth inning!

The only remedy, to a game like this is to stop the bleeding and stop the bleeding fast. They need to win tonight. A win tonight puts the team right back in the right direction to win this division and to make the postseason. No alarms yet folks, not quite yet. We still got time, but we need to act now.

The second game in the double header was a much different story because of the amazing outing by rookie Jon Niese. Niese was making his second career start after a terrible first start. It has been said a lot, but he was very nervous his first start and that could be seen by the way he was pitching. This was a very different Niese. This was a Niese that did something that only a handful of Mets pitchers have done this year:
Allow No Runs Through Eight Innings
Then the Bullpen did something they only did once this weekend:
Allow No Runs in Relief

Anyway back to Niese. he showed toughness in his pitch count. 116 pitches in your second big league start in this day and age is a huge deal. His K to BB ratio was awesome (7:2) and he allowed only 6 hits over that time. He also managed to get a hit. He was the real story in this game. Lets hope that this continues with Niese. He might not get many more starts this year (if he continues to ace, then he will), but this will be an interesting story line for next year's spring training because he will be 22 possibly going for a role in the starting rotation.

It would be a crime not to mention the success of the power in the lineup as well. Wright, Reyes, Beltran all went deep to score the runs for the ball game. Its not the most efficient way to get it done, but it is a way, a fun way to watch as well. Wright's power would pour into the next game as well.

The first game yesterday, the Mets looked dominant up until the eighth inning. They did the rally the right way the first time in the game when it led to 2 runs. They were able to get 2 runs in an inning where they had bases loaded with two outs. Soon after that, they had the same situation. They opened the inning with the bases loaded and a 2-0 lead. They had every opportunity to get runs across the plate but a ground ball in the infield got the out at home and then the double play at first. Next batter was out and the inning resulted in nothing. So the Mets continued on their way until the eighth inning.

Santana, on his great day, started the inning with two singles so he left. He allowed no runs on the day. Basically immediatley between Schowenwies and Stokes, who really have been so good latley, let the gates open and Santana's two runners scored and then a third runner scored and the game was over. The what went wrong here is easy. The offense didn't provide a cushion, and the bullpen, who really was doing a good job so far in September, faltered and lost the game for the Mets. They had a job to do and didn't do it. Luckily for the Mets, they got a much better result in game 2 of the day.

The Mets will finish their series with the Braves today and it will be the last game that the Braves ever play at Shea Stadium, so the Mets look to make it special for them. The pitching matchup of the day pits a recently struggling Campillo of the Braves against a recently struggling Perez for the Mets. Sense a theme here?

Campillo on the whole has been a nice surprise for the Braves organziation. He has had limited time in the majors until this year. In 05-07 he was up in the majors for a little bit but his season high in innings pitched was 13 (That was in 2007, previous years it was below 10). This year for the Braves he has appeared in 36 games, 22 fo the starts for a total of 146.0 innings pitched. During that time his ERA has been a cool 3.70 and he has walekd 35 batters to a nice total of 102 strikeouts. Now keep that ratio in mind for his next set of stats. In his last five games he has gone 0-2 over 26.2 innings pitched, walked 12, struck out 16 and has an ERA of 6.41. One conclusion is that as his BB to K ratio gets closer to 1, he gets out of rythem, and thats when he has to be hit. He has faced the Mets twice this year, once in reliefe and once in a start and he has allowed no runs over 3 hits and 8 innings, walked one and struck out 11. Here are the Mets numbers against him:
     Beltran 0-3
     Church 1-3, 2K
     Delgado 0-3, 2K
     Wright 1-3
     Reyes 1-3
The Mets tend to strike out a lot so it is imparative for the Mets that they be patient and make Campillo work. If they see their pitch they shouldn't take it, they need to hit becuase Campillo has proved in the past that he can throw strikes. The Mets also proved yesterday that they can't handle the Braves bullpen, so they will need to score early and often to win this game.

Perez has stuttered over his last few starts. On the season he is 10-7 in 30 games and 171.1 innings pitched with an ERA of 4.15. In his last five though, he is 1-0, over 28.2 innings ptiched, 18 BB, 23 K, and a 5.43 ERA. He will need to turn around today because the Mets need the dominant Perez that we have seen for parts of the season. His BB/K totals this year are 91 BB and 154 K. Those 91 BB are a new season high for him and have hurt him against the Braves. Earlier this year he got a ND in 6.1 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 5 BB, and 3 K. It was still a quality start, but those BB's played a role in those runs. Here are the numbers the Braves have put on Perez:
     Chipper 9-20, 2B, HR, 8 BB
     Francoer 7-22, 22B, 2 HR
     McCann, 4-17, 2B, HR
     Escobar 4-7, 2B, 3B
     Prado 2-10, 3B
     Johnson 0-7, 6 K
He is the only pitcher on the Mets staff that has seen Johnson before and has been able to handle him. Before the first game yesterday, Johnson was hitting .333 against the Mets this year. That will be important because a good number of Braves have a good stats against Perez. If he can control the strikezone, then he will be in good shape today. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Braves!

The Mets open up a weekend series with Atlanta with our ace, Johan
Santana, taking on the somehow not injured Mike Hampton. As the
Phillies take on the Brewers right now, this is a great time for Mets
to beat up on the Braves and attempt to extend their lead in the NL
East. When the schedule was first made, this was supposed to be a
battle for first place in the East series, as the Braves were expected
by many Baseball Pundants to make the World Series. A season of
injuries and disappointments, the Braves will be very happy tonight to
try to play spoiler against the Mets this afternoon. Now that this is a double header, it is very important that the Mets make their impact heard.

Hampton is 2-2 in
9 starts season. He has pitched 55.0 innings and has an ERA of 5.60. In
his last five games he is 1-1 with an ERA of 4.09. He made one start
against the Mets in that stretch, his one start against them this
season, where he went 6 innings, allowed 8 hits and 3 runs, walked one
and struck out 2. The Mets have put these numbers against Hampton over
their careers:
    Castillo 16-44 (.364 BA), 3 2B, 3B
    Reyes 8-19, 3 2B, HR
    Tatis 6-15, 2 2B
    Beltran 8-16, 2 2B, HR
    Delgado 8-12, 3 2B, HR, 7 RBI
    Wright 3-11, 2B, HR
On
the whole, these Mets have good numbers against Hampton. It felt like a
few years ago when he was with the Braves before his big injuiries, the
Mets could not touch him. These numbers suggest that these Mets can and
they have to. Santana shouldn't pitch like what we have seen in the
past few days, but just in case, lets get those bats going. They have
done real well the last two days so lets hope for some hangover affect
and lets demoralize the Braves.

On the other side of the ball,
Santana will be going for hsi 14th win of the season. His last time out
he surpassed 200 innings pitched and on the season he has an ERA of
2.70. In his last five games, he is 3-0 over 33.1 innings ptiched with
an ERA of 1.78. He has walked only 8 in that stretch while striking otu
34 (175 on the season). He has a 0-2 record against the Braves in start
sthis season, but he has an ERA of 2.57, no walks and 4 K's in 14
innings. The run support has been the issue, and these games where
towards the start of the seaosn when the Mets were really struggling
against the Braves (I believe one Braves blog writer at that point in
May declared the Mets season dead). Here are some Braves numbers
against Santana:
     Infante 1-20, 7 K
     Jones 5-11
     Francoer 1-10, 2B
     Johnson 4-10, 2B
     McCann 3-9, 2B, HR
The
people the pitch carefully around are not surprising. I am always
afraid of Kelly Johnson, I feel he's a Met killer. Not so much this
year but in 07 he seemed to be one, or at least felt like he was one.
Santana's numbers against Infante and Francoer are the types of numbers
that are fun to look at. If he can handle the lineup, hoepfully the
Mets will be able to give him the runsupport he needs.

Jon Niese will be starting the second game for the Mets today. Last time out he struggled and looked very nervous. Hopefully, now that he has his first game under his belt, and that he is not facing a lineup like the Brewers, we will be able to see a better pitcher from him tonight. His curveball is really devestating and is his best pitch. There were times last game when it did break 16 inches. If you want to follow his curveball I suggest that you go to MLB Gameday as they show the speed, the break, and a few other things about every pitch thrown in a game. Its a great thing for stat heads.

The Braves starter has struggled a bit this year for the second game and he is Jo-Jo Reyes. His ERA this season is above 5.00 and he has a record of 3-10 to go along with that. In his last five games though, he is 0-1 over 24.1 innings pitched with an ERA above 6.00. Don't count him out though because his best startduring that stretch was against the Mets where he lasted 6 innings and allowed only 2 runs. The Mets gotta show some run support for Niese, and they got to hit on Reyes. As a side note, the Mets did win that game by a score of 6-3. 

Lets Go Mets! Win this Day! Keep them at Bay!

If you have not heard yet, there will be 20, yes 20 baseball games played today. According to MLB.com, this is the first time this has happened since 1974. Yesterday there was widespread rain on the East Coast and many games were scheduled for the East Coast last night. The result was 6 rainouts. One series, Cubs at Houston, won't be played today for obvious reasons with a Hurricane in Houston right now. The other 5 rainouts need to play their games ASAP because many of them have postseason implications (MLB.com says 15 of the 20 have postseason implications) so all the makeups got scheduled for today (I would also assume that the games were not scheduled to be made up on Sunday due to the NFL which would make traffic horrible in most cities. For example in Baltimore last week, they had to move Sunday's Oriole game to Saturday as a double header because the Raves Stadium (M&T Bank Stadium) is accross the street from Camden Yards and I don't know if you know Baltimore traffic but it usually up there in the worst in the country, so MLB and NFL really cannoth be played at the same time in the same city).

If you love Baseball, the box scores over the next two days will be filled with stats, attendance could go through the roof and it should just be an all around fun day. I'm glad Shea is doing the games back to back so a ticket to today's game is good for both, I know that messes with their profits and everything, but that stuff is good for baseball.

Lets Go Mets! Lets Go Baseball!

The Mets open up a weekend series with Atlanta with our ace, Johan Santana, taking on the somehow not injured Mike Hampton. As the Phillies take on the Brewers right now, this is a great time for Mets to beat up on the Braves and attempt to extend their lead in the NL East. When the schedule was first made, this was supposed to be a battle for first place in the East series, as the Braves were expected by many Baseball Pundants to make the World Series. A season of injuries and disappointments, the Braves will be very happy tonight to try to play spoiler against the Mets tonight.

Hampton is 2-2 in 9 starts season. He has pitched 55.0 innings and has an ERA of 5.60. In his last five games he is 1-1 with an ERA of 4.09. He made one start against the Mets in that stretch, his one start against them this season, where he went 6 innings, allowed 8 hits and 3 runs, walked one and struck out 2. The Mets have put these numbers against Hampton over their careers:
    Castillo 16-44 (.364 BA), 3 2B, 3B
    Reyes 8-19, 3 2B, HR
    Tatis 6-15, 2 2B
    Beltran 8-16, 2 2B, HR
    Delgado 8-12, 3 2B, HR, 7 RBI
    Wright 3-11, 2B, HR
On the whole, these Mets have good numbers against Hampton. It felt like a few years ago when he was with the Braves before his big injuiries, the Mets could not touch him. These numbers suggest that these Mets can and they have to. Santana shouldn't pitch like what we have seen in the past few days, but just in case, lets get those bats going. They have done real well the last two days so lets hope for some hangover affect and lets demoralize the Braves.

On the other side of the ball, Santana will be going for hsi 14th win of the season. His last time out he surpassed 200 innings pitched and on the season he has an ERA of 2.70. In his last five games, he is 3-0 over 33.1 innings ptiched with an ERA of 1.78. He has walked only 8 in that stretch while striking otu 34 (175 on the season). He has a 0-2 record against the Braves in start sthis season, but he has an ERA of 2.57, no walks and 4 K's in 14 innings. The run support has been the issue, and these games where towards the start of the seaosn when the Mets were really struggling against the Braves (I believe one Braves blog writer at that point in May declared the Mets season dead). Here are some Braves numbers against Santana:
     Infante 1-20, 7 K
     Jones 5-11
     Francoer 1-10, 2B
     Johnson 4-10, 2B
     McCann 3-9, 2B, HR
The people the pitch carefully around are not surprising. I am always afraid of Kelly Johnson, I feel he's a Met killer. Not so much this year but in 07 he seemed to be one, or at least felt like he was one. Santana's numbers against Infante and Francoer are the types of numbers that are fun to look at. If he can handle the lineup, hoepfully the Mets will be able to give him the runsupport he needs. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Braves!