The Mets and the Brewers will play another day game today as the Mets try to complete a sweep for the first time this season. So far in this series, the Mets have had a walk off win where they won 5-4 and they had a close win yesterday that was decided by a score of 1-0. Before they played the Brewers, the Mets lost by the score of 6-5. That means their last three games have all been decided by one run. Today the Mets decided to play on the cautious side and they brought up Figueroa to start the game against Jeff Suppan who has been struggling so far this season.

Figueora had a very interesting Spring Training where he was average with the Mets but he was pretty much spot on while he was pitching with team Puerto Rico. He started the season off in AAA where he has pitched in two games so far getting no decisions but alloing only 3 runs in 9 innings (3.00 ERA) and during that time he has allowed 3 BB while striking out 6. In 2008 for the Mets, he made 10 appearences including 3 starts adding up to 28.1 innings pitched, a 3-3 record and a 5.72 ERA. Relatively speaking, he pitched a lot against the Brewers last year where he saw them three times, including one start where he had a 2-0 record over 9.0 IP, allowing 2 runs (2.00 ERA), walking 3 and striking out 10. Here are what the Brewers have done against Figueroa:
     Cameron 1-6, 2B
     Braun 1-5, 2B
     Kendall 0-4
     Weeks 1-4
     Fielder 1-3, 2B
The key for Figueroa is for him to know his limit. If he pitches within his limit, then he will handle this lineup well. Manuel so far this homestand has been able to gauge his starters pretty well (look at Oliver's outing) and he will be able to pull out Figueroa at the right moment. This matchup originally worried me, but I feel a little bit better knowing that Figueroa has a good amount of experience with the Brewers.

The Mets will have to do battle against Suppan today to get the win and to get the sweep. So far this season he has not been effective at all. He is so far 0-2 over 7.2 innings pitched where he allowed 11 earned runs so far (12.91 ERA). He pitched against the Mets once last season where he didn't get a decision in 4 innigns of work where he allowed 6 earned runs, walked 2 and struck out 2. Here is what the Mets have been able to do against him over the years:
      Delgado 8-36, 2 HR, 11 BB
      Beltran 4-17, 3B
      Wright 5-12, 2 HR
      Reyes 4-12, 2B, HR
      Chuch 3-3, 2B
The Mets offense was really restricted yesterday so hopefully they will be able to push around Suppan today and get some momentum going. Of course the key of the game for the Mets bats is to not leave a ton of Mets out on the bases again, and this going to remain a key for them every preview post until they can consistently prove that they can bring home RISP. Lets Go Mets! Sweep the Brew Crew!

Preferably we do not want to make it a habit of only winning games by one run but the Mets beat the Brewers again today by that margin, this time by the score of 1-0. Santana is the real story of this game as he pitched amazingly again. He went 7 innings and although he allowed 5 hits he didn't walk anyone and he got 7 strikeouts. That brings his season total to 27 and puts him in the league lead for that category. Now as good as Santana has been, and he has been real good with a 0.46 ERA so far this season there is this one thing the Mets could do for him, and that would be score more runs. Santana can pitch with no lead or a small lead, but lets make it less stresfull for the team and actually score runs the next time he goes out.

When your starter leaves in the seventh after a performance like that, and still only has a one run lead, you gotta hope that your bullpen is strong, and the Mets bullpen was like a story book today as Putz got the hold and struck out two and then Krod came in, allowed hit, but also struck out two and on the second strikeout, Santos got the lead runner on a strike them out, throw them out. The bullpen was able to lock down the game again today.

This means the Mets now find themselves in a position to sweep for the second time this season, and they need to jump on it. They are one of two teams in the NL East with a winning record and the Marlins already have a 4 game lead. I don't know how long the Marlins can keep up this current streak, but it would be nice to gain some ground on them but more importantly it is important to get some momentum. A win on Sunday means we go into our series with the Cardinals on a three game winning streak with a chance to build.

The Mets and the Brewers will play the second game in the series this afternoon for the first day game at Citi Field. The Mets are coming off of a big win last night in the ninth inning to get back to .500 for the season. Today's game should be an interesting pitching matchup because once again the Mets will be in an ace vs ace match up as Santana will be taking on young Gallardo who is slated the next big thing for the Brewers.

Gallardo made his major league debut in 2007 where he went 9-5 with a 3.67 ERA over 110.1 innings in his roookie year. Injuries held him up in 2008 where he pitched 4 games, getting no decisions in each start over 24 innings and posting a 1.88 ERA. Gallarado has never faced the Mets, which has become a concern for the Mets ever since 2006 where the Mets started a disturbing trend of doing bad against unknown starters. This spring he went 3-2 over 23.2 innnings posting a 4.18 ERA with 13 BB and 19 K. In his first two starts this season he is 1-1 with a 6.94 ERA with 6 BB, and 9 K. His first game was terrible, but his second game was very good. The Mets will need Santana to keep them in this game.

Santana had an amazing game in his last outing, but the Mets were not able to get him the win as they could only score one run, and the Mets basically gave Santana the loss as they had defense blunders that led to two unearned runs. Anyway, on the season, Santana is 1-1 with a 0.71 ERA over 12.2 innings, 5 BB, and 20 K. Last season Santana pitched in two games against the Brewers for 12.2 innings allowing 3 BB, and striking out 17 (with an ERA of 4.26). Here are the numbers the Brewers have against Santana:
    Kendall 2-20
    Hall 3-18
    Cameron 4-15, 7 K
    Weeks 4-7, 3BB
    Hardy 2-7
    Braun 3-6, 2B
    Fielder 2-6, 2K
This will be Santana's home debut and the Mets are hoping that it will be memorable. If the Mets can hit on the Brewers early and often, the key being often, then they will be able to give Santana that crucial run support. The Brewers have a lot of sluggers up and down their lineup, and a lot of them are young. That means Santana will be able to craft the strike zone and paint a lot of swinging strikeouts, hopefully. Lets go Mets! Take Game Two!

Tonight was a big win for the Mets tonight in a few ways. If you only watched the first inning, this game probably looked like the Mets were going to walk all over the Brewers tonight because they batted a round in the first. Also, Hernandez was on fire. Well the game went on and Bush got dialed in and meanwhile Hernandez started to run out of gas. Then the Brewers scored a run in the fifth and then hit a three run bomb in the sixth to take the lead. So far this season, if the Mets were trailing after 6, they didn't win. Also, if the Mets lost tonight, it would be the third time they would lose a game after leading 3-0 after some point in the game.

Well the Mets started to rally. In the seventh inning, Gary Sheffield reached history by hitting his 500th homer, and it was the first time someone hit their 500th homer in a Mets uniform. The Mets would go on from their to load the bases, but couldn't break the 4-4 tie. The next inning, the Mets loaded the bags again, but couldn't do anything with it. Which leads us to the ninth inning. Delgado hits a leadoff double. Beltran strikes out. Church is walked. Santos hits a slow, slow roller that basically acted like a one out bunt moving Delgado and Church over. Castillo then came up and hit the ball at deep short, beating out the throw and Delgado scored the winning run.

The Result:
   1) The Mets get their first walk off win of the season and at their own home. Remember earlier today I said something had to give? Well that happened today with the Mets taking the game with the one run lead.
   2) Mets fans now have no reason to boo Castillo who is tearing it up on the homestand and is a bit reason why we won the game today.
   3) For everyone who thought that Sheff was going to be a cancer in the club house, the congradulations he got from the Mets dugout were sincere and great. It shows how tight this team is.
   4) The Mets are now tied for second in the division with the Braves, and are 4 games out of first place of the incredibly hot Marlins.

The Mets will take on the Brewers tonight for the first weekend series at Citi Field. The Mets lost another close one last night, and I saw a stat somewhere today that said that the Mets have lost the five games this season by a total of 6 runs, showing how close the Mets are getting but just not getting the job tonight. It starting to become obvious that something is going to have to give soon in either direction for this team, and lets hope it is to the winning side. The Mets will facing Bush tonight and they will be sending up Livan Hernandez.

Hernandez had a very successful last start and he is going to try to build off of that to beat the Brew Crew tonight. Last year he played one game against the Breweres where he allowed 4 runs over 7 innings in a losing effort. He walked 4 and struck out 5. The Brewers have a lot of hitting experience against Livan, and have hit him well in the past:
     Cameron 10-43, 2 2B, 4 HR
     Counsell 17-42, 2 2B
     Kendal 12-34
     Hall 4-13
     Braun 2-10
     Fielder 1-8
The key for Livan tonight will be to keep them off the bags and keep them in the yard. With the type of experience these guys have on Livan, there will be no surprises tonight, so lets hope that he gets them out. He will need run support tonight and to do that, the Mets will have to hit up on Bush.

So far this season Bush has been in two games and one start for a total of 7.1 innings and has a 6.14 ERA. Last year against the Mets Bush got the loss in 5 innings of work where he allowed 2 homers and 6 runs while walking 3 and striking out 2. The Brewers pen is pretty weak, so hopefully the Mets will be able to get through him. Here are the numbers the Mets have against Bush:
     Castillo 2-9
     Church 2-7 HR
     Reyes 2-6, 3B
     Delgado 3-5, HR
     Wright 1-5
Delgado is having a terrific season so far and Castillo has been doing pretty well as of late. The funny thing is depending on how you look at stats, Wright is either doing fantastic, average, or terrible. He has been hitting in every game, and he has been hitting to keep rallies alive: fantastic. He only has one homer and 4 RBI: Average (for Wright). In a little over 30 AB, he already has over 15 K's : Terrible. Lets hope he can make contact with the ball and at least put it into play (but not double plays!). Lets Go Mets! Beat the Brew Crew!

The Mets play the Rubber game in the series with the Padres tonight as they face their biggest challenge of this series, Jake Peavy. The Mets are back at .500 and winning this game is important in an attempt to get the ball rolling, to build momentum and start taking series. The Mets played well last night because they took advantages of mistakes that the Padres made and that is how they are going to have to win tonight. If the Padres make a mistake, the Mets will need to jump on it.

Peavy is tough but he isn't unbeatable. He is already 1-1 this year with a very respectable 3.52 ERA over his first two games and 15.1 innings. The most amazing stat though he has this year so far is his 2 walks vs his 18 K's. The Mets didn't play him at all in 2008 but in 2007 the Mets went 1-1 against him and he posted a 3.75 ERA over 12 IP, 7 BB and 16 K's. Here are the numbers the Mets have posted against Peavy over the years:
    Cora 4-21
    Beltran 5-16, 3 2B, 3B
    Delgado 2-12, 2B
    Reyes 4-15
    Wright 2-12, 2B
    Church 4-11, 2B
    Sheff 2-4, HR
The key for the Mets is too string hits together. If they can hit him in bunches then they can score runs and maybe get a move to the pen. Last night they showed they can hit the pen for first time against the Padres in the series, and you have to think the confidence from that will roll into today (although they haven't gotten runs off of the big guys in the Padres pen).

The Mets will give the ball to John Maine tonight, who hopes to build off his last start where he was effective allowing 2 runs over 5 innings. He hasn't faced the Padres since 2007 where pitched 2 games agianst them over 11.2 innings, had a 5.40 ERA, walked 6 and struck out 9. This will also be Maine's first regular season game at Citi and his first time to see in a real game how he will do in the spacious dimensions of Citi Field. Here some numbers the Padres have against Maine:
     Gonzalez 2-8, 2B, HR
     Giles 0-4
     Kouzmanhoff 1-6
     Eckstein 0-3
If you have not watched any of the games this series, or have but didn't watch Adrian Gonzalez, you really need to watch him. He has a fantastic swing and fundalmentals at the plate and on field that can be turned into an instructional video. That being said, if we shut him down tonight then we can put ourselves in a good position to take this series. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Friars!

Hello Readers!

Last nights game was great! I hope you all had a chance to watch it. I wanted to take some time to invite any of you who live in the College Park, Maryland area to a presentation I am giving on Saturday morning at 10:30 AM in Queen Anne's Hall (On the University of Maryland College Park Campus). The event is called Just Politik Undergraduate Research Symposium. I will be presenting a pilot research on a project that I have been working on for about two years now. During this project I try to take on the current understanding of the lure of Minor League Baseball and how Minor League Baseball interacts with the communities that it is in by understanding how these communities form and how they are unique for each team. The project includes a case study of the local Minor League team, the Bowie Baysox, to help form the thesis that (if this project goes onto the next step) I will need to support using other teams and towns. The talk will be pretty short, aprx 20 min and there are two other great presentations on the same panel before the floor will open for questions. The two other topics are "If These Stalls Could Talk: Spatializing the Ephemeral Practice of Bathroom Graffiti" by Joseph Parker and "I Can Do That!: Contemporary Zine Culture and the Aesthetics of a Queer Anti‐Urbanism” by Jenna Brager (our pannel topic is Questions of Space: Culture Politics and 'Community' Reconsidered). If you can make it out it would be great to meet any of you. A few days after the talk I'll probably post actually excerpts from my project and explain what the thesis is for anyone that is interested.

Lets Go Mets-
Elliot

There are many things to be happy about after yesterday's 7-2 win over the Padres. The big story right off the bat is that Oliver Perez turned around and he just had a dazzling start. He was working all of his pitches and he was able to get out of trouble (like in the first inning). He also showed a lot of emotion last night (like when he struck out on what would have been ball 4 and slammed his bat on the ground) that should show to all Mets fans out there that he really cares. A lot of his success belongs also to the Mets management. They took him out the right time. We all know how it goes with Perez that all it takes is one bad pitch in a late inning and he starts to unravel. By taking him out after 6, we got a great start out of him, and what that will benefit him in the long run.

The other thing I was happy about was how the Mets recovered from yesterday's blunder in the OF with that strange play that seemed planned with Murphy throwing to Reyes throwing to home. After that, if the patter continued from the last few games, the Mes should have gone hitless. Instead they load the bases and they get everyone home. The first time they loaded the bases, they got a sac fly and a hit to bring home two runs. The second time they played heads up baseball scoring 3 runs on 2 wild pitches including Reyes going first to home on a WP, something that I have never seen before and so glad that I got an opportunity to see.

Finally, we saw the first of what should be a lot of Carlos Delgado crushed homers to the right field portch. That Porch looks like it is tailor made for his swing and might be what causes the Mets to never consider bring the left field wall down or in.

The Mets will play the second game in the series tonight with the Padres as they celebrate Jackie Robinson day. This year it has been mandated that every player across the league wear 42 tonight, which is really great when you think about it. This means that everyone is being included in the celebration of when Baseball started a movement to include everyone. Anyway, on this historic day, the Mets will be sending a historic mystery to the mound in the form of Oliver Perez, who has had two bad starts in a row so that means he might be due for some magic tonight. He will be facing Correia tonight.

Oliver Perez last season faced the Padres twice in games that led to No decisions for Perez. He pitched 14.2 Innings and allowed 2 walks while striking out 12. During that time he allowed only 3 runs which is a 1.84 ERA. Perezz needs to get a good start under his belt tonight not only for his confidence but to get people off his back. Plus, over the last few games, the Mets are in need of a win tonight after those two back to back almost wins. Here are the stats the Padres have on Perez:
    Giles 4-11, 4 BB, 3K
    Eckstein 3-10, 2B, 4BB
    Gonzalez 1-5, 2K
    Kouzmanhoff 0-2
    Hairston 2-9
The key for Perez tonight is the key that we always have for Perez. He needs to know how to stop the bleeding. When he gets into trouble, he needs to be able to get out of it, other wise its going to be a long game for the Mets. Needless to say, the Mets are going to want to score runs tonight.

Correia has pitched in 171 games since coming into the majors in 2003 and he has only started 47 of those games. So far this year he has a no decision in one start where he lasted 6 innings allowed 3 runs. He has played with the Giants from 2003 to 2008 where he saw 1.1 innings against the Mets in relief. He allowed one run on a homerun during that time. Overall last year he had a 6.05 ERA over 110 innings pitched in 25 games and 19 starts with a 3-8 record. Here are the numbers the Mets have against him:
    Cora 3-7
    Reyes 1-7
    Delgado 0-6
    Wright 5-6, 2 2B, 2 HR
    Beltran 2-5
Wright who was the hero of the game for the Mets in the first home this season will look to play hero again tonight with those amazing career numbers against Correia. More importantly for the Mets, we will get our first look at Sheff in the outfield as he gets his first start of the season tonight sitting at 499 homers. It could be a very special night at Citi with Sheff sitting on this milestone. Lets Go Mets! Lets beat the Padres!

After a while of waiting, I finally found a link today to go look at the MLB Draft order. The Mets, a year after having three first round picks, will not have any this year, and we knew that going into this season since the Mets signed Krod and didn't have any Type A free agents leave. The Mets would have had the 24th pick in the draft. Following the 32 initial first round picks (the two additional picks in the first round would be 10-Nationals for not signing a first round pick last year and 29-Yankees for the same reason). Draft slots 33 to 49 are the supplemental first round picks for type A and type B picks.

This means that the Second Round will start with pick 50. That means the Mets first pick of the draft will be in the second round at pick number 73. The Mets have found jewels in the later rounds before (like Dan Murphy most recently in round 13 in the 2006 draft). In other words the Mets will have to have some excellent scouts to make a draft, which really isn't different than any other year where as long as one or two players make it to the majors, its considered a good draft (isn't it amazing how baseball works?).

Anyway some other draft highlights for the NL East include the Nationals two top ten picks, the Marlins 18th pick, the Phillies 0 first round picks and finally the Braves one first round pick. The Diamondbacks ended up with 5 first round picks (when the supplemental picks are added in as well).

If you think the last few days have been bad for the Mets, be thankful that you are not a Nationals fan. Their season is going so poorly right now, and their doesn't look like they have an upside right now. The Nationals right now are the only team in the majors to not win a game yet. They have had several games that they should have one, but they haven't been able to close it out yet this season. Things are so bad that they felt in necessary to make some big changes today. In an attempt to wake up a certian Center Fielder and the entire team, the Nationals sent Milledge down to the minors today to get back on his game which in a sense rewards Dukes who has been playing well as of late and now gets to be the every day starter in CF.

The Nationals season is going so poorly right now, so much worse than anyone predicted. They were going to be bad but this is ridiculous. If this keeps up though they might pull a Rays in the sense that they will start to get back to back years of number 1 picks and as long as the scout the players right, they can start to build a very good team, just too bad Nationals fans won't see any dividends of this for a few seasons.

The first note is something I've been meaning to post for a few days now. The other day (I think Saturday) Keith, Gary and Ron were talking about how Delgado taps his glove when he is about to make a catch, an art that has not been seen for a while. Then they talked about other notable Mets who did the same thing, and they were Willie Mays and Tommy Agee, which is great company to be listed with. My other note about Delgado is I'm wondering how long it will be until we start seeing actually try to pull the ball down the right field line at Citi. I know he normally tries not to, to go against the shift but I think if sees a fastball or hanging breaking ball in his wheel house, he should pull it because that right field line seems pretty close, as Gerut pointed out to the Mets last night.

During the telecast last night (being in DC, I was watching it on ESPN with Steve Phillips, joy) did they point out on the SNY broadcast the people who hung the number 17 over the balcony to suggest retiring the number. I saw it very quickly when they were showing the stadium, but I would assume they would make a bigger deal about that SNY. Also, the more and more I look at it, that outfield seems huge. Any mistakes out there can be really costly, can't wait for the Marlins to come to town, lets hope they make some errors out there.

Finally Jackie Robinson day is approaching and this year they want everyone to wear the 42. This has really evolved over the years from a few people wanting to do it, to several on a team, to full teams doing it and now the entire league doing, which is the right thing because in reality, either everyone should wear it or no one wears it because we want to remember his legacy now as intergrating and including everyone. So, good move Selig.

Usually I hate losing the day before an off day because all you think about (in terms of baseball) is losing the day before, but today I'm glad the Mets are off. The Mets have lost back to back games for the first time this season and both games were very winnable in the sense that some point in the game the Offense or the Pitching put the team into position to actually win the game however in both games mental mistakes on DEFENSE have cost us the game. Sunday it was a dropped fly ball by Murphy. And last night you can take your pick between Church and fielding a hit or Feliciano and his balk.

I really hope a lot this has been about opening at Citi because when it comes down to it, these are mistakes that are really easy to correct. It feels like this team is ready to burst out in a big way at any moment now, and it would be nice if they actually do it soon. The Mets are now in forth place from yesterday's loss, and although they aren't in danger right now of falling to fifth, they really need to turn it on and start to fight back. Win this series, fight in the next series, repeat for the next series. A strong April will be very important for the Mets because they do not play the Braves or the Phillies in April, so it allow the Mets to develop a cushion for May, where the schedule will take a hard turn.

The Mets open up their world class home tonight as the Padres come to town for a special night at Citi Field. The game tonight features Pelfrey vs Walter Silva (more on him later) but more importantly it features the Mets new field, its wierd tendencies, and (as many of us have heard) amazing food. The Mets had a good, not great, but not bad, road trip at 3-3 and are ready to use that home team support (yes support, in other words do NOT boo tonight, please) as they start off a homestand against the Padres who have jumped out of the gate with a record of 5-2 and a first place spot in the West.

The Mets will be facing Walter Silva tonight. If you have never heard of him before, thats because this is the first year he is playing ball in America. He has had four seasons I believe in the Mexican league and this year made it to the Padres starting lineup. In his last outing, he didn't get a decision, lasted 5 innings, allowed 5 hits, allowed 2 runs (earned), walked 4 and struck out 1. This spring he was 0-1 with a 4.91 ERA over 11 innings and three games where he allowed 6 ER, walked 2 and struck out 5. Last year in Mexico he posted a 7-8 record with a 4.21 ERA, 115.1 innings pitched, 49 BB, 60 K. He is unknown to the Mets and we will see tongiht for the first time in 2009 how the Mets will deal with an unknown pitcher.

The Pitcher that is going for hte Mets tonight knows the Padres, and is a pretty big fan of them when it comes to facing them. Last year Pelfrey was 1-0 in two games against the Padres with a 2.13 ERA. He pitched 12.2 IP, walked 4 and struck out 4. Even with those numbers, the batting numbers against Pelfrey are a little surprising:
    Gerut 4-7
    Giles 1-4
    Gonzalez 1-5, HR
    Kouzmanhoff 2-6, HR
You would think with his record against the Padres, that these numbers would be a little more favorable. I am very curious to see how Big Pelf pitches in Big Citi Field. With all of that space, his weakness, the longball, is going to be taken away to some degree and could be very favorable (or not, you never know until it happens). This is a big night for the Mets as they open a stadium for the third time in their franchise and open a new stadium for the second time. Lets make it happen tonight! Lets Go Mets!

That was just a hard loss yesterday. Santana gave one of the best performances of his career and he gets slapped with the loss. Its hard to not blame Dan Murphy for yesterday, but at the same time we have to remember that he is barely over a rookie. He took full responsibility and I bet we just won't see it happen again because of the way this kid plays, he is going to go strong every day out there. I'm just thankful the Mets got a hit, let alone a run, and weren't no hit by the Marlins, because that would have been the worse.

So its very early to look at standings, but the Mets are tied with the Phillies at third in the division, with even records of 3-3 while the Braves and the Marlins sit at top with records at 5-1. The Nationals are now the only team in Major League Baseball to not have a win yet. Looking ahead, after the Padres, the Mets catch a bit of a break with the Brewers and the Nationals to help pad the standings. The Padres should also be one of these teams but right now they are off to a hot start, and it would be impressive at the moment if the Mets can put them down and quiet them for a little.

That leads me to today. How great is today? No matter what the score is, no matter what you feel about having a new stadium, it is just an exciting day. The Mets are finally home for the first time this year and they have a new home, a world class home and its just exciting to be a Mets fan today. That being said, if you are reading this, and you are lucky enough to go to the game please read this very carefully:

I would like to express the feelings that many Mets fans have recently developed. Us Mets fans, that have been fans for a while (ie, before the spending that started in 2005) would like to ask you newer fans to get with the program in that we do NOT boo our own team, especially in the first month of the season. Do NOT boo Castillo, for he just had a 4 hit game and he deserves a clean slate. Do NOT boo Dan Murphy because he will make up for his mistakes. Do NOT boo Oliver Perez because he still deserves another chance this year and above all Do NOT boo the Mets on the first game of their new stadium, this is supposed to be an amazin event that if you are attending, you will remember for the rest of your life, do NOT scare it with boo's.

The Rubber game of this series has arrived. The Marlins beat the Mets in a close game on Friday. The Mets responded by remembering how to hit with RISP last night to bring down the Marlins 8-4. We have our ace going today in the form of Johan Santana. The Marlins have their ace (thats my opinion) going today in the form of Josh Johnson, who basically is Nolan Ryan and Cy Young rolled into one pitcher when he faces the Mets.

This is the perfect day for the Mets to have Santana pitching. With Johnson pitching for the Marlins, runs might be scarce for the Mets so this is the time to have the ace go up and secure a win and to secure a 4-2 Road Trip to start the season. Santana had a lot of success last year against the fish going 3-0 in as many games over 23 innings pitched, walking 7 and striking out 24. His ERA over that time was 1.96. Here are the numbers the Marlins have put up against Santana:
     Cantu 5-23, 8K
     Ramirez 2-12, 4K
     Uggla 1-14, 8K
     Ross 3-10
     Bonifacio 0-5, 3K
The Mets were able to handle Bonifacio a little better last night, and that is going to be the key for the pitching staff in this game as well. If they can keep him off the bases, then the rest of the lineup will become easier to handle. Of course, the Mets will also have to handle Ramirez who plays as advertised against the Mets. To help out Santana, the Mets are going to have to figure out Johnson.

Since 2006, Johnson is 4-0 against the Mets but the splits tell different stories. Last year he went 2-0 pitched 13.2 innings, had 4BB and 7K on his way to a 3.95 ERA. In 2006 (didn't pitch against the Mets in 07) he went 2-0 in three games, allowed NO runs agaisnt the mets over 17 innings, walked 8 and struck out 16. So in 2006, he was basically untouchable against the Mets and in 2008 the Mets were able to touch him but were not able to produce runs. Here are the Mets lines against Johnson:
      Beltran 1-11
      Delgado 0-11
      Reyes 3-9
      Wright 1-11
      Castillo 1-3
      Murphy 1-2
Before we break down the offense, last nights performance by Castillo caused his BA to jump from about .100 to .357 (Don' you love the stats at the start of the season?). If there are a lot of bench players starting today, it would make sense. The Mets have not been able to figure out Johnson at the plate and they might have to change the lineup around. The other side of that story is that the Mets have been hitting well so far this season, and they have an off day tomorrow, so we will see what the Jerry decides to do. Need less to say, the goal of the game is to get hits, hit often, break back into that Marlins pen. Lets Go Mets!

The Mets basically looked their problems in the eye tonight and just fought through them. Part of the problems they have been facing stems from Luis Castillo getting off to an extremely slow start. He came out in a big way tonight with a four hit night (at one point it was five hits until it was overruled) and just about all of his hits were important. The Mets tonight did a much better job of bringing runners home and moving them over, as the scoreboard shows with their 8 runs scored. David Wright also got his first RBI of the season. Hopefully now that he has his first one out of the way, he will start to hit the ball better and keep this lineup going. With as much praise that Castillo should be getting tonight, Delgado and Reyes deserve some because they had nice games too.

Of course you can't talk about players that had good games, and not talk about Livan Hernandez. He went farther than any pitcher on the Mets staff tonight and he did a pretty good job of it only giving up two runs in 6.2, and those runs came at the end of the game. If he can always pitch like that, then he can really solidifly this rotation (its amazing how we can feel so much better about this rotation after back to back good starts by Maine and Hernandez). O'day had a very good 8th inning, after a really tough week for him, and although he struggled in the ninth, he has the stuff to become a force in the pen, he just has to build that confidence.

Finally I just want to mention Church. He handled the whole platoon with Tatis then platoon with Sheff thing well in words, but now he is using his bat to show that he should have that spot every day. His .533 AVG is amazing and if he keeps this up, I can't see Sheff getting many starts over him.

In this addition of Numbers Daily, I wanted to take a look at Mets who have had hits in every game so far this season:
     Murphy
     Beltran
     Church
     Wright
Church has been hitting the skin off the ball lately, and you have to think if he continues to do that, and Murphy continues to do what he does, its gonna be very tough for Sheff to crack the lineup.

Other Numbers:
.533 BA of Church through the first five games
159- Jose Reyes's Rank on the all time SB list
12- Jose Reyes's Rank on the active SB list
0- As of Saturday, the Mets total amount of back page features on the Daily News
5- As of Saturday, the Yankees streak of having the back page story on the Daily News
6.2- The amount of Innings Livan has on the season, and leads the entire Mets pitching staff in IP

The world of the Marlins sure is a strange one. Sure its pretty lonely, unless a good team comes to town then its filled with a bunch of strange people, but even with that, the things that go on in Miami can raise your eyebrows, and I'm not just talking about Rameriez's flip out or am I talking about the Manatees. I am talking about this weird concept they have of the Mets. I was watching the game last night on the Marlins network and they are convinced, CONVINCED that the Mets and the Marlins have a rivalry apart from just a normal Divisional rivalvry. Thats right forget the Braves (who I feel are our only rivals) forget the Phillies (who are quickly becoming our rivals) the big rivalry we have is with THE MARLINS! They basically link this to how the Marlins have enjoyed taking away the postseason from the Mets the last two years. They sure do act like its a rivalry, did you see how much the celbrated last night....on the forth game of the season. However, for it to be a rivalry it has to go two ways, and very, very, very few Mets fans would agree that we have a rivalry with the Marlins. (Seriously, how do you have a rivalry with a team where the two best players from each team want to be/are godfathers for each others kids? It doesn't make sense! Wake up Florida, we don't hate you!).

Bud Selig announced today, in a move that has been speculated since yesterday, that the Arizona Diamondbacks will host the 2011 All-Star game, which makes sense because their stadium is really nice and really deserves a game. It is hard to think when the Mets might actually get the game (maybe 2012, please? More than likely 2014 though) due to all of the new ballparks opening around the league and all of the ball parks that havn't hosted yet. The advantage the Mets have is they have not hosted since '64 and their are a host of ballparks opening next year through 2012. The disadvantage the Mets have is that the Yankees had the game last year so it would only be 4 years in 2012 since NYC had the game. We'll see how it goes!

The Mets try to bounce back tonight and end their two game losing streak as they play the Marlins for the second game of this series. The game starts at 6 thanks to Flo Rida and the Marlins and it looks like the first hour will not be televised. The Mets send up the first fifth starter of the season in the form of Livan Hernandez and the Marlins will send out Nolasco, who won his first start of the season.

Hernandez didn't see action against the Marlins at all last year but in 2007 he went 2-0 in as many games, pitched 14.0 innings, walked 2 and struck out 5. During that time, his ERA against them was 3.21. The previous year though, he went 0-2 against the fish in three games with an ERA above 11. Here are the numbers the Fish have against him:
     Uggla 3-13, 3B, HR
     Ramierez 5-11, 2B, HR
     Hermida 3-11
     Cantu 0-3
The Marlins always start off hot, right now the Mets really need to stop them because I have a feeling that one loss might cause the train to go off the tracks a bit. As of right now they are hitting very well and the Mets need to get them under control. Hernandez is going to need a lot of run support.

Nolasco gets to handle a Mets lineup that has left 14 men on base in the game last night. Last year agaisnt the Mets he was 1-2 in 6 games, 5 starts against the Mets over 33.2 innings and had a 3.48 ERA. The Mets have hit him pretty well, mainly the big stars in our lineup have hit him pretty well. They will need to perform today and score runners as they get on base, otherwise this season will go no where fast. Here are the stat lines the Mets have against Nolasco:
     Reyes 11-26, 3B, 2 HR
     Beltran 8-23, HR
     Wright 12-25, 3 2B, 3 HR
     Delgado 6-21, HR
     Church 1-9
The Mets showed last night that they can agaisnt the Marlins pen. If they can score runs against Nolasco and then hit the Marlins pen, they should have no problem scoring runs. As we have seen over the last few games, that is a big if. Lets Go Mets! Fry some Fish!