Fresh off of winning their first series in forever, the Mets will take on the Marlins tonight in a reversal of roles from previous years. In the last two seasons, the Marlins have dealt some devastating blows to the Mets playoffs hopes, and now the Mets have the opportunity to return the favor. The Marlins are 5.5 games out of the wild card, which is a bit of a long shot at this point but is very doable. The Mets play them six times this month, if they win a few, then they help make the Marlins playoff hopes disapear.

To do this, the Mets will need another good pitching performance from Tim Redding who is 2-4 on the season with 90.0 innings pitched and a 5.70 ERA. In his last three games he is 1-0 over 18.1 innings of work with a fantastic 2.45 ERA. Against the fish this year he is 1-1 over 10.2 innings and a 8.44 ERA. Here are some Marlins stats against him:
     Ramirez 9-19, 3 2B, 3 HR
     Helms 6-23, 2 HR
     Hermida 11-20, 5 2B, HR
     Uggla 2-15, HR
     Ross 2-14
So the Marlins have some good numbers on Redding but at that time he faced them, Redding was terrible. However, as of late, he has started to really improve. He could benefit from some offense though.

To get that, the Mets will have to beat up on VandenHurk who is 2-2 on the season with a 4.91 ERA over 36.2 innings. In his last game he pitched 5.0 innings allowed 3 runs, 2 earned, walked 3 and struck out 3. He faced the Mets once in 2008 and allowed 3 ER in 3.0 innings of work. Here are some Mets numbers against him:
     Francoeur 1-8
     Wright 0-4, 2 BB
     Schnieder 2-3, 2B
     Castillo 1-1
     Pagan 1-1
The Mets have won 3 of their last 4 (amazin!) and now have four straight games with one homerun (thank you Sullivan and Murphy). Lets Go Mets! Beat the Marlins!