Pedro Martinez Bumped To Monday, Jon Niese Gets The Start

The Mets have reshuffled the rotation and instead of Pedro Martinez pitching in the second game of the doubleheader, it will be rookie Jon Niese.

Pedro will instead pitch the first game of the nationals series which begins on Monday.

Oliver Perez will pitch tomorrow’s series finale as scheduled.

Of course, our ace Johan Santana will pitch the first game of today’s doubleheader. (Go Johan!)

According to a report in the Journal News,

The team’s explanation for pushing him back was that it would have had two open starts to fill in the Washington series otherwise. Now it’s Martinez and then Mike Pelfrey on Tuesday. The Mets still need to find a starter for Wednesday, and then Santana will go again on Thursday.

“I’d prefer to pitch when I was supposed to pitch,” Martinez said. “But given the current situation, I’ll pitch when it’s more convenient to the team. I’m a team player.”

Niese will hope today’s start goes better than his debut. The hyped 21-year-old lefty filled in for the injured John Maine on Sept. 2 at Milwaukee, but was charged with five runs and seven hits in three-plus innings and took a no-decision.

Niese looked too nervous and very uncomposed during his debut. Maybe today we will see the pitcher that has had the Mets front office and many Major League scouts raving for the past twelve months.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed… Who knows, this could be the start of something big.

Lets Go Mets!