Starting Lineup, Game Preview: Nationals vs Mets

Starting Lineup

1. Jose Reyes – SS
2. Justin Turner – 3B
3. Carlos Beltran – RF
4. Jason Bay – LF
5. Daniel Murphy – 1B
6. Ronny Paulino – C
7. Scott Hairston – CF
8. Ruben Tejada – 2B
9. Jonathon Niese – LHP

Game Preview

The Mets start a two game set at home against the Nationals tonight as the two teams fight for position in the cellar of the division. I do admit, that phrasing this series in that parameter is unfair for both the Mets and the Nationals as both teams are better than 5 other teams in the league. Anyway, tonight’s game will feature Gorzelanny of the Nationals as he faces off with Jon Niese.

Jon Niese has been up and down this season showing spurts of brilliance, and then spurts of “eh, needs a bit more work”, similar to last season. This year he has thrown 48.1 innings with a 5.03 ERA. He had a stretch of four good starts in a row where his ERA was 3.24, that was broken up by his last start where he allowed 5 ER in 6.1 innings of work.Somehow Jon has yet to face the Nationals this season. Last year he wasn’t that effective overall against the Nats posting a 5.56 ERA in 11.1 innings of work against them. The Nationals have the following numbers on Jon:

Pudge 2-9
Werth 3-8
LaRoche 3-6, 2 HR
Desmon 1-5, 2B
Morse 0-3

The Mets will get another look at Tom Gorzelanny tonight, who is 2-2 on the season with a 3.40 ERA. In the last three starts he has been superb throwing 19.2 innings and posting and ERA of 2.75. If his name sounds familiar, it is because he has faced the Mets twice this season already. In the first game against the Amazin’s and also his first start of the year, he picked up the loss after allowing 5 ER, 6 total over 5.1 innings. In his second start against the Mets, he pitched 6.1 innings, allowing only one earned run with a no decision. The Mets have the following numbers on Tom:

Reyes 2-15
Hairston 1-11
Beltran 2-7, 2 HR
Turner 1-3

Let’s Go Mets!
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