MMO Game Thread: Nationals vs Mets, 7:10 PM

The Nationals trounced the Mets on a soggy Tuesday night for the opener of the homestand, and tonight the Mets look to get back on track. Tonight Jordan Zimmermann (7-5, 3.06) gets the start for Nationals against Bartolo Colon (11-9, 3.97).

Colon earned his 200th win in the Mets’ 5-4 victory against the Phillies in his last start. The veteran righthander tossed a season high-tying 8.0 innings and allowed just one earned run, a home run to Marlon Byrd and six hits. He struck out six and walked none in the 107-pitch effort.

Buddy Carlyle extended his scoreless streak to a bullpen season-high 10.1 innings last night. He has allowed only five hits and hasn’t issued a walk during this span which dates back to July 13. Carlyle has retired 11 of 12 first batters faced and has the lowest ERA (0.59) among all pitchers with 15 or more innings.

Wilmer Flores is 4-for-his-last-12 (.333) with at least one hit in three straight games starting at shortstop. Flores has at least one hit in seven of eight games with an at-bat this month and is batting .290 (9-31) with four RBI this month.

Starting Lineup

Curtis Granderson – RF
Daniel Murphy – 2B
David Wright – 3B
Lucas Duda – 1B
Travis d’Arnaud – C
Matt den Dekker – LF
Juan Lagares – CF
Wilmer Flores – SS
Bartolo Colon – RHP

Colon is 11-9 on the season over 23 games and 154.1 innings with a 3.97 ERA. After a clunker of a start against the Giants where Colon allowed 6 ER over 4.2 innings, he was excellent in his last start against the Phillies allowing only one earned run over 8.0 innings of work. In two starts against the Nationals this year, he has allowed 5 ER over 14.0 innings of work. The Nationals have the following numbers against him:

Span 0-10
Cabrera 1-8, 2B
Rendon 1-7
Desmond 3-6, 2 HR
LaRoche 1-5, 2B
Werth 3-5, 2B

Jordan Zimmermann is 7-5 on the season with a 3.06 ERA and 23 starts over 138.1 innings. Like Fister in last night’s start, Zimmermann’s last start was also against the Mets where he allowed 3 ER over 6.1 innings while striking out 5 batters. It broke up his short streak of 7.0 inning outings. The Mets have the following numbers against Zimmermann: