MMO Game Thread: Mets vs Pirates, 7:05 PM

Noah Syndergaard (1-1, 3.18 ERA) will make his third major league start tonight as the New York Mets head to Pittsburgh for a weekend series against the Pirates. Opposing Syndergaard will be Gerrit Cole (5-2, 2.40) in a 7:05 PM matchup at PNC Park.

The Mets are 9-10 this month. New York pitchers are second in the majors with a 2.89 ERA in May, while the Mets offense is hitting .231 this month, the fifth lowest mark in the majors.

Lucas Duda is tied for sixth in the NL with 19 extra-base hits, tied for fifth with 14 doubles and is eighth with a .397 on-base percentage.

John Franco will represent the Mets in the 2015 Hall of Fame Classic in Cooperstown, NY tomorrow. Hall of Famers Rollie Fingers, Tom Glavine, Phil Niekro, Tony Perez, Ozzie Smith and Robin Yount will join Franco and over 30 former players in a seven inning exhibition game at Doubleday Field.

Mets Starting Lineup

Curtis Granderson – RF
Eric Campbell – 3B
Lucas Duda – 1B
Michael Cuddyer – LF
Daniel Murphy – 2B
Wilmer Flores – SS
Juan Lagares – CF
Kevin Plawecki – C
Noah Syndergaard – RHP

After giving up a ton of runs without scoring much over the two previous games, the Mets were able to win in convincing fashion on Thursday to split the series with the Cardinals. Jacob deGrom provided a classic performance and Lucas Duda smashed two homers posting 4 RBIs to seal the deal.

Noah Syndergaard will be making this third start of the season tonight, so far he is 1-1 over 11.1 innings with a 3.18 ERA while striking out 11 batters. In his last start he pitched 6.0 innings allowing only one earned run and three hits while walking one and striking out five. This being his third start, he has no major league history with anyone on the Pirates roster. Interestingly, due to the construction of the Mets schedule this year, he has only started against teams in the NL Central so far this year.

The Mets bats draw Gerrit Cole who is 5-2 on the season over 8 starts and 48.2 innings with a 2.40 ERA. In the month of May he has been slightly more human with a 1-2 record over 18.0 innings striking out 18 batters with a 3.50 ERA. His one start against the Mets last year wasn’t good as he allowed 5 ER over 7 hits in 4.0 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against Gerrit: