Coming into this series the Mets (71-56, 42-21 Home) and Red Sox (58-69, 25-37 Road) are the two hottest hitting teams in all of baseball ranking #1 and #2 respectively in runs scored this month. The Mets have scored 155 runs in that span and the Sox with 144 runs scored in August. New York also leads MLB in doubles, homeruns, RBI, extra base hits, total bases, and SLG% for the month of August.
The Mets have won seven straight games and have now had three winning streaks of at least seven games this year. This is the fourth such occurrence in Mets team history with the other three being in 2006, 1986, and 1969. They have also scored 73 runs during the winning streak which is the most over a seven game span in team history.
Yoenis Cespedes tied his career high with his 26th homerun last night and is tied for first in the National League with his 23 RBI in August. He is fourth in the Majors this season with his 63 extra base hits. Cespedes and Daniel Murphy are tied for the NL lead with 15 extra base hits this month. Murphy also leads the Majors in doubles, 6th in NL in RBI and 9th in batting average during August.
Curtis Granderson has scored at least one run in eight games tying his career high. His 19 RBI are tied for eighth in the NL this month and his six homeruns are tied for sixth. Michael Conforto has reached base safely in nine straight games and is hitting .357 over his last 11.
Matt Harvey is 4-0 with a 1.11 ERA in his last seven home starts and the Mets are 6-1 in those games. Jeurys Familia has pitched a career high 14 straight scoreless innings dating back to July 31st. Noah Syndergaard will receive a watch in a pre-game ceremony today for being named Co-NL Player of the Week (with Lucas Duda) for July 27-August 2.
The Mets have hit a new Citi Field club record 70 homeruns in just 63 games including 22 in their last 13 games. They are now tied for third in the National League with 132 homeruns this season. After yesterdays dramatic win the Mets have 31 come-from-behind wins this year (12 on the road and 19 at home), the sixth most in MLB.
Mets have a losing record on Friday (9-10) and Saturday (9-11) but a team high 14 wins on Sundays this year including 8-2 at home.
This is the first time since 2009 that the Mets have played Boston and the last time they beat them was when this happened. Still love watching Jonathan Papelbon‘s reaction.
Glendon Rusch threw 8 innings of one-hit shutout ball with ten strikeouts the last time the Red Sox traveled to New York to play the Mets. The lineup that day included Desi Relaford at shortstop, Joe McEwing leading off, and Mark Johnson with a two-run homerun out of the cleanup spot for the only offense of the game.
The Mets and Red Sox did play two exhibition games in 2009 at Citi Field before the park was opened.
The pitching matchup for game one tonight at 7:10 puts Harvey (11-7, 2.57 ERA) against one of the Red Sox top pitching prospect lefty Henry Owens. Owens is one of the Top 50 prospects in all of baseball and will be making his 5th Major League start. He has gone 2-1 with a 4.67 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 24 innings to start his big league career. He was 3-8 with 3.16 ERA and 1.144 WHIP at AAA Pawtucket before being promoted.
In game two the Mets will be facing former Cardinal RHP Joe Kelly with their ace Jacob deGrom (12-6, 2.29 ERA) on the mound at 4:05 on Saturday. Kelly has struggled this year going 7-6 with a 5.18 ERA and 1.460 WHIP while allowing 124 hits in 113 innings. He has been much better since working on things in Pawtucket going 5-0 with 3.03 ERA in five starts this month.
Kelly actually has reverse splits this season with righties hitting .304/.376/.481 against him compared to lefties batting .251/.304/.407 in 2015. Although for his career lefty hitters have hit him better with a .746 OPS and righty hitters with a .712 OPS. He has pitched against the Mets 3 times in his career with one start and is 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA and 1.154 WHIP in 8.2 innings.
The final game of the series will feature the Red Sox LHP Wade Miley battling the Mets Syndergaard (8-6, 3.19 ERA) at 1:05 on Sunday. Miley is 10-10 with a 4.51 ERA and 1.386 WHIP with an ugly in 26 starts for his first season in a Red Sox uniform after coming over in an offseason trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Miley like Kelly, has fared better in August going 2-1 with 4.01 ERA and 4.50 SO/W.
The Mets are 10-11 All-Time in the regular season vs. the Red Sox including 4-5 in New York. However, the Mets won the most important series they have ever played against each other 4-3 in a rousing comeback that I’m sure you can all remember vividly. I will just leave this here for your viewing pleasure.
