Saturday, May 27, 2017 • 7:15 p.m.
PNC Park • Pittsburgh, PA
RHP Matt Harvey (3-3, 5.36 ERA) vs. RHP Tyler Glasnow (2-3, 6.69 ERA)
ESPN • WOR 710 AM • 104.3 WAXQ-FM HD 2 • ESPN 1050 AM
Last night was a quintessential Mets night. The team had the lead going into the ninth inning and they ended up losing the game in the 10th. Many members of the Mets ‘pen are still to on pace for a ridiculously high amount of appearances and they just seem to be running out of gas at this point. On the positive side, both Travis d’Arnaud and Lucas Duda had a great night, but the Mets will need all members of the lineup on overdrive until the bullpen can get out of this rut they are in.
METS LINEUP:
- Curtis Granderson – LF
- José Reyes – 3B
- Jay Bruce – RF
- Neil Walker – 2B
- Lucas Duda – 1B
- Asdrúbal Cabrera – SS
- Travis d’Arnaud – C
- Juan Lagares – CF
- Matt Harvey – RHP
Absent from the Mets lineup Sunday is Michael Conforto.
Conforto has five home runs, 11 RBI and 15 runs scored in his last 12 games. He has a career-best 13 home runs this year. Conforto is tied for fifth in the National League and tied for ninth in the majors with 13 home runs. Conforto ranks sixth in the majors with a 1.074 OPS, ninth with a .416 on-base percentage, tied for fifth with 36 runs scored and 10th in the NL with a .322 batting average.
PIRATES LINEUP:
- Adam Frazier – LF
- Josh Harrison – 2B
- Josh Bell – 1B
- Gregory Polanco – RF
- David Freese – 3B
- Andrew McCutchen – CF
- Francisco Cervelli – C
- Jordy Mercer – SS
- Tyler Glasnow – RHP
Hoping to help the bullpen get some rest tonight is Matt Harvey who is 3-3 over nine starts and 50 1/3 innings with a 5.36 ERA, 6.05 FIP and 1.470 WHIP. To put this in perspective, in 2013, he led the league in FIP at 2.01 and his current FIP is nearly double his career numbers. His WHIP is 0.3 points higher than his career number and is nearly identical to last year. He’s coming off a short, but better start where he allowed three hits and four walks that led to only 2 runs in five innings, the first time since April 11th, he allowed only two runs. The Pirates have the following numbers against him:
- Stewart 0-6
- McCutchen 2-4, HR
- Polanco 1-4, 3B
- Freese 1-3
- Harrison 2-3, 2B
- Mercer 0-3
The Pirates will send Tyler Glasnow who is 2-3 over nine starts and 40 1/3 innings with a 6.69 ERA, 5.31 FIP and 1.934 WHIP. Last year, he posted a 4.24 ERA, 4.26 FIP and 1.500 WHIP in seven games (four starts) for a total of 23 1/3 innings. He has been better of late allowing only four ER (six runs total) in his last two starts and 11 innings with 10 strikeouts. Tonight will be his first start against the Mets and his first time facing anyone on the Mets roster in a major league game.
Notes:
The Mets are 4-6 in their last 10 games, but are third in the majors with 136 runs scored this month. New York is 2-8 in its last 10 road games and are 9-12 on the road this year. New York has lost six straight one-run games and fell to 1-5 in extra-inning games with last night’s loss.
New York is 2-2 in rubber games this season, including 1-0 on the road. The Mets are 3-3 in road series.
Neil Walker, a native of Pittsburgh, was drafted by the Pirates in the first round in 2004 and played for the Pirates from 2009-2015. Walker is hitting .360 (9-25) with one double, three home runs and seven RBI in six games vs. his former club since joining the Mets in 2016. Walker now has 44 career homers at PNC Park, the eighth-most in the park’s history.
Walker is hitting .337 (31-92) with eight doubles, one triple, four home runs, 18 RBI and 17 runs scored in 22 games in May. He has a .390 on-base percentage this month. Walker is tied for fourth in doubles, seventh in batting average (.337) and tied for 10th in RBI (18) in May.
New York is tied for fourth in the NL and tied for ninth in the majors with 66 home runs.
Jay Bruce has 24 career doubles vs. Pittsburgh, his most vs. any team. He has 22 home runs, the second-most homers vs. any team during his career and he has driven in 71 runs vs. the Pirates, the second-most vs. any club.
Lucas Duda is 9-18 (.500) with four doubles, two home runs, eight RBI and five runs scored over his last five games. Duda has multi-hit efforts in four of those five games and multi-RBI games in three of those contests.
Let’s Go Mets!
