Mets Lineup
- Mike Baxter – RF
- Daniel Murphy – 2B
- David Wright – 3B
- Ike Davis – 1B
- John Buck – C
- Kirk Nieuwenhuis – CF
- Lucas Duda – LF
- Ruben Tejada – SS
- Jonathon Niese – LHP
Game Notes
Terry Collins is backpedalling on his pre-opening day statement that Collin Cowgill and Marlon Byrd would pay everyday in his outfield. Today, he told reporters he now intends to mix-and-match in the outfield based on matchups and that his outfield is not set right now.
John Buck is off to a great start with the Mets. He is the only catcher in the majors allowed to have personalized art on his catcher’s mask. Wilson, which supplies the catcher’s masks for MLB, now bans artwork, but Buck is grandfathered in and is permitted to have the personal touch according to Newsday.
After being swept by the Nationals to open the season, the Marlins finally broke into the win column Friday with a win over the Mets. The victory marked the first of its kind for the club after its roster underwent a total makeover in the offseason.
The Mets have hit at least one home run in each of their first four games for the first time since 2006.
Game Preview
The Mets dropped their second game in a row last night as the Marlins beat the Mets by the score of 7-5. In the first two games of the season, the Mets had excellent starting pitching and timely hitting. In the second two games of the season, the Mets still had excellent starting pitching, but the hitting fell apart. Earlier on yesterday’s game the Mets had a ton of chances to score earlier in the game and couldn’t get it done. When the Mets started to score, the Mets bullpen simultaneously fell apart. This afternoon Jon Niese will be making his second start of the season as he goes up against Ricky Nolasco.
Jon Niese picked up a win in his first start of the season pitching 6.2 innings allowing 2 ER and 4 hits while walking 2 and striking out 4. Terry attempted to pull Niese out of the game after 6, but Niese insisted to stay in the game. Last season Niese had a 13-9 record over 190.1 innings while posting a 3.40 ERA. Against the Marlins he totaled 25.1 innings over 4 starts with a 1-1 record allowing 9 ER, which would be a 3.20 ERA. The Marlins have the following numbers against Niese:
Polanco 11-32, 5 2B
Kearns 5-15, 2B
Stanton 3-12
Coghlan 2-10, 2B
Nolasco 0-4
Ruggiano 2-5
Brantly 0-3
Nolasco was the hard luck loser in his first start of the season against the Nationals. He allowed only 3 hits over 6 innings of work. Sadly for Ricky, two of those hits were solo homers to Bryce Harper. Last season Nolasco was 12-13 over 31 starts and 191.0 innings while posting a 4.48 ERA. He picked up one loss in three starts over 18.1 innings against the Marlins. Rickey allowed 9 earned runs and 19 hits during that stretch, which is a 4.34 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Nolasco:
Wright 25-63, 6 2B, 6 HR (.397 BA)
Murphy 8-25, 3 2B
Davis 3-20, 2 2B
Duda 2-14
Tejada 2-12, 3B
Kirk 3-5, 2B
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