New York Mets at Atlanta Braves
Starting Lineup
- Eric Young, Jr. – LF
- Daniel Murphy – 2B
- Josh Satin – 1B
- Andrew Brown – RF
- Juan Lagares – CF
- Justin Turner – SS
- Wilmer Flores – 3B
- Anthony Recker – C
- Daisuke Matsuzaka – RHP
Nice to see Wilmer Flores back after getting some time off to nurse a sore ankle. Lucas Duda is already back on the bench as the hot-hitting Josh Satin slides across the infield to play first base.
D’Arnaud gets the day off following a night game, giving Anthony Recker what will be a rare start the rest of the season.
Matt den Dekker hit his first major league homer last night, so predictably, he gets the next day off. Don’t let it bug you Deck, all the other rookies got the same treatment…
Juan Lagares batting fifth shows how desperate the Mets are for some middle of the order bats this offseason. Who could have imagined a 3-4-5-6 like this at the start of the season?
(Joe D.)
Game Preview
The Mets find themselves in a very unusual situation today with a day game after a late night game in two different cities. The Mets played the 8:00 nationally broadcasted game in DC and had to fly out for a 1:00 day game in Atlanta. Last night the Mets lost a close one to the Nationals as they were leading the entire game until the bottom of the 8th where the Mets bullpen gave the game away. In the afternoon match, Daisuke Matsuzaka will take the hill against Paul Maholm.
Both of Daisuke’s starts for the Mets have been pretty poor as he has allowed 9 ER over 9.1 innings. The announcing crew has also been joking that his pacing could cause the Mets players to fall asleep on the field. In his first start he did a pretty good job picking up the pace but his last time out was normal very slow. In his career he has made two starts against the Braves allowing 9 ER over 12.0 innings. The Braves have the following numbers against him:
BJ Upton 6-24, 2 HR
Laird 3-8
McCann 1-4, 2B
Paul Maholm is 9-10 over 22 starts and 129.2 innings with a 4.37 ERA. He’s made two starts since coming back and they have been mixed. In his first start he allowed 5 runs, 4 earned over 5.1 innings. In his second start he allowed 1 ER over 6 innings. In his one start against the Mets he allowed 2 ER and 9 hits over 7 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against him:
Murphy 8-15
Turner 1-6
Davis 1-4, 2B
Lagares 0-3
Recker 1-3, HR
Lets Go Mets!
