Mets at Indians • 6:05 p.m. ET
LHP Jon Niese (6-6, 3.66) vs. RHP Corey Kluber (7-5, 3.54)
Starting Lineup
- Eric Young, Jr. – LF
- Daniel Murphy – 2B
- Zach Lutz – DH
- Lucas Duda – 1B
- Justin Turner – 3B
- Juan Lagares – RF
- Matt den Dekker – CF
- Travis d’Arnaud – C
- Omar Quintanilla – SS
Jon Niese had his last start cut short by a left leg cramp, but he did not think it would affect him today. Niese missed nearly two months this season with a partial rotator cuff tear, but he is 3-0 with a 2.14 ERA in five starts since returning from the DL.
Wilmer Flores is out of the line-up… what a surprise… I was shocked they sent him out there in the first place and then didn’t even think to put him at DH. Lutz batting third and no Satin?
This is a pretty weak lineup…
Are we in “Lets Play for the Protected Pick” mode?
Yesterday on MetsBlog, Matt Cerrone guessed that Sandy Alderson is secretly rooting for the Mets to lose so the protected pick would be a non-issue.
I asked Matt about it in his comments, but he never replied. About 30 minutes later he must have rethought the wisdom of posting that so he reworded it and updated his post. But not before I took a screenshot and linked to a cached version of his original post.
But anyway, what are your thoughts on that? Do you think Sandy Alderson or anyone in the Mets front office is secretly rooting for the team to lose? Do you think this trickles down from the front office and into the dugout with Terry Collins and his coaching staff?
As a die-hard Met fan I have never rooted for my team to lose. Never.
I don’t know how I would react if I knew our manager or general manager were rooting against our team, but I’m sure my reaction would be pretty toxic.
Game Preview
The Mets just did not have it last night against the Cleveland Indians, a team trying to make the playoffs battling off the Orioles right now, and the Mets will hopefully find it, whatever it is, before today’s game. Jon Niese will be taking the mound for the Mets tonight. On the season he is 6-6 with a 3.66 ERA over 19 games and 110.2 innings of work. He is 2-0 over 4 games and 27.2 innings with a 1.30 ERA and 27 strikeouts, which is refreshing as the Mets start/continue to look ahead to 2014. He has logged 7.0 innings of work against the Indians in his career while allowing 3 ER. The Indians have the following numbers against Niese:
Bourn 6-16, 2B
Stubbs 2-10
Swisher 2-10
Kubel 1-4, 2B
Santana 1-3
The Mets bats will get a look at Corey Kluber who is 7-5 over 21 games and 122.0 innings of work with 116 strikeouts. Kluber is coming off of a strong start against the Detroit where he shut them down allowing 0 runs over 7.1 innings. His overall games for the season are fairly funny to look at. He either shutouts the opponent, or he allows 3 or 4 runs over a smaller amount of innings. Very few starts deviate from this pattern. He has never faced the Mets in his career and the only Met who has seen him in a major league would be Anthony Recker who is 0-1.
Lets Go Mets!
