Starting Lineups

Game Notes

Last night’s 15-inning game was the longest in Mets-Marlins history. The two teams had played two 12-inning contests, last on September 6, 2011 when the Mets won 7-4 in Miami. Last night’s game was the longest in club history since a 2-1 win over the Cardinals in a 20-inning affair on April 17, 2010 in St. Louis. New York is 1-2 in extra frames this year after going 3-7 last year.

John Buck hit his ninth home run of the year last night, tying a major league record for home runs by a catcher before the end of April. Johnny Bench (1971 Reds) and Charles Johnson (2001 Marlins) also clocked nine home runs before May 1. Buck’s nine home runs tie him for the most by a Met during the month of April with Carlos Delgado (2006) and Dave Kingman (1976).

Met catchers combined to hit five home runs last year after hitting six home runs in 2011. New York catchers combined had 17 home runs in 2010, led by Rod Barajas, who had 12. John Buck had 12 home runs and 41 RBI last year for the Marlins in 106 games.

Collin Cowgill said he misread Rob Brantley’s swing in the ninth inning and initially stepped backward on a ninth-inning fly ball that dropped in front of him. The critical miscue put the tying run on third base and ultimately played a large part in Bobby Parnell suffering a blown save in the ultimate 4-3, 15-inning loss to the the Miami Marlins.

New York has scored three or fewer runs in seven of its last 11 games and is hitting .193 (72-373) over that span. Overall, the Mets are sixth in the majors scoring 4.92 runs per game.

New York went 1-18 with runners in scoring position last night. Over the five-game losing streak, the club is batting .105 (4-38) with RISP. Overall, the Mets are fifth in the NL and 10th in the majors with a .269 (54-201) batting average with runners in scoring position. The club has eight home runs in such situations, tied for the fourth-most in the majors.

The Mets left 14 runners on base last night and over their last five games have stranded 38 runners. New York ranks 16th in the majors with 170 runners left on base.

Game Preview

Last night’s game was terrible. No way around it. The Mets got a good start from Harvey who didn’t have his best stuff, but left the game with the lead. The bullpen only faltered twice from that point, which was amazing because they had to go from the 6th inning until the 15th inning. The Mets bats just went cold, silent and it was just bad. Anyway Hefner gets the start today as he goes against Kevin Slowey.

Jeremy Hefner is coming off of a good start where he pitched 7 innings allowing 1 ER while walking 3 batters and striking out 4. He has now pitched 21.0 innings over 5 starts with a 5.14 ERA. His first start of the season, his second best start, was against the Marlins where he pitched 6.0 innings allowing one earned run while walking 2 and striking out 3. The Marlins have the following numbers against Hefner:

Stanton 1-10
Solano 2-6
Pierre 3-6
Polanco 3-7
Ruggiano 0-5
Dobbs 1-6, HR

The Mets bats will try to find their bats against Kevin Slowey who has been pitching well this season. Over his first five games, he’s 0-2 over 29.2 innings with a 2.43 ERA. He’s coming off of his worst start of the season where he allowed 3 ER over 6 innings of work. He has made one start against the Mets in his career where he allowed 5 ER over 6 innings who have the following numbers against him:

Buck 3-11, 2B
Byrd 1-3
Davis 1-3
Wright 2-3, 2B, HR
Tejada 1-2, 2B

Lets Go Mets!