The New York Mets will be bidding for their first nine-game winning streak since 2008 as they take on the Atlanta Braves tonight at Citi Field.
LHP Jon Niese (1-0, 1.59) gets the start and opposes RHP Trevor Cahill (0-1, 15.43) for the Braves at 7:10 PM.
The Mets are 7-0 at Citi Field, their best home start to a season in franchise history.
Who’s Hot: Michael Cuddyer has a seven-game hitting streak, batting .440 with three doubles and six RBI over that span. Juan Lagares has hit in seven straight games, going 10-26 (.385) in that span.
Mets Starting Lineup
- RF C. Granderson (L)
- CF Juan Lagares (R)
- 1B Lucas Duda (L)
- LF Michael Cuddyer (R)
- 2B Daniel Murphy (L)
- 3B Eric Campbell (R)
- C Kevin Plawecki (R)
- SS Wilmer Flores (R)
- P Jon Niese (L)
The Mets play the last series of the home stand tonight as the Braves come into town and the Mets look quite different than the last time these two teams met.
When the Mets and Braves first played this year, the Mets were 2-1 and the Braves were 3-0. Atlanta would take the first two games of the series and start the season 5-0. The Mets would avoid the sweep, and then win the next 7 games to come into this series on an 8 game win streak.
Additionally, this Mets club will be playing without David Wright, Travis d’Arnaud and Jerry Blevins, the latter two both suffered fractures on Sunday. Thus today will also feature Kevin Plawecki’s major league debut.
On the bump for the Mets tonight is Jon Niese who is 1-0 over two starts and 11.1 innings with a 1.59 ERA. In those 11.1 innings he has allowed 16 hits and 4 walks while striking out 6.
Not to be a wet blanket, but the numbers for Niese right now have yet to match how he’s actually pitched. He’s putting a lot of balls into play (well-struck balls in play) and his curveball still isn’t the old Niese curveball yet, specifically he isn’t throwing it nearly with the same frequency that he used to.
His first start of the season was against the Braves where he allowed 3 runs, 1 earned over 5.0 innings walking 2 and striking out 2. The Braves have the following numbers against Niese:
- Freeman 11-40, 2 2B, 2 HR
- Maybin 7-28, 2 HR
- C Johnson 9-24, 3 2B
- Simmons 7-21, 2 2B
- K Johnson 4-11, 2B
- Gomes 6-10, HR
Trevor Cahill will be looking to rebound from his first start of the season where he allowed 4 ER over 2.1 innings. In that stretch he allowed 5 hits, 3 walks while striking out 2.
Last season with the Diamondbacks he was 3-12 with a 5.61 ERA over 32 games, 17 starts over 110.2 innings. He struck out 105 in that stretch. The Mets didn’t see much of him last year has he pitched a total of 2.0 innings allowing 3 hits, 3 walks and one earned run over that outing. The Mets have the following numbers against Cahill:
- Cuddyer 4-22, 2B, HR
- Granderson 1-13, 2B, 4 BB
- Murphy 2-4
- Duda 0-3
- Mayberry 0-2
- Kirk 0-3
- Tejada 2-2
Lets Go Mets! Check 213 Miles From Shea!
