MMO Game Thread: Mets vs Cubs, 8:05 PM

The Mets (20-12) and Cubs (16-15) play game two of their four-game series at Wrigley Field on Tuesday at 8:05 PM

Noah Syndergaard will make his major league debut and will oppose RHP Jake Arrieta (3-3, 3.41) for the Cubs.

Syndergaard was 3-0 with a 1.82 ERA (six earned runs/29.2 innings) in five starts for Triple-A Las Vegas this year. He ranked fourth in the PCL in ERA and fifth with 34 strikeouts at the time of his promotion.

Opponents were only hitting .192 against Syndergaard, the third-lowest mark in the PCL and his 0.94 WHIP was the fourth-lowest in the league. He also went 3-for-4 at the plate with a double, a two-run home run, two runs scored and had two RBI in his last start at Albuquerque.

Syndergaard will be the sixth Met to make his major league debut this year, joining Sean Gilmartin, Kevin Plawecki, Hansel Robles, Danny Muno and Jack Leathersich.

Mets Starting Lineup

Curtis Granderson – RF
Daniel Murphy – 3B
Michael Cuddyer – LF
Lucas Duda – 1B
Wilmer Flores –SS
Kirk Nieuwenhuis – CF
Kevin Plawecki – C
Noah Syndergaard – RHP
Ruben Tejada – 2B

Last night was a rough one for the Mets last night. Jacob deGrom struggled early, allowing 3 runs in the first inning (and it didn’t help that even when he started to pitch to get outs, the defense started to fall apart). The Mets would eventually lose the game 4-3, so the first inning ended up being the inning that sank them.

However the real story of the series comes tonight as Noah Syndergaard is set to make his major league debut. Coming into the season, he is the #11 prospect in Baseball America, #10 prospect according to MLB.com and #9 prospect in Baseball Prospectus.

Syndergaard came to the Mets organization as part of the R.A. Dickey deal (but you all already know that). This season he has really turned it on in the PCL, a league notorious for being tough on pitchers, pitching to a 3-0 record over 5 games with a 1.82 ERA over 29.2 innings. He is also coming off of a game where he had three hits with his bat including a double and homer that both went over 400 feet.

The Mets bats will get a crack at Jake Arrieta. Jake is 3-3 on the season over 6 games with a 3.41 ERA over 37.0 innings. May has been rough for Jake where he has allowed 8 ER over 10.1 innings over 2 starts. Prior to May, Arrieta had a 2.02 ERA in 4 starts in April. Last year he was very good against the Mets allowing only 1 ER over 11.2 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against Arietta: