The Mets and Diamondbacks go at it again on Friday night in Arizona. Jon Niese (3-5; 4.42 ERA) takes on Jeremy Hellickson (3-3; 5.08 ERA) for the second game of the series at 9:40 PM.
The Mets are in sole possession of first place this late into the season for the first time since after the game on September 19, 2008 when they had a half-game lead on the Phillies.
The Mets are 23-3 when scoring four or more runs. New York’s .885 winning percentage when scoring at least four runs is the third-best in the majors this year, behind the Astros (28-2, .933) and Dodgers (25-3, .893). New York is 7-22 when scoring three or fewer runs.
Mets Starting Lineup
- Curtis Granderson – RF
- Ruben Tejada – 2B
- Lucas Duda – 1B
- Michael Cuddyer – LF
- Wilmer Flores – SS
- Juan Lagares – CF
- Eric Campbell – 3B
- Anthony Recker – C
- Jonathon Niese – LHP
Hey, the Mets won one on the road! The Mets last night got some solid pitching from Harvey in a start where it looked like he didn’t have his best stuff and some solid hitting from a desperately needed source (Mayberry) thus the Mets took the first game in the series.
In game two, Jon Niese goes up against Jeremy Hellickson. (Also I must apologize, I write these Game Previews quite early in the morning and yesterday at 5:30 AM, Jeremy Hellickson was listed as the starter, not Ray).
Jon Niese is 3-5 on the season over 10 starts and 57.0 innings with a 4.42 ERA. His last four starts have been a mess where he has gone 0-3 over 20.0 innings allowing 23 runs, 20 earned to a 9.00 ERA.
The story is in the opponents batting average which in his last 4 has been .344. Even in his first six starts where he had a 1.95 ERA he had a .280 opponent batting average. He has caught a lot of the plate all season.
The last time he faced Arizona was in 2013 where he allowed 4 ER over 7 hits in 6.0 innings. The Diamondbacks have the following numbers against Jon:
- Goldschmidt 1-5
- Hill 2-5, 2B, HR
- Salty 1-6
- Collmenter 1-3
- Pennington 0-3
The Mets bats will have to deal with Jeremy Hellickson who is 3-3 over 10 starts and 56.2 innings this season with a 5.08 ERA. In his last three starts he is 2-0 over 18.2 innings with a 3.38 ERA, so substantially better than his season numbers. The last time he faced the Mets was way back in 2012 and it was a night to forget if you like Jeremy. He allowed 8 ER over 9 hits in 3.2 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers against him:
- Granderson 2-15, 2B, HR
- Cuddyer 2-8, 2B, HR
- Duda 1-2, 2B
- Murphy 0-2
Lets Go Mets!
