MMO Game Thread: Mets vs Phillies, 7:10 PM

Armed with a 5.5 game lead over the Washington Nationals, the first place New York Mets will host the Philadelphia Phillies for three games beginning tonight at Citi Field.

Veteran right-hander Bartolo Colon (11-11, 4.65) will oppose rookie right-hander Jerad Eickhoff (1-1, 2.25) for the Phillies in the series opener at 7:10 PM. The Mets are 12-1 against the Phillies this season.

The Mets are 8-2 in their last 10 games, 23-10 in the last 33 contests and 32-18 over the last 50 games.

New York is 43-23 at home this year and their .652 winning percentage at home is tied for the sixth-best in the majors.

Since July 25 he Mets lead the NL and are second in the majors in runs scored (199), home runs (55) and slugging (.482). The Mets also lead the majors in doubles (85) and RBI (190) since that date.

Mets Starting Lineup

Curtis Granderson – RF
Yoenis Cespedes – CF
Daniel Murphy – 1B
David Wright – 3B
Kelly Johnson – 2B
Travis d’Arnaud – C
Michael Conforto – LF
Wilmer Flores – SS
Bartolo Colon – RHP

The Mets were able to avoid the sweep yesterday against the Red Sox and maintained their 5.5 lead in the division. They welcome the Phillies into town tonight and are still fairly fresh off of a four game sweep of them in CBP.

Bartolo Colon gets the start tonight. He is 11-11 over 26 games, 25 starts over 153.0 innings with a 4.65 ERA and a league leading 177 hits. In what could be a prelude to October, Colon had a relief outing on his throwing day where he held the Red Sox scoreless and allowed a hit in one inning while striking out two. This means that since his awful 7 ER, 3.2 inning start, he now has a 8.0 scoreless innings streak with 8 strikeouts against the Phillies who have the following numbers against him:

Howard 5-22, 2 HR
Ruiz 5-18, 2B
Asche 3-13, 2 2B
Brown 2-14, 2B
Galvis 3-9, 2B
Francoeur 1-5
Herrera 1-6

The Mets bats will get another crack at Jerad Eickhoff who is 1-1 over the first 2 starts in his major league career where he has allowed 4 runs, 3 earned over 12.0 innings. His last start was against the Mets where he allowed 4 runs, 3 earned over 6.0 innings while walking 1 and striking out 6. The Mets have the following numbers against Eickhoff: