MMO Game Thread: Mets vs Pirates, 4:05 PM

The New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates will go at it again on Saturday at 4:05 PM in beautiful PNC Park.

Matt Harvey (5-1, 1.98 ERA) gets the nod for the Mets and will be opposed by right-hander A.J. Burnett (3-1, 1.38) for the Bucs. Harvey has run into some hard luck of late, departing each of his last two outings with a 1-0 lead, only to come away with a no-decision.

Harvey is one of only two starters in the last 100 years to allow one run or fewer in 23 of his ﬁ rst 44 career games… The other is Dwight Gooden.

Erik Goeddel hurled 2.0 scoreless innings last night. He hasn’t allowed a run in 15 of his 16 appearances this season and has 15 strikeouts in his last 13.2 innings.

Mets Starting Lineup

Curtis Granderson – RF
Juan Lagares – CF
Lucas Duda – 1B
Daniel Murphy – 2B
Wilmer Flores – SS
Eric Campbell – 3B
Darrell Ceciliani – LF
Kevin Plawecki – C
Matt Harvey – RHP

The Mets pitching wasn’t terrible last night, but the Mets offense was ineffective thus the team lost the series opener by a score of 4-1. There was a slightly different game plan for the Mets on the bases last night as they were aggressive with steals, but they ended up being caught stealing twice early in the game and when that is combined with several double play balls, watching the Mets take turns at bat was like watching Sisyphus trying to push a rock up a hill.

Matt Harvey looks to get the Mets back on track today. He is 5-1 over 8 starts and 54.2 innings with a 1.98 ERA. In his last two starts he has tossed a combined 15.0 scoreless innings with 18 strikeouts, both against NL Central clubs.

Back in 2013 he tossed 7.0 innings against the Pirates and allowed 2 ER. The Pirates have the following numbers against him:

Marte 0-3
Alvarez 1-3, 2B
McCutchen 1-2
Mercer 0-3
Stewart 0-3

The Mets bats will try to get the rock up the hill against Burnett tonight who 3-1 in 8 starts with a 1.38 ERA over 52.0 innings (seriously?!?!?). He pitches way better with Pittsburgh teams apparently. In 2010 and 2011 with the Yankees he had an ERA over 5, then 2012, 2013 with the Pirates had a 3.51 and 3.30 ERA respectively.

Last year with the Phillies he was 4.59. In his last 14 innings of work he has allowed 1 ER and struck out 12. He struggled against the Mets last year going 0-3 in 4 starts while allowing 22 ER over 24 innings. The Mets have the following numbers on Burnett: