Thursday, July 7, 2016 • 7:10 p.m.
Citi Field • Flushing, N.Y.
RHP Lucas Giolito (0-0, 0.00) vs. RHP Bartolo Colon (7-4, 2.87)
SNY • MLBN • WOR 710 AM • ESPN 1050 AM
The Nationals swept the Mets in DC last week, and the Mets looked primed to spiral out of control with the Cubs coming to town. Since then, the Mets have swept the Cubs and took 2 of 3 from the Marlins, gaining great confidence and making up some ground in the NL Wast race along the way. The Mets and Nationals now play a 4-game set to close out the first half of the season. This is huge.
“Coming into that series without playing well, it was really, really important to have a good series against them, and we did,” Mets manager Terry Collins said yesterday about winning two of three from the Marlins. “Now we’ve got to go against the Nationals, who are going to come in here looking to put some more distance between us. So we’ve got our work cut out for us this weekend.”
The Mets are 8-1 in their last nine home games… Overall, the club is 25-17 at home and have the fifth-best winning percentage (.595) in the NL at home.
The Mets have outscored their opponents, 46-24 over their last seven games, belting 18 home runs, 10 doubles and hitting .300 with a .365 on-base percentage.
Bartolo Colon is 3-2 with a 2.68 ERA (13 earned runs/43.2 innings) in eight starts at Citi Field this year… The Mets are 5-3 in those games.
Terry Collins says Wilmer Flores will be on the bench after his two-homer game, while Jose Reyes starts at third base.
Mets Lineup
- Jose Reyes – 3B
- Curtis Granderson – RF
- Yoenis Cespedes – CF
- Neil Walker – 2B
- James Loney – 1B
- Asdrubal Cabrera – SS
- Brandon Nimmo – LF
- Travis d’Arnaud – C
- Bartolo Colon – RHP
Nationals Lineup
- Ben Revere – CF
- Jayson Werth – LF
- Daniel Murphy – 2B
- Bryce Harper – RF
- Wilson Ramos – C
- Clint Robinson – 1B
- Anthony Rendon – 3B
- Danny Espinosa – SS
- Lucas Giolito – RHP
Bartolo gets the nod for the Amazin’s. He’s 7-4 over 17 games and 16 starts this year pitching 94.0 innings with a 2.87 ERA. Since May 23rd he’s made 8 starts, 46.0 innings and has posted a 1.96 ERA (innings pitched to starts skewed due to his 0.1 inning start due to injury). He pitched back to back starts against DC in May with very different outcomes. First he allowed 3 ER over 5 hits in 4.2 innings, then he allowed 1 ER over 7.0 innings (the start that started his run). The Nationals have the following numbers against Colon:
- Revere 8-27, 2B
- Harper 3-16, HR
- Rendon 6-19, HR
- Werth 6-13, 2 2B
- Ramos 2-16, 2B
- Zimmerman 3-10
- Murphy 3-9
- Espinosa 1-8
The Mets draw the phenom prospect, Lucas Giolito, again, for his second major league start. In his only major league start, which happened to be against the Mets, he allowed no runs and 1 hit over 4.0 innings, walking two batters and striking out one. Cespedes picked up one of the walks and Granderson got the other walk and the only hit.
Let’s Go Mets!
