Boasting a 4.5 game lead atop the National League East, the New York Mets now host the Pittsburgh Pirates for a weekend series at Citi Field. Bartolo Colon (10-11, 4.76) opposes left-hander J.A. Happ (0-1, 8.31) in Friday’s 7:10 PM series opener.
The Mets are a season-high 11 games over .500 (63-52) for the first time since after the game on June 27, 2010 (43-32). The last time the club was 12 or more games over .500 was following the final game of the 2008 campaign (89-73).
Since July 24 the Mets have scored an MLB best 5.4 runs per game. They are 45-7 this year when they score four or more runs. The .865 winning percentage is the best in the majors.
Lucas Duda is not in the Mets starting lineup for the fourth game in a row and has been battling a stiff back, Terry Collins said. Michael Cuddyer is starting at first base once again tonight. Duda could be heading to the DL.
Mets Starting Lineup
- Juan Lagares CF
- Curtis Granderson RF
- Yoenis Cespedes LF
- Juan Uribe 3B
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Michael Cuddyer 1B
- Wilmer Flores SS
- Anthony Recker C
- Bartolo Colon P
The Mets head into a tough series with the Pirates with a 4.5 game lead in the division at Citi Field tonight. The Pirates swept the Mets earlier this season in June during that rough patch the Mets were having, but this squad comes in just narrowly escaping a sweep from the Cardinals. The Mets on the other hand demolished the Rockies in a four game sweep and are now 11 games over .500 for the first time since late June 2010.
Bartolo Colon is 10-11 over 22 starts and 134.1 innings with a 4.76 ERA and a major league leading 157 hits allowed. He’s in the middle of this stretch of good start / bad start and last time out he allowed 4 ER over 6.2 innings, so maybe he’s due for one of his good starts. Two of his last four starts he has allowed 1 ER over 8.0 innings. He missed the Pirates back in June but he did toss 13.1 innings against them last year with a 1-1 record and a 3.38 ERA. The Pirates have the following numbers against Colon:
- Stewart 5-14, HR
- Morse 2-14
- Ramirez 5-12, 2 2B, HR
- Marte 1-10
- Alvarez 4-9, 2 2B
- McCutchen 3-8
- Walker 2-7, 2B
The Mets will get a look at an old foe in J.A. Happ, making a start on nine days rest. In his first Pirates start he allowed 4 ER over 8 hits and 4.1 innings. With the Mariners this year he had a 4.64 ERA over 21 games, 20 starts and 108.2 innings of work. July was a month he would like to put behind him as he allowed 20 runs, 19 earned in just 23.0 innings of work. He last faced the Mets in 2012 where he allowed 3 ER over 6.1 innings of work. The Mets have the following numbers on Happ:
- Cespedes 3-19, 2B
- Granderson 3-11, 2B, HR
- K Johnson 2-10, 2 HR
- Murphy 2-7, 2B, HR
- Tejada 0-3
- Uribe 3-3, HR
- Duda 0-1
