After having swept a four-game series from the Phillies in Philadelphia, the New York Mets return home to Citi Field to host the Boston Red Sox for a weekend series.
Matt Harvey (11-7, 2.57) opposes rookie left-hander Henry Owens (2-1, 4.50) in the 7:10 PM series opener. Harvey will make his first appearance in 11 days after skipping a turn in the rotation last Sunday in Colorado.
Tonight’s game will mark the official homecoming for David Wright, who has not played at Citi Field since April 14.
The Mets will enter the series with their magic number at 30 to clinch the National League East.
Mets Starting Lineup
- Juan Lagares – CF
- Curtis Granderson – RF
- Yoenis Cespedes – LF
- David Wright – 3B
- Michael Cuddyer – 1B
- Wilmer Flores – 2B
- Travis d’Arnaud – C
- Ruben Tejada – SS
- Matt Harvey – RHP
The Mets return home tonight after an 8-1 road trip featuring the current 7-game win streak. Last night was more of the same for the Mets where they were down but they came back to win the game. This time they were down 5-0, then over the course of the next two innings they came back to tie it 5-5. The game went into extras, featured an insane defensive play from Murphy/Torres, and a win. Let’s keep it going!
As for the Red Sox, it has been a rough season for them but don’t sleep on them. In their last 13 games they are 8-5 and have shown in that stretch they have an explosive offense. The key to beating the Red Sox is getting to their starting pitching, which has hampered them.
Matt Harvey will be making his first start in about 10 games as the Mets skipped his last start in an effort to stretch him out for a stretch run. He is 11-7 over 23 games and 154.0 innings with a 2.57 ERA. In his last four starts he is 2-0 over 28.2 innings with a 0.63 ERA while striking out 25 batters. Harvey has never faced the Red Sox but several members of the team have seen him while they were on other teams:
- De Aza 0-4
- Sandoval 0-3
- Miley 0-2
The Mets bats draw Henry Owens who is 2-1 over 4 starts and 24.0 innings with 21 strikeouts while posting a 4.50 ERA. The 22-year old who is just starting his major league career is coming off of his best start at home against the Royals where he allowed 2 runs, 1 earned over 8.0 innings. His numbers are skewed by his 3rd start where he allowed 7 ER over 6.0 innings. Before the start of the season, Baseball America saw him as the 44th best prospect, MLB.com the 19th best prospect and 46th by Baseball Prospectus. This year in the minors was 3-8 over 21 games and 122.1 innings with a 3.16 ERA. He has never faced the Mets in a major league game or anyone on the Mets roster.
Let’s Go Mets!
