The New York Mets open a four-game series against the Colorado Rockies who are coming off a big series win against the Washington Nationals in DC this past weekend.
In Monday night’s 7:10 PM series opener at Citi Field, Jonathon Niese (6-9, 3.51) faces off against rookie right-hander Jon Gray (0-0, 4.50) who is making his second major league appearance.
After going 0-for-7 in a pair of rehab games with Class A St. Lucie, Michael Cuddyer is back with the Mets on Monday, however in a significantly reduced role.
The Mets optioned Eric Campbell to the minors and decided that Michael Conforto will stick around, much to the joy of most fans.
Mets Starting Lineup
- Curtis Granderson RF
- Daniel Murphy 3B
- Yoenis Cespedes CF
- Lucas Duda 1B
- Kelly Johnson 2B
- Travis d’Arnaud C
- Michael Conforto LF
- Jonathon Niese P
- Ruben Tejada SS
The Mets return home after dropping a series with the Rays, but still having a successful road trip. Luckily, the Nationals also lost yesterday so the Mets still maintain their 1.5 game lead in the NL East as they start play with the Rockies.
Jon Niese is 6-9 over 21 starts this season with 128.1 innings of work and a 3.51 ERA. After his hiccup of a start against the Dodgers where he allowed 6 ER over 3.0 innings he has allowed 1 ER in both of his last starts totaling 2 ER over 13.0 innings with 12 K’s.
Since the beginning of June, Jon has had 7 starts out of 11 where he has allowed 2 ER or less. Last year he allowed 1 ER over 6.2 innings against the Rockies. The Rockies have the following numbers vs Colorado:
- Reyes 2-13
- Stubbs 2-16
- Gonzalez 2-10, 2B
- Hundley 2-7, 3B
- Barnes 2-5, 2B
- Descalso 2-4, 2B
- Arenado 0-3
- De La Rosa 1-3, 2B
Jon Gray will be making his second start to his major league career tonight. In his first start he allowed 2 ER, 3 runs total, over 4.0 innings of work. In the minors this year he had a 6-6 record over 21 games, 20 starts and 114.1 innings with a 4.33 ERA.
Overall he has a 3.82 ERA in 276.0 IP in the minors. For the most part he has rocketed through the system entering at age 21 in 2013 in rookie and A+ ball, AA last year and AAA this year. He has never faced the Mets, or anyone on the Mets roster in a major league game.
Lets Go Mets!
