Starting Lineup
- Ruben Tejada – SS
- Daniel Murphy – 2B
- David Wright – 3B
- John Buck – C
- Lucas Duda – LF
- Marlon Byrd – RF
- Ike Davis – 1B
- Juan Lagares – CF
- Jonathon Niese – LHP
Game Notes
John Buck’s eight April homers tied the club record for a catcher in the month (Mike Piazza in 2001, Todd Hundley in 1996), and are one shy of the team record shared by Carlos Delgado (2006) and Dave Kingman (1976). Buck leads the NL and is tied for fourth in the majors with 23 RBI…Buck is also tied for third in the majors with eight home runs.
Shaun Marcum surrendered three runs in four innings and was dissatisfied with his Mets debut. The Mets dropped their second straight home series after winning their first three, and have lost eight of their last nine games to the Phillies dating back to last year.
Robert Carson served up homers to Domonic Brown and John Mayberry Jr. in the fifth as the Met lost to the Phillies, 9-4, Saturday at Citi Field. The Mets’ bullpen came into the game with a 5.02 ERA, tied for last in the majors, and got worse, rising to 5.28. This bullpen needs to turn it around immediately or this is going to be another long season for the Mets.
Tim Byrdak continues to progress from surgery to repair a torn anterior capsule in his left shoulder. Byrdak has reached 180 feet in his long-tossing on flat ground and should be on a mound during the upcoming week for the first time since the surgery.
Game Preview
The Mets try to salvage one game of the Phillies series this afternoon after dropping the first two. The Mets are also on their first three game losing streak of the season. Yesterday Marcum only lasted 4 innings allowing 3 earned runs and then Carson allowed 5 runs the inning after. At that point, things looked pretty bleak for the Mets. Hopefully Niese will be able to pull the Mets out of this rut as he squares up against Hamels.
Jon Niese is 2-1 on the season over 5 games and 26.0 innings with a 3.81 ERA. Over those 26 innings he has walked 12 batters and struck out 14 batters. Last year Niese faced the Phillies 5 times with a 2-1 record and a 2.93 ERA over 30.2 innings. The Phillies have the following numbers against Jon Niese:
Rollins 7-33, 2 2B
Mayberry 9-28, 2 2B, 3 HR
Utley 2-15
Howard 1-15
Young 2-3
The Mets draw the ace of the Phillies staff this afternoon in Cole Hamels. So far this series the Mets bats have not been able to figure out the back of the rotation, maybe because the universe makes very little sense when it comes to Mets baseball, they’ll be able to figure out Hamels. Hamels is 0-3 this season with a 5.40 ERA over the 5 starts and in his last three starts he has a 2.57 ERA. He was 2-0 against the Mets last year over 4 starts with a 3.86 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Cole:
Wright 17-55, 3 2B, 3B, 4 HR
Tejada 5-22
Buck 2-22, 2 HR
Murphy 6-20, 2B, HR
Davis 6-19, HR
Byrd 3-11
Let’s Go Mets!
