Starting Lineup
- Mike Baxter RF
- Ruben Tejada SS
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- David Wright 3B
- Lucas Duda LF
- John Buck C
- Ike Davis 1B
- Jordany Valdespin CF
- Shaun Marcum RHP
Game Notes
- Josh Edgin, 26, was demoted to Double-A Binghamton to make room for today’s starter Shaun marcum. He has struggled this season with a 9.64 ERA and lefties were hitting .350 (7-for-20) against him.
- The Mets dropped below .500 for the first time this season with a 4-0 loss to the Phillies in Friday’s series opener. Dillon Gee matched zeroes with Kyle Kendrick until the sixth, when Gee surrendered a run-scoring single to Michael Young and a three-run homer to Ryan Howard.
- The new lineup had David Wright batting cleanup and Daniel Murphy batting third. It produced three hits against Philadelphia starter Kyle Kendrick. The Mets earned only one walk, failing to work the count against Kendrick as he breezed through a complete game.
- Daniel Murphy had his eight-game hitting streak snapped last night. Murphy is tied for eighth in the NL with seven doubles, is eighth with a .329 batting average and tied for seventh with 17 runs scored. Murphy has at least one hit in 15 of his last 18 contests, (.347, 25-72).
- Mets manager Terry Collins is concerned about Zack Wheeler‘s six-walk performance. “What worries me the most is that he’s not pounding the strike zone. We’ve got to have some strikes out of him because his stuff is going to play,” Collins said.
Game Preview
The Mets try to rebound after a subpar group of games today as they play the Phillies in game two of the series. Last night the Mets bats were shut down for the second day in a row as scoring was hard to come by. The team had an incredible streak of run scoring earlier in the season, so hopefully the can get it going against against Pettibone today.
The main headline for Mets today is the debut of Shawn Marcum. Marcum was 7-4 last year over 21 starts and 124.0 innings with a 3.70 ERA. Marcum hasn’t faced the Phillies since 2011. Back then he pitched 12.2 innings over two starts with a 3.55 ERA. Marcum’s velocity is down from last year but he’s a professional pitcher and I’m excited to watch him go to work today (and comparing him to a Laffey start makes Marcum relatively great). The Phillies have the following numbers against Marcum:
Young 4-16, 2 2B
Howard 4-8, 3 HR
Rollins 3-10
Utley 3-7, HR
The Mets bats draw Jonathan Pettibone making his second career start. In his Major League debut he went 5.1 innings allowing 6 hits and 2 earned runs against the Pirates. During that start he didn’t walk a batter and struck out 6. He had a good year in the minors last year pitching nearly 160 innings with a 3.10 ERA. This year he struggled in his two starts allowing 10 earned runs, 12 total in 9.1 innings. I’m curious to see what the Mets do against him today.
Lets go Mets!
