Royals Wade Davis (5-9, 5.50) at Mets RHP Dillon Gee (7-8, 4.13)
Starting Lineup
- Eric Young, Jr. – LF
- Juan Lagares – CF
- David Wright – 3B
- Marlon Byrd – RF
- Daniel Murphy – 2B
- John Buck – C
- Ike Davis – 1B
- Omar Quintanilla – SS
- Dillon Gee – RHP
Mets Notes
- As the Mets enter August they look to build off the momentum from July. They finished the month 15-12 which was the third best winning percentage (.556) in the NL. They scored 128 runs, the fourth-most in the majors and their .339 on-base percentage was the fifth highest. The Mets look to continue the July momentum in August beginning with a 3-game weekend series against the Royals tonight at Citi Field.
- RHP Dillon Gee, who has never faced the Royals before, will get his chance at Kansas City on Friday. Gee had gone a career-long 35 innings without allowing a home run until he gave up two in a row in his last start, a 4-1 loss to the Nationals.
- LF Eric Young is batting .189 in his last ten games and .232 in his last 30 days as his numbers all continue to recede to his career norms that prompted the Colorado Rockies to DFA him and trade him to the Mets..
- RHP Matt Harvey has yet to beat the Marlins in four starts. On Thursday, the All-Star struck out eight and walked none in 5 2/3 innings. But he also allowed five hits and three runs. He had allowed just one hit—a single by the opposing pitcher—and no walks through five innings. But the Marlins scored three runs off him in the sixth. The key play was Donovan Solano‘s two-run single on a nine-pitch at-bat that included six foul balls.
- 1B Ike Davis continues to struggle. He struck out with two runners on in the first inning and fouled out with the bases loaded in the third.
- 1B Lucas Duda, who is rehabbing an intercostal strain on his left side, went 0-for-4 in a high Class A game Wednesday. Duda could win the Mets’ first base job—currently a platoon with Ike Davis on the left and Josh Satin on the right side—but he has been slow to regain his form in the minors.
- 3B David Wright, who tweaked a hamstring while stealing second base Wednesday night, started Thursday. He went 1-for-3 with a walk.
- Travis d’Arnaud caught for the Binghamton Mets and went 1-for-5 last night. He is 8-for-31 since starting his rehab assignment for the GCL Mets and two games for Double-A Binghamton.
- 2B Daniel Murphy did not start Thursday—it was a rest day for him, although he did strike out as a pinch-hitter. He is hitting .337 with 19 RBIs in his last 23 games. For the season, entering Thursday, he ranked sixth in the NL in hits (122) and ninth in doubles (26).
- 2B Justin Turner started in place of resting Daniel Murphy Thursday against the Marlins. He doubled to left in his first at-bat and finished 2-for-4 with a walk. He is batting .381 with four doubles against the Marlins this year.
- LHP Jon Niese (partially torn rotator cuff) made his second minor league rehab start Thursday. He pitched four shutout innings for Class A St. Lucie, giving up two hits while striking out four and walking one.
Game Preview
The Mets return to Queens tonight and open an interleague series against Kansas City Royals. Dillon Gee will take the mound for the Amazin’s. On the season Dillon is 7-8 with a 4.13 ERA over 124.1 innings of work. Overall in the month of July, 5 starts, he posted a 2.88 ERA over 34.1 innings of work. Not really surprisingly, Dillon hasn’t faced the Royals in his career but does have some official numbers against a few Kansas City batters:
Tejada 0-1
Cain 1-3, 2B
Escobar 2-3
The Mets bats draw Wade Davis tonight who was traded along with James Shields at the beginning of the season for Wil Myers along with other players from KC. Davis is 5-9 over 20 starts with a 5.59 ERA while pitching 104.2 innings this season. He is currently coming off of his best start in July where he threw 7 innings of scoreless baseball. Overall in July he threw four games totaling 22.0 innings with a 5.32 ERA. He has only pitched 1 inning against the Mets in his career (where he didn’t allow any runs) but he has faced a few Mets on record:
Buck 3-9, HR
Omar 0-2
Byrd 0-1
Davis 0-1
Recker 0-1
Lets Go Mets!
