Jon Niese, being counted among the rotation New Yorkers “knew they had it in them,” has his work cut out for him for tonight’s finale in the Bronx.
Nathan Eovaldi of the Yankees has 14 K’s in just under two game’s worth of innings pitched. The question for Niese tonight will be whether or not he can widen that K/BB ratio and keep the Bombers off the bases.
It may not matter the way Mark Teixeira is hitting the ball lately. Perhaps the strikeout to walk ratio can continue to be slim when he comes up. Better to have a foot planted on first base than tapping it amidst a home run trot.
It will be interesting to see how Niese, already familiar with a couple of Yankee hitters, will fare against the new crop, which is really just Didi Gregorius.
Niese has allowed no more than two earned runs in each of his last seven starts, the longest such streak of his career, and during his current run, dating to September 8, 2014, Niese is 3-1 with a 1.62 ERA.
As per the norm, the Yankee imports stack the lineup. The question, on the Mets side of the on deck circle, is if Juan Lagares can provide an encore to yesterday’s dominance of Yankee pitching, namely CC Sabathia.
Howie Rose mentioned in his interview that “in New York, what you do at Citi Field is compared to what they do at Yankee Stadium and vice versa.” If those words ring true on the field as well, this is just the third installment of what may become a playoff implicating six-game showdown this season.
For more of Mr. Rose and many other broadcasters like Vin Scully, Jon Miller, Marty Brennaman, and John Sterling, pre-order The Voices of Baseball: The Game’s Greatest Broadcasters Reflect on America’s Pastime
