Hello and welcome to another sunny day of Mets baseball! Last night’s game with the Phils got rained out so Matt Harvey is making his last start of the 2012 season tonight against Cole Hamels. On Monday, R.A. Dickey allowed home runs to Jimmy Rollins and Dominic Brown and was denied his 19th win of the season. New York’s offense only scratched one run across against Cliff Lee and the Phillies won 3-1.
The Mets now stand at 66-81 with 15 games remaining. The Phillies are 74-74 and are four games out of the wild card with three teams in front of them. Although a Phillies playoff birth is still unlikely, the Mets could do a lot over the next to days to worsen their rivals’ chances.
#Mets Wednesday lineup vs. Philadelphia: Tejada-6, Murphy-4, Wright-5, Hairston-9, Davis-3, Shoppach-2, Duda-7, Torres-8, Harvey-1
— New York Mets (@Mets) September 19, 2012
Although Jason Bay has been getting a lot of playing time recently against lefties, tonight he hits the bench and both Lucas Duda and Ike Davis are in the starting lineup. Scott Hairston has two home runs in just nine plate appearances against Hamels this season, so maybe the Mets can put to rest their streak of scoring three runs or less in home games.
Tonight’s #Phillies lineup @ New York. Hamels vs. Harvey at 7:10 pm on @phillies.com, CSN, WPHT: twitter.com/Phillies/statu…
— Phillies (@Phillies) September 19, 2012
Shortstop Jimmy Rollins is on a tear this September. He’s reached base in 15 of 16 games and is hitting .333/.400/.652 with six home runs and six stolen bases.
Pitching Match-up
NYM — Matt Harvey (2.92 ERA, 63 SO, 23 BB)
In his last start, which occurred a week ago against Washington, Harvey lowered his ERA below 3.00 by only allowing one run in five innings pitched. Although he’s had his lousy starts here and there, mostly Harvey has spent the second half of the 2012 season convincing Mets fans that he can be the ace of the future. Tonight’s his last chance to impress, and Mets fans would love to see him power past the Phillies in his final act.
PHI — Cole Hamels (3.06 ERA, 192 SO, 49 BB)
In Hamels’ 15 innings pitched at Citi Field his season, the Mets have scored eight runs, and historically they haven’t been intimidated by the dominant lefty. That said, Hamels had 13 strikeouts and just two walks in those games, so it’s not as though the Mets give him nightmares. It’s good that the Mets can hold their own against Hamels, because the extension he signed with Philly this year is going to keep him in the city of brotherly love for a long time.
