Hello and welcome to another doomsday day of Mets baseball. Last night, the Metsies fell 5-3 to the Nats and R.A. Dickey failed to pick up his 19th win of the season. Washington’s Gio Gonzaelz is now the National League wins league, with 19.
Today, the Mets released their 2013 schedule. It’s very similar to this year’s schedule except for a few things:
- The Mets do not play the Astros. Houston is in the American League starting in 2013
- The Subway series is now just two games at Citi Field and two games at Yankee Stadium
- The Mets play 16 games against the AL Central: three at Minnesota, three at Cleveland, three vs. Kansas City, three vs. Detroit and four games with the White Sox that are split between New York and Chicago.
Tonight, Matt Harvey will start for the second to last time this season. His last start will be on Tuesday, September 18. John Lannan is pitching for the Nationals.
#Mets Wednesday lineup vs. Washington: Tejada-SS, Murphy-2B, Wright-3B, Hairston-RF, Duda-1B, Shoppach-C, Bay-LF, Torres-CF, Harvey-RHP
— New York Mets (@Mets) September 12, 2012
Manager Terry Collins is giving Ike Davis a break and starting Lucas Duda at first base tonight. Both Davis and Duda are left-handed, so it’s not a platoon thing. Duda hasn’t hit the ball particularly well lately, either. He’s hitting .238/.273/.333 in September. Davis just needs four more home runs to become the 16th Met ever to hit 30 in a season, so hopefully this is just a one day thing.
#Nats 9/12 Lineup: Werth RF, Harper CF, Zim 3B, LaRoche 1B, Desmond SS, Bernadina LF, Suzuki C, Lombo 2B, Lannan LHP
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) September 12, 2012
Danny Espinosa and Michael Morse are each out of the lineup for the first time in a while. That’s good news for Harvey, who will get the pleasure of facing Roger Bernadina and Steve Lombardozzi instead. Berandina’s .784 OPS this season is a career high for him, while Lombardozzi is hitting just .280/.325/.359 as a rookie. Still better than Josh Thole.
Pitching Match-up
NYM — Matt Harvey (3.04 ERA, 53 SO, 20 BB)
Aside from Johan Santana’s no-hitter, Harvey’s been the biggest bright spot for the Mets this season. Since being called up from the minors, he’s been everything the Mets could hope for and is in line to start 2013 in the rotation. For safety reasons, Harvey is being shut down after his next start, so Mets fans who want to see him pitch one last time should flock to Citi Field, or at the very least tune in on TV.
WAS — John Lannan (3.46 ERA, 7 SO, 7 BB)
Lannan actually made 33 starts with a 3.70 ERA last year for the Nats, but he started 2012 at triple-A Syracuse, mostly because the Nationals had too many good pitchers. Now that Stephen Strasburg has been shutdown, however, the Nats need Lannan again. He made a couple of spot starts earlier in the year and was mildly successful, so there’s no reason to believe he’ll flop here, especially with a postseason roster spot at stake. Lannan doesn’t have the flashiest stuff in the world, but he makes up for it by inducing ground balls at a very high rate.
