Citi Field may actually have people in the seats since it’s Mike Piazza bobble head day.
The Mets look to avoid their seventh consecutive loss after losing the final game of the series with the Nationals, a four-game set to the Rockies and the opening game to their series with the Astros in their final head-to-head opener against one another as National League foes.
Today the Mets toss RA Dickey to the mound in what could be a must-win situation as Dickey attempts to close in on a 20-win season, as he is currently stuck on 15. The Astros counter with Fernando Abad who makes his first Major League start today after appearing in 81 games out of the bullpen over the past three seasons.
Today’s game can be seen on PIX11 for those of you fortunate to have it on real cable providers such as Verizon FiOS, for those of you stuck with Dolan’s crappy Cablevision (like myself) you can always tune in to SportsRadio 66 WFAN.
Mets Lineup
With Abad primarily a reliever in his career very few Mets have seen him, or had any success against him. Daniel Murphy and Ike Davis both have a hit a piece against Abad, while Josh Thole, David Wright, Ronny Cedeno and Andres Torres have gone 0-for in their combined six at bats against the Astros’ right-hander.
Astros Lineup
Dickey has only had two position players on the Astros 25-man roster who have collected hits against him including Brett Wallace who is 4-for-13 with three doubles while Scott Moore is 1-for-3. The rest of the minor league lineup id 0-for-18 in their brief careers against RA Dickey. Former Met top prospect Fernando Martinez is now 0-for-1 with a strikeout against the team that signed him as an amateur free agent.
Pitching Matchup
RA Dickey (15-4; 2.82 ERA) Dickey has pitched well his last five times out on the mound with the exception of his start against the Reds back on August 15. Dickey did face the Astros during the first half of the season down at Minute Maid Park in Houston and didn’t factor into the decision as Manny Acosta blew the tie game in the bottom of the eighth inning as the Astros won 4-3.
Fernando Abad (0-0; 3.86 ERA) All of Abad’s numbers have come in 30 relief outings in 2012, after appearing in 51 games out of the pen in 2010 and 2011. He hasn’t appeared in a game since July 25, his next three outings were in relief at AAA-Oklahoma City but then was turned into a starter and pitched to a 4.50 ERA in 14 innings as a starter his last three times out.
August 25 in Mets History
The Mets are 4-3 in games on August 25 dating back to 2002.
2005: The Diamondbacks called Pedro Martinez their daddy as the Mets beat Arizona by the score of 3-1 in the Phoenix. The big blow of the game came off the bat of…wait for it….Victor Diaz who hit a two-run home run in the top of the second inning.
2001: The Mets walked off against Robb Nen of the Giants in the bottom of the 11th inning at Shea Stadium as Jay Payton and Vance Wilson singled with one out in the inning to bring up Rey Ordonez who singled in Payton to give the Mets the win, more specifically Jerrod Riggan picked up the win to go to 2-2 on the year.
2000: The Mets CRUSHED the Diamondbacks by a score of 13-3 without hitting a single home run which included scoring six runs off of future hall of famer Randy Johnson who didn’t make it out of the third inning. Benny Agbayani reached base five times and had three RBI, Jay Payton also had three RBI. Edgardo Alfonzo collected three hits, while Todd Zeile drove in a pair as did Johnson’s “master” Joe McEwing.
