After a disappointing loss last night, and losing Jason Bay for the 2nd time this season, the Mets and Reds will face off again for game 2 of this weekend series. The Mets will look to rebound and continue their winning ways from Tampa as they look to tie up the series.
Tonight’s pitching matchup features Jon Niese (4-2, 3.69 ERA) and Homer Bailey (4-4, 4.35 ERA). Niese is coming off a no decision in his last start on June 10th. The Mets lost the game, but in no part to a lack of pitching. Niese went a solid 7 innings, allowing just 2 unearned runs with 6 strikeouts. Niese will look to continue his success in June as he hasn’t allowed an earned run this month. Bailey has done the opposite in June, starting off his month with a 3 inning outing where allowed 6 earned on 7 hits.
Lineup courtesy of Metsblog.com
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New York Mets 1) Kirk Nieuwenhuis CF |
Cincinnati Reds 1) Zack Cozart SS |
The key tonight for Niese is to get into good pitcher counts and to get deep into at bats. Niese has a .600 BAA on the 2nd pitch when he falls behind 1-0, and a .417 BAA on the 2nd pitch when he’s ahead 0-1. When he gets ahead 0-2 in the count, he has a .077 BAA, and even on a 1-2 count, his BAA is .096.
Scott Hairston will take LF duties today after Bay left the game yesterday crashing into the wall on the Jay Bruce fly ball which turned into an inside the park home run. The key to the Mets offense is whether or not Daniel Murphy can get it going and whether or not Ike Davis can keep it going.
As always, Lets Go Mets.
