The Mets look for the three game season opening sweep against the Atlanta Braves on Sunday afternoon at 1:1o p.m. Yesterday the Mets defeated the Braves by the score of 4-2 as Lucas Duda hit a pair of solo home runs and David Wright went 3-for-5 at the dish, meanwhile on the mound R.A. Dickey pitched six innings allowing just a two run home run to Martin Prado.
Today the Mets send newly extended Jon Niese to the hill for his first start of the season, last year Niese was 11-11 with a 4.40 ERA including a 2-0 record against the Braves allowing nine runs in 19 innings over three starts against Atlanta. The Braves counter with Mike Minor who was 5-3 last season with a 4.14 ERA, Minor was 1-0 against the Mets in three starts but struggled with a 7.80 ERA in 15 innings.
Today’s game can be heard on Sports Radio 66 WFAN with Howie Rose and Josh Lewin, or seen on TV on SportsNet New York with Gary Cohen, Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez and a quite possibly the 50th season we hear the voice of Ralph Kiner on a Mets broadcast.
Mets Lineup
Tejada - Murphy - Wright - Davis - Bay - Duda - Hairston - Nickeas - Niese
Braves Lineup
Bourn - Prado - McCann - Uggla - Freeman - Diaz - Heyward - Wilson - Minor
Pitching Matchup
NYM: Jon Niese (0-0, 0.00 ERA). Niese has had fairly successful numbers against the Braves for his career as mentioned earlier but a few batters have gotten to Niese including Jason Heyward. The two didn’t square off against one of another in 2011 but Heyward had success against the Mets’ lefty in 2010 going 4-for-8 with one homer and five RBI. Martin Prado is 5-for-15 in his career against Niese which doesn’t seem like much but four of those five hits went for extra bases.
ATL: Mike Minor (0-0, 0.00 ERA). Minor has struggled against the Mets in his brief career, Jason Bay is the leading hitter off Minor going 3-for-6 with a home run and five RBI. Lucas Duda is also 2-f0r-3 with a double off of the Braves’ lefty, while Justin Turner is 3-for-7 with an RBI and a pair of walks.
Stache Keys to the Game
- Keep Michael Bourn off base, Bourn is 4-of-7 in his career against Jon Niese, including 4-of-5 in a Braves uniform. The Mets have done a good job thus far in keeping the Braves table-setter in the dugout because they know when he gets on, he runs.
- Put together a big inning offensively, the Mets a primed to do that with their ownage of Mike Minor in his first few seasons in the bigs but despite winning their first two games, the five runs they have scored have all been scored in five separate innings.
- Keep the bullpen fresh, so far they’ve looked good but there are two guys who have yet to pitch in Miguel Batista and Manny Acosta, look for one if not both to get an inning today. Frank Francisco and Jon Rauch have pitched in the first two games, with a day off in between, no need rack up the innings in April.
April 8 in Mets History:
2011: The Mets lost their 2011 Home Opener to the Washington Nationals by the score of 6-2. Josh Thole was the only player to have multiple hits in the game with two.
1997: Bobby Jones pitched eight innings allowing three runs on five hits to the Dodgers as the Mets won 5-3. John Olerud went 4-for-4 with an RBI in the victory.
1991: Dwight Gooden shut down the Phillies’ offense over eight innings allowing one run on six hits, John Franco pitched a hitless ninth as the Mets beat the Phillies 2-1 at Shea Stadium
1954: Gary Carter was born. Happy Birthday Kid!
