After a wild series opener, the Mets and Astros engage in game two of a three-game set tonight at Houston’s Minute Maid Park. New York sends lefty Jon Niese to the hill looking to get them back on track after last night’s 4-3 loss. Niese will be opposed by Houston’s J.A. Happ. First pitch is 8:05 p.m. and the game can be seen on SNY or heard, as always, on WFAN 660AM. Join the conversation on Twitter by following @dailystache or yours truly, @DevOnSports.
After another solid outing from a starter the Mets were victimized by a bullpen that seems to get shakier by the day. Some changes may be afoot for the Mets relief corps, but it’s hard to be unhappy with the efforts of the starters thus far. Niese will have the chance to continue that success against Happ, whom New York will face for the ninth time in his career.
The New York offense was held quiet for most of Monday’s game, save for a three-run outburst in the eighth to tie the game. The leader of that outburst was Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who drove in two runs on Monday and seems to have planted his flag at the top of the lineup for the foreseeable future. Behind Nieuwenhuis, the lineup will look slightly different against the lefty Happ.
Lucas Duda sits for the second straight game with flu like symptoms, replaced by righty Scott Hairston tonight rather than lefty Mike Baxter. Daniel Murphy joins Duda on the pine. He’s replaced in the lineup by Justin Turner, who, for some reason, will be hitting third.
Mets Lineup:
Nieuwenhuis - Tejada - Turner - Wright - Hairston - Davis - Torres - Thole - Niese
Stache Fact: Nieuwenhuis enters May coming off one of the best opening months ever for a Mets rookie. Kirk hit .325 in April with a .386 OBP and eight runs batted in. His average is the third best in club history for a rookie in April.
Astros Lineup:
Altuve - Lowrie - Martinez - Lee - Downs - Bogusevic - Maxwell - Snyder - Happ
Stache Fact: Houston’s Carlos Lee returns to the lineup after a four-game absence due to a left ankle sprain. Lee has mashed the Mets in the past, to the tune of a .337 career average with nine home runs and 29 RBI in 44 games.
Pitching Matchup:
NYM: Jon Niese (2-0, 2.81 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 23K) – Niese has been the Mets’ best pitcher this year through four turns in the rotation and will look to build on his April success against the light hitting Astros on May Day. Niese has gone at least six innings in all four of his starts and limited opponents to a minuscule .191 batting average against.
Niese is 1-1 with a 1.80 ERA in 20 innings lifetime against Houston, but only two members of tonight’s Astros lineup have ever faced Niese: Lee and Chris Snyder. Lee is 2-for-8 lifetime against the lefty while Snyder is hitless in two at-bats.
HOU: J.A. Happ (1-1, 4.70 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, 24 K) – The Mets are plenty familiar with Houston’s Happ, a former Philadelphia Phillie. Happ’s start to the 2012 season is right in line with his career averagesm but he’s coming off his worst performance of the year, an outing against the Brewers in which he lasted just five innings and allowed four earned runs. He did however strikeout eight and his strikeout totals for the season — better than one strikeout per nine innings — are impressive.
Happ is 2-2 lifetime vs. the Mets. He faced them twice last season, allowing six runs in 4 2/3 innings in an April loss and just two runs in six innings in a win last May. Among Mets hitters, David Wright has faired by far the best against Happ. He is 6-of-13 lifetime against the lefty with three home runs and two doubles. The only other Met with at least five at-bats against Happ is Turner, who is 1-for-5 against him.
Stache Keys to the Game:
- Get to Happ Early – The Houston lefthander is susceptible to the big inning and it’s more likely to come early than late. Of the 12 runs he has allowed this season, 11 have come in the first three innings of games. The Mets can’t allow Happ to settle in, or it could be a long night for the offense.
- Get Some Insurance – If the Mets do get to Happ early, they need to pile on. The misgiving of the bullpen have been too many in recent days for the relievers to be relied upon in close and late situations. Some cushion would be nice.
- Let Niese do his thing – Tonight might be a night when — if he’s going well — the Mets look to extend Niese beyond the seventh inning. New York has paid close attention to pitch counts on all starters through the first month of the season, but the starters should be pretty loose by now. If Niese is going as well as he has in his last few starts, manager Terry Collins should let the leash go.
This Date in Mets History:
May 1st marks the birthdate of one of the more polarizing figures in franchise history, M. Donald Grant. Grant was the architect of some of the early Mets teams, but is perhaps best known for trading away “the franchise” when he sent Tom Seaver packing to Cincinnati back on June 15, 1977 in a trade that remains known as “The Midnight Massacre.”
On May 1, 1965, Yankee great Yogi Berra made his first appearance as a Met. Also on May 1, 1980 Met pitcher Pete Falcone tied a major league record by striking out the first six batters to face him in a game the Mets eventually lost, 2-1 to the Phillies.
