Starting Monday, the Mets will begin a 3-game series vs the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park.
Both teams with identical records, at 42-41, will face off for what looks to be a very interesting series. The Giants who just got swept by the Washington Nationals look to get back to their winning ways against the Mets. Meanwhile, the Mets, who just defeated the Dodgers in a 3-game series, look to continue winning and possibly creep closer to the Nationals for the NL East lead. The Mets won’t have their youngest starting pitchers on the mound this series, except for Jacob deGrom, but they still have the starters to help them win games this series. The Giants will also be starting 3 quality pitchers this series, one who already gave the Mets bats one tough night.
Game 1: Niese (3-8, 3.90 ERA) vs Heston (8-5, 3.78 ERA) 10:15 PM EST
The first game of this 3 game set will feature left handed pitcher Jon Niese for the Mets and the righty Chris Heston for the Giants. Jon Niese is coming off a fantastic start where he gave up only 1 run and struck out 5 over 7 innings, but got the loss as the Mets failed to score for Niese. He will be facing a Giants lineup that is quite good, including Posey, Panik, Belt and Brandon Crawford. One player to watch against Niese is Brandon Crawford who has hit lefties well this season. In 60 ABs Crawford has hit for a .333 average with 3 Home Runs.
For the Giants they will have the right handed rookie Chris Heston on the bump. Heston is having a nice rookie season posting an 8-5 record with a 3.78 ERA. Heston’s last start was a fairly average one, as he pitched 6 innings, gave up 3 runs and struck out 1 batter in a no decision. The highlight of his young career was his last start against the New York Mets, it was an epic one. On June 9 he no hit the Mets. In that game he struck out 11 batters in 9 innings. The talk before this game will surely be about that no hitter, but it will interesting to see his next game against this New York Mets team. Hopefully someone can have an average better than .000 against Heston before the end of the game.
Game 2: Colon (9-6, 4.55 ERA) vs Cain (0-1, 9.00 ERA) 10:15 PM EST
The second game of this series will feature the 42 year old right handed pitcher, Bartolo Colon for the Mets (has he gotten his AARP card yet?) and Matt Cain for the Giants. Bartolo Colon pitched a gem of a game in his last start. He went 7 scoreless innings and struck out 8 batters, but got a no decision in a game the Mets would later lose. This season has been full of up and downs for Colon and his last start was surely an up. Hopefully he can continue to pitch well in this start. Of course since he is facing a National League team he will get a chance hit, the most exciting part of his game.
The Giants will have the righty Matt Cain on five mound. Cain made his season debut in his last start, as he had a forearm injury that has held him out of the rotation. His start against the Marlins didn’t go well as he pitched 5 innings and gave up 5 runs, resulting in a loss for him. Cain looks to bounce back against a Mets offense that has had an awful year at the plate. Bartolo Colon is obviously the hitter to watch against Cain, hopefully he’ll get a few pitches to hit.
Game 3: deGrom (8-6, 2.30 ERA) vs Peavy (0-3, 6.43 ERA) 3:45 PM EST
Arguably the Mets best pitcher this season will be on the mound against the Giants. deGrom has posted a 2.30 ERA with 102 strikeout in 105.2 innings pitched. deGrom’s last start was not a good one from what we’ve seen out of him in past appearances. In his last start he went 5.1 innings and gave up 4 runs (3 earned), he only struck out 2 batters. He looks to bounce back from his below average start and try to continue his fantastic season.
On the Giants side they will have the righty Jake Peavy pitching. Peavy’s last start was a fairly good one. He went 6.1 innings and gave up 2 runs & struck out 4 batters. However, the Giants only scored one runs enroute to a loss. All of Peavy’s 3 starts this season have been losses. Even though he’s 8 years older than Bartolo Colon, Peavy’s age might be affecting him more than Colon age affects himself! Peavy does look to try and dominate these struggling New York Mets hitters, and attempt to pick up his first win of the 2015 season.
Series Outlook
Overall, this 3 game series looks to be a very exciting one including a start from Chris Heston, who the Mets try to at least get a hit against and a start from Jacob deGrom who looks to continue a great season. This should be a fairly manageable series for the Mets, as their pitching should keep them in games, but runs have to start scoring more often. If all goes right for the Mets they should be able to pull out at least a series win, but it’s baseball, who knows what will happen?
