The third place Mets will take on the forth place Braves in the rubber game tomorrow (or today, depending when you read this) at Shea. First off, what a difference a week makes. Last week, when the Mets were 4 games above .500, for the most part, the rest of division outside of Florida was below .500. Now the Nationals are the only team that are not at .500 or above.
Anyway, the Braves have their even bigger arm going for them for this game. Smoltz has stepped out to be their dominant Ace this season (Which is saying a lot on a team that had a few candidates to be the actual Ace). This will be an uphill battle for the Mets. Smoltz has one game already against the Mets where he lasted 5 innings, got the win, allowed 2 hits, no runs, walked 2 and struck out 6. This mirrors his season very well where he is 3-1 over 4 games and 23.0 innings posting a 0.78 ERA.
Last season, Smoltz was 2-1 over 6 games and 38.0 innings against the Mets. He posted a 3.55 ERA against us. Here are some Mets stats against Smoltz:
Reyes 17-57, 3 2B, 2 3B, 4 RBI, .298 BA
Wright 10-43, 2 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI, .233 BA
Delgado 12-42, 4 HR, .286 BA
Reyes has really been struggling these last 6 games. He has gone 2-26 during that stretch. Currently, he has one of the best BA's against Smoltz on the team, and it would be much easier for the Mets to get things going if Reyes can get on base. The Mets had a “big” inning today, but having one of those innings, when its the only inning of scoring is not quite what I was looking for in earlier posts. If they can have a big inning tomorrow, then they really can start to build some momentum in-between games and during games.
