The Mets will try to find their bats again today as they go for a series split in San Diego. To do this they will need their starting pitcher, Oliver Perez, to do something that he has not done in a while, be effective over an appropriate amount of innings today. Last time Perez started, he didn't even give the Mets a chance as he allowed 6 runs over one out, but more on Perez later. The Mets bats will have to awaken to Baek's pitching tonight.
Baek is from Mariners where in 10 games there, he only made one start. Since coming over to the Padres, he has pitched in two games making one start in that process. For the season, he has 12 games pitched, 35.1 innings, and has an ERA of 5.60. The Mets will really need to light him up tonight. The challenge for the Mets: He is an unknown quantity. According to Baseball Reference, the only Mets to have any AB's against Baek is Delgado, who is 0-2 lifetime against him. Right handed batters have hit .296 against him, and left handed batters have hit .236 against him this season.
I don't even want to talk about his last few starts. We don't have to look at the numbers to know that they have been bad, we can just use are recent memories to remind us of that. The last time he pitched against the Padres was 2006, and his numbers there do not look good at all. He lasted 3 innings and allowed 5 runs over 9 hits. A positive from that game was that he walked none and struck out five. Here are some more positive numbers, and they are current Padre's offensive numbers against Perez:
Barrett 2-9, HR
Giles 2-9
Greene 2-8
Hairston 1-6
So if Perez can reach down and bring out the Dr. Jekyll, the good side of his pitching. And shut down the Padre's. Then he could give the Mets a chance to win tonight and split this series.
Lets Go Mets!
