The Mets play the Rubber game in the series with the Padres tonight as they face their biggest challenge of this series, Jake Peavy. The Mets are back at .500 and winning this game is important in an attempt to get the ball rolling, to build momentum and start taking series. The Mets played well last night because they took advantages of mistakes that the Padres made and that is how they are going to have to win tonight. If the Padres make a mistake, the Mets will need to jump on it.
Peavy is tough but he isn't unbeatable. He is already 1-1 this year with a very respectable 3.52 ERA over his first two games and 15.1 innings. The most amazing stat though he has this year so far is his 2 walks vs his 18 K's. The Mets didn't play him at all in 2008 but in 2007 the Mets went 1-1 against him and he posted a 3.75 ERA over 12 IP, 7 BB and 16 K's. Here are the numbers the Mets have posted against Peavy over the years:
Cora 4-21
Beltran 5-16, 3 2B, 3B
Delgado 2-12, 2B
Reyes 4-15
Wright 2-12, 2B
Church 4-11, 2B
Sheff 2-4, HR
The key for the Mets is too string hits together. If they can hit him in bunches then they can score runs and maybe get a move to the pen. Last night they showed they can hit the pen for first time against the Padres in the series, and you have to think the confidence from that will roll into today (although they haven't gotten runs off of the big guys in the Padres pen).
The Mets will give the ball to John Maine tonight, who hopes to build off his last start where he was effective allowing 2 runs over 5 innings. He hasn't faced the Padres since 2007 where pitched 2 games agianst them over 11.2 innings, had a 5.40 ERA, walked 6 and struck out 9. This will also be Maine's first regular season game at Citi and his first time to see in a real game how he will do in the spacious dimensions of Citi Field. Here some numbers the Padres have against Maine:
Gonzalez 2-8, 2B, HR
Giles 0-4
Kouzmanhoff 1-6
Eckstein 0-3
If you have not watched any of the games this series, or have but didn't watch Adrian Gonzalez, you really need to watch him. He has a fantastic swing and fundalmentals at the plate and on field that can be turned into an instructional video. That being said, if we shut him down tonight then we can put ourselves in a good position to take this series. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Friars!
