The Mets and the Brewers will play the second game in the series this afternoon for the first day game at Citi Field. The Mets are coming off of a big win last night in the ninth inning to get back to .500 for the season. Today's game should be an interesting pitching matchup because once again the Mets will be in an ace vs ace match up as Santana will be taking on young Gallardo who is slated the next big thing for the Brewers.
Gallardo made his major league debut in 2007 where he went 9-5 with a 3.67 ERA over 110.1 innings in his roookie year. Injuries held him up in 2008 where he pitched 4 games, getting no decisions in each start over 24 innings and posting a 1.88 ERA. Gallarado has never faced the Mets, which has become a concern for the Mets ever since 2006 where the Mets started a disturbing trend of doing bad against unknown starters. This spring he went 3-2 over 23.2 innnings posting a 4.18 ERA with 13 BB and 19 K. In his first two starts this season he is 1-1 with a 6.94 ERA with 6 BB, and 9 K. His first game was terrible, but his second game was very good. The Mets will need Santana to keep them in this game.
Santana had an amazing game in his last outing, but the Mets were not able to get him the win as they could only score one run, and the Mets basically gave Santana the loss as they had defense blunders that led to two unearned runs. Anyway, on the season, Santana is 1-1 with a 0.71 ERA over 12.2 innings, 5 BB, and 20 K. Last season Santana pitched in two games against the Brewers for 12.2 innings allowing 3 BB, and striking out 17 (with an ERA of 4.26). Here are the numbers the Brewers have against Santana:
Kendall 2-20
Hall 3-18
Cameron 4-15, 7 K
Weeks 4-7, 3BB
Hardy 2-7
Braun 3-6, 2B
Fielder 2-6, 2K
This will be Santana's home debut and the Mets are hoping that it will be memorable. If the Mets can hit on the Brewers early and often, the key being often, then they will be able to give Santana that crucial run support. The Brewers have a lot of sluggers up and down their lineup, and a lot of them are young. That means Santana will be able to craft the strike zone and paint a lot of swinging strikeouts, hopefully. Lets go Mets! Take Game Two!
