The Mets rebounded from the loss to open the series with a come from behind, walk off (walk) win to take the second game of the season and put themselves in a position to take their forth series in a row. The Met showed important fight last night which has been a recent development with this team. That being said, the Braves are mad and they will be playing hard in the early afternoon game in Flushing. The Mets will be sending up Niese while the Braves will be sending out Jo-Jo Reyes.
Niese's best start of his young carear was against the Braves last year where he went 8.0 scorless innings allowing 6 hits, 2 walks and struck out 7 on his way to a win in a crucial game for the Mets. His last start was also very good as he lasted 6.0 IP allowing 7 hits, 2 ER, 0 BB and 5 K. Like I said last time, his success seams to be critically based on his strikeout to walk ratio. The more he strikes out the better he does or in other words, he pitches a lot better when there are no runners on base (which almost feels obvious to write). Anyway, here are some Braves stats against Niese:
Infante 0-4
Johnson 2-4, 2B
Prado 0-4
Francoeur 2-2
Kotchman 1-3
The Mets were able to keep the Braves offense in check last night mostly due to their lack of major mistakes on the field. If they keep that up again, paried with effective pitching, then they should be able to lock the Braves down again, but that of course will be contigent on their offense's ability to score and produce runs.
To win, the Mets will have to deal with Reyes who is 0-2 on the season with a 5.48 ERA over 4 games, 23.0 IP, 14 ER, 9 BB, 20 K. In his last two games pitched he is 0-2 over 10.1 IP and has given up 12 ER, so he has been struggling as of late. Last year against the Mets he pitched three games with a 0-1 record and a 8.74 ERA over 11.1 IP, 5 BB, and 8 K. The Mets have had success on him in the past but as the Mets have demonstrated time and time again this year that doesn't matter. Here are the numbers the Mets have posted against Reyes:
Reyes 3-5, 2 HR
Beltran 3-6, 2B
Wright 2-5, 2B, HR
Tatis 2-4, 2B
Even though the Mets have been getting caught stealing a lot (or more, Wright has been caught a lot) the aggresiveness has been paying off. Stealing has been leading to intentional walks, distracted pitchers and bad pitches and this has been the trend so far in May. Reyes is already a frustrated pitcher right now, and anything else that can fluster him would be very good. Lets Go Mets! Lets take this series! Beat the Braves!
