The Mets go for a sweep against the Nationals for the second time this season as this time they will have their ace on the mound in the form of Johan Santana but they will be facing the same pitcher that beat them last time, Jordan Zimmermann. Notice the two n's at the end of his name, he is not related to Ryan Zimmerman. Many organizations have made this mistake, including the Nationals who spelled his name (Jordan's) Zimmerman on his first set of bats, which caused the Nationals to write in the extra n. Anyway, the Mets have won two straight and 4 of their last 5.
Johan is 6-2 on the season with a 1.50 ERA over 60.0 innings this year where he has only 14 BB and 75 K's. In his last four games he is 3-1 with 27.1 IP, 1.98 ERA, 5 BB and 31 K. The 1.98 ERA is mostly due to his 4 ER he gave up in a win against the Giants earlier this month. In April he faced the Nats and went 6.0 innings, allowed one run, one walk and struck out 10. Here are some Nationals stats against Johan:
Belliard 4-23, 7 K
Zimmerman 5-15, HR
Guzman 8-14, 2B
Johnson 1-11
Kearns 2-12
Harris 1-9
The hottest hitter against Johan by far is Guzman who would love to see Santana tomorrow because after a great start to the season he has really slowed down basically to halt. Hopefully Johan can use that to his advantage and get Guzman to get himself out. One thing Santana would love to see is the Mets to score runs.
Zimmermann really did some good work against the Mets his last time out but since then he has struggled. On the season he is 2-1 over 41.0 IP with a 5.71 ERA. In his last 3 games he has pitched 18.0 IP with 0-0 record, a 6.00 ERA, 6 BB and 21 K. So his K to BB ratio is good, but thats about the only good thing in his last three games. In April against the Mets he pitched 5.1 IP, allowed one ER, 6 H, 2 BB and 5 K. Here are some Mets stats against Zimmermann:
Beltran 1-3
Murphy 0-3
Wright 0-3, 3K
Santos 1-2
The last time the Mets played the Nationals in April, they were a completely different team then they are now, and I'm not referring to all of the roster injuries, I'm talking about the mentality of this team. Back then it was a losing team, now its a winning team. Earlier this month they got their “killing” instinct back. They have failed at sweeping their last two attempts (Giants and Red Sox) but hopefully the Mets will win this time. Lets Go Mets! Sweep the Nats!
