The Mets and the Marlins play the second game of the three game set this afternoon as the Mets face another day of historical challenges. Very similar to last night, the Mets will face a pitcher that they have had very little recent success on, Josh Johnson, and the Mets will send a pitcher to mound who struggled against the Marlins last year, Tim Redding. Other story lines include that the Mets still have a half game lead over the Phils in the division and have 4 game winning streak.
Redding has had two starts so far this year and one has been good while the other one not so much. His totals are 0-1 over 10.2 innings where he has allowed 10 hits, 8 ER, 8 BB and 8 K. Last year he pitched 6 games against the Marlins and lasted a total of 29.0 innings where he gave up 25 ER, 14 BB and 31 K. He will have to emulate Mike Pelfrey as he must get over his demons as well and beat the fish. Here are some stats the Marlins have against him:
Helms 6-23, 2 HR
Ramierez 7-13, 3 2B, 3 HR
Hermida 7-14, 3 2B
Uggla 1-12, 7 K
Cantu 4-12, 2B, HR
Ross 2-9
Short story: A lot of Marlins have good numbers against Redding. Its going to come down to control with Redding. His walks have to go down so when he makes mistakes, they don't hurt him, in other words that BB to K ratio right now has to change. His WHIP is also killing him. Keep those runners off the bags!
The Mets bats will to deal with Johnson again. He had a great game against the Mets when the Marlins beat the Mets 2-1 and then he pitched an alright game against the Mets where he allowed 3 runs over 6 innings, but the Marlins won 4-3. Anyway he is 3-1 on the season over 67.1 IP and a 2.67 ERA. In his last three games he is 0-1 over 17.1 IP and has a 3.63 ERA. This year against the Mets he is 1-0 over two games with 15.0 IP and 4 ER (2.40 ERA) with 2 BB and 10 K. The Mets were able to score runs on him last time and they need to rememebr that they can do that. Here are some stats the Mets have on him:
Beltran 3-18
Wright 3-18
Murphy 2-9, 2B
Castillo 2-5
Tatis 4-6, HR
The Mets are goign to have to score runs on Johnson to back up Redding and also to give the bullpen some breathing room. If they can do that, then they have a good chance of extending this streak to 5 games. Lets go Mets! Beat the Marlins!
