The Mets and the Marlins play the rubber game in this series as yesterday's game pretty much went how it would according to paper. The Mets will face Volstad for the first time this year as Maine will make his third start against the fish this year. With yesterday's loss the Mets are back in second place by a half game, but at this point in the season, just winning remains the ultimate goal. Sheff, Wright and Castillo return today as well from their day of rest.
Maine is 4-3 on the season with a 4.18 ERA over 9 G and 57.2 innings. In his last three games he has pitched 18.2 IP with a 2-1 record and a 3.50 ERA. So far against the Marlins this year he is 1-0 in two games and 11.0 IP with a 1.64 ERA, 4 BB and 9 K. He is still building steam and is what this team needs with a rotation spot (Perez, Niese, Redding, whatever) still very much in flux. Here are some stats the Marlins have put on him over the years:
Uggla 4-20, 2B, HR
Ramierez 4-10, 2 HR
Hermida 5-12
Cantu 3-9
Bonifacio 0-6
Ross 0-6
The promising sign for Maine is that yesterday when the bullpen stepped in for Redding they put the Marlins on lock down and they also did that on Friday too. So for Maine, he knows that if he does his part, than more than likely the pen will do their part. Some offense of course would help as well.
Volstad is also 4-3 on year with a 3.69 ERA over 61.0 IP. In his last three startes he has pitched 18.2 IP with a 5.30 ERA, 3 BB and 18 K. He has not pithced against the Mets this year but last year, his rookie year, he made two starts against the Mets and he was 1-0 with a .73 ERA over 12.1 IP, 6 BB and 9 K. It will be interesting to see how the Mets address him one year later now that their are scouting reports out on him and in recent games he has been hit. Here are some numbers the Mets put on him last year:
Beltran 2-4
Murphy 1-6
Wright 2-5
Castillo 1-3
Hopefully the day off renegerized Wright and Castillo. Also, there are a large amount of current Mets who havn't seen Volstad pitch but they aren't the Mets that historically do bad against new pitchers (in other words just havn't been with the team over the last three years for any large amounts of time) and these are players like Pagan and Sheff. Lets Go Mets! Fry the Fish!
