The Mets and Cubs will play the second game this afternoon. In the last two games the Mets have done a few things that they have not done for a while.First, they won the opening game of a series. Second, they won back to back games, Third, they had back to back quality starts by a starting pitcher. And finally, they had back to back games with someone hitting a homer. Anyway the Mets try to win another one again today and really start to put a clamp down on any hopes of the Cubs making the playoffs as they send Figueroa to do battle with Harden.
Figueroa is 2-3 on the seaosn with a 4.50 ERA over 32.0 innings. In his last three games he is 1-1 over 14.1 innings and has a 2.51 ERA. His last start was against the Cubs where he got the victory over 7.0 innings of work, 6 hits, an earned run and two walks. Here are some Cubs stats against him:
Ramierez 5-12, 2B, HR
Fukudome 2-5
Soto 0-4
Theriot 1-4
Figueroa was really impressive in his last outing and he really hopes to have a similar outing today. Last time he was also able to get some run support (unlike Parnell last night) so he is hoping that in that respect he is like Stokes today and the Mets can hit up Harden for some runs.
Which would be tough to do. Harden is 8-8 on the season with a 4.19 ERA over 129.0 innings pitched and in his last three games he has pitched 18.0 innings to the tune of a 1.1 record and a 3.50 ERA. He faced the Mets in 2008 and went 6.0 innings, allowed 2 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned runs, 5 walks and 4 strikouts. Here are the Mets numbers against him and now you will see why he might be hard to hit today:
Reed 3-9
Francoeur 0-5
Murphy 0-3
Wright 0-0, 2BB
Valdez 1-2
If you look at the Mets stats against Harden as a team, only Reed, Valdez and Sheff have any hits against Harden, everyone else is not with the team right now so the Mets are going to need everyone else to step up. Also, as of now (I can't check later, I'm writing this at 9 AM) it looks like Thole is starting today, so thats a plus because we still all want to see what he can do. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Cubs!
