The Mets won a late, close one last night and they hope that starts another streak as they take the show into DC tonight. The Mets still have not faced Washington in a hot streak yet, so they have, in some forms, under performed against the Nats this year. The Nationals have now started to falter this season, and the Mets will need to take advantage of that. Tonight's game will feature Johan Santana vs Livan Hernandez.
This may in fact be a very important start for Santana tonight. The star pitcher of the Mets is now 5-5 with a 3.55 ERA and has really struggled of late. He also did not have a good outing last time against Nationals. Centuries ago at the start of the season, Santana made his second start against the Nats where he allowed 5 ER and 5 hits over 5 innings of work while walking three and striking out three. It's almost at the point now that its hard to remember that he had a great stretch of games earlier this season, but without the runs support he has nothing to show for it. Hopefully its the ace Santana that shows up tonight. Here are some numbers the Nationals have on Johan:
Kennedy 4-19, 2B
Guzman 9-19, 2B
Willingham 5-13, 2 2B, 2 HR
Dunn 4-8, 2 HR
Harris 1-9, 2B
The Mets on the other side will get the mysterious Livan Hernandez who since his scorching hot start has begun his discent back to Earth. He is now 6-4 with a 3.10 ERA. He has a 2-1 record in his last four starts while pitching 25.2 innings with an ERA of 5.61. He has faced the Mets twice this year with a 1-0 record while allowing only 2 ER in 13.1 innings of work. The Mets have been able to put these numbers on Livan:
Wright 12-36, 3 2B, 4 HR
Blanco 9-24, 3 2B
Francoeur 7-16, 2 2B, 3B, HR
Lets Go Mets!
