After a less than stellar road trip, the Mets open up a tough homestand tonight as they will start a series with the Reds before taking on the Braves. Amazingly on the road trip where the Mets went 3-4, they are still only 2.0 games back from first in the division and still hold the Wild Card spot by half a game. The Amazin's will face a team that started a bit of spiral earlier in the season on a road trip as the Reds took 2 of 3 from Amazins, with all three games being decided by one run. Before breaking down the pitchers for this matchup, I just wanted to talk about perceptions. The casual fan might see this series and say “Oh the Reds? That should be easy”. Well if it was last year that perception would be true but these Reds are a first base club and are playing good and dangerous baseball.
Big Pelf will be looking for a bounce back performance from hot and humid San Juan where he allowed 4 ER in 4.2 innings of work in a no decision game that the Mets eventually won 6-5. Mike has now pitched 104.1 innings on the season with a 10-2 record and a 2.98 ERA. He didn't face the Reds the first time around this season but last year he was 2-0 in two games against the machine while posting an ERA of 5.25 (7 ER over 12 IP). The Reds have these numbers on Pelfrey:
Votto 2-8, HR
Bruce 2-6
Hernandez 0-4
The Mets bats are coming off of a 14 hit, 9 run day in Washington and will try to bring that jump back to Citi. Harang on the season is 6-7 with a 5.02 ERA. In his last four games he has a 1-2 record over 23.2 innings while posting a 4.56 ERA. He missed the Mets the first time around this season and last year posted an 0-2 record in as many games against the Amazins while having an ERA of 6.75 (6 ER over 8 IP). The Mets have these numbers on Aaron:
Francoeur 3-16, HR
Wright 8-12, 2 2B, HR
Cora 6-11, 2B
Pagan 1-3
Lets Go Mets!
