The Mets won their fifth game in a row last night and they try to make it six tonight as they take on the Cleveland Indians for game two of the three game set. Last night's game featured some “interesting” pitching but (thankfully) also had some timely hitting. In fact, the Mets have now scored 18 runs over their last two games while hitting 8 homers in their last 4 games. The Mets sound out Niese to the rubber tonight to go toe to toe with Mitch Talbot.
Niese (3-2, 3.61 ERA) is coming off two very good starts since coming off of the disable list. He has picked up winning decisions in each of his last two starts piching 16 innings while allowing 1 ER and 1 BB while striking out 12 batters. What has made Niese effective since coming off of the DL is that he is throwing his curveball for strikes and he is throwing it in a deceptive armslot. At the start of the season, he was effective because of his curve but when he couldn't throw it for strikes, the wheels started to fall off. Niese, being young, has not faced any of the Indians' bats.
The Mets bats will try to continue their recent trends against Mitch Talbot (7-4, 3.69 ERA) tonight. He is 1-1 over his last three starts while pitching 17.0 innings with a 3.12 ERA. The only Mets player who seen Talbot has been Jason Bay. Bay has 2 AB against Mitch with no hits. For the Mets, it will be second game in a row that they have had a limited exposure to the starting pitcher on the opposing team, and hopefully the Mets will be able to get the same result.
Lets Go Mets!
