The Mets return to Citi Field after a long and successful road trip. Although the Mets tripped up over the last two days, a 7-2 road trip is a strong way to return home, where they just had a 5-1 home stand. This should be an interesting series for the Mets as the Tigers are also 8-2 in their last ten games and are also 2nd in their division. Both of these teams really want to win these games in order to continue their winning ways. Working in the Mets favor is their home record (24-10) vs the Tigers road record (13-19).
The Mets will be sending out Niese to the mound (4-2, 3.64 ERA) to take on the Tigers this afternoon. Jon has been pretty successful since his return from the DL. In that time he has made three starts where he has a 3-0 record over 23.0 innings and a 1.57 ERA. Due to the nature of Niese's age and the rotating interleague schedule, it comes as no surprise that Niese has no records against any of the Tiger's hitters. For Niese the key will be, as it has in his last several starts, getting that curveball over for a strike. When he gets it over for a strike, and in the armslot of the fastball, Niese becomes a very special pitcher.
The Mets batters will have to deal with the ace of the Tigers staff, Justin Verlander (8-4, 3.54 ERA). In the month of June, Verlander has an identical record to Niese (3-0) in the same amount of starts (3) while posting a 2.86 ERA over 22 innings pitched. Verlander has never faced the Mets in his major league career, however he has been around long enough to face a few Mets batters while they were with other teams:
Barajas 1-6
Bay 0-3
Blanco 1-3
Francoeur 2-3
