The Mets will try to make it four in a row tonight as they take on the Dodgers in the second game of a four game set. The Mets are now 15-10 at home, and they will try to make it 16-10 and standing in their way tonight is Kershaw, making his second career start in the majors. The Mets will face the unknown with John Maine.
Kershaw scares me right now only because he is unknown. The mystery pitchers generally are the ones that mess with the Mets. In his debut, he pitched 6 innings, allowed 5 hits and 2 runs, walked one and stuck out 7. He received a no decisions. In 9 starts, 10 games in the minors this year, Kershaw pitched 43.1 innings, posted a 2.28 ERA and an 0-3 record. He walked 15 and stuck out 47. The main trend that I see here is that he strikes out a lot more than he walks, which gives flashbacks to that game against the Nationals where Figueroa made his season debut. Although the Mets won that game, they struck out 11 Mets in Lannan's six innings of work.
The Mets will rely on Maine tonight to help the Mets offense in case they forget how to hit against the unknown quantity that is Kershaw. Maine this season has pitched 10 games to the tune of a 5-4 record and 3.41 ERA over 58.0 IP. Right now he is in the midst of a two game slide dropping both of his last starts. He lasted a combined 10 innings and given up 7 runs (6.30 ERA), walked 7 and struck out 10 over those last two starts. Before this 2 game slide, Maine was on a four game winning streak. During those four games and 25.1 innings, he posted an ERA of 2.13! One of those wins was against the Dodgers where he pitched 8.1 innings and didn't give up a run until the 9th inning. He walked 2 in that game and struck out 7. He struggled against the Dodgers last year, putting up an 0-2 record in as many games, over 11 innings pitched, allowed 7 runs (5.73 ERA), walked 3 and struck out 8. Here are some Dodger stats against Maine:
Pierre 3-11, 2 3B
Kent 2-7
Martin 0-6
Ethier 1-7
Lets hope the Mets current momentum will lead them to light up Kershaw tonight and lead Maine to a repeat performance from May 7th.
Lets Go Mets!
