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The Game:
The Mets (2-4) continue their home opening series against the Phillies (4-4) this evening at Shea Stadium, starting at 7:10 pm EDT.
The Lineup:
- SS Jose Reyes
- LF Angel Pagan
- 3B David Wright
- CF Carlos Beltran
- 1B Carlos Delgado
- RF Ryan Church
- 2B Damion Easley
- C Brian Schneider
- P Mike Pelfrey
The Pitchers:
RHP Mike Pelfrey (0-0, 0.00 ERA) takes the hill for the Mets in his season debut. Pelfrey was 3 - 8 with a 5.57 ERA in 15 appearances for the Mets last season. Pelfrey had a 8.14 ERA in six spring training starts. In his only career start against the Phillies last July, Pelfrey took the loss, allowing three runs, on four hits over 5.1 innings pitched while striking out three and walking one.
RHP Kyle Kendrick (1-0, 7.20 ERA) makes his second start of the season for the Phillies. In his season debut, Kendrick allowed four runs on eight hits over five innings pitched in a win over the Reds. Kendrick won his only career start against the Mets last season, allowing two runs on six hits over 6.2 innings pitched.
…as interested as i was with Oliver Perez’s start yesterday, i’m even more interested in pelfrey’s start tonight…with Orlando Hernandez and Pedro Martinez not due back anytime soon, it’s time for big pelf to step up and show some confidence in his raw talent…Brian Schneider seems to be calling games more aggressively than his predecessor and in turn, my hope is, this helps pelfrey be more aggressive with his fastball, instead of relying on his secondary breaking pitches…let’s go big pelf…
The Notes:
Dating back to September 15, 2007, Jose Reyes has not stolen a base in 21 consecutive games. The Mets are 7-14 in those games.
…hat tip to D.J. Short for the stat…
Carlos Beltran, who leads the majors with seven doubles, is hitless in two career at-bats versus Kendrick.
The Mets are first in the National League with a .354 on-base percentage.
How To Catch It:
Tonight’s game can be seen locally on
and nationally on ESPN2 and can be heard locally on WFAN.
The Bleachers:
For a live in-game chat, head over to The Hot Foot Bleachers.
…just as i think pelfrey needs to be aggressive on the mound tonight, the Mets offense needs to be equally aggressive at the plate and on the base paths…this team thrives when they have shown that ability to be patiently aggressive, but unfortunately we haven’t seen that from them in nearly a full season…we can lay blame on the Willie Randolph and his external message, but what it really comes down to is the players ability to execute…i still believe this team can show that killer instinct thats been missing, but it’s time we stop making the manager the scapegoat and time for the players, like Jose Reyes, to start playing up to their abilities…
…enjoy, and as always, let’s go mets…
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Alright guys, get your act together and play hard and have fun.
Cliff Floyd had knee surgery, I kind of like those Rays, too bad they can never catch a break.
rollins is out tonight
maybe his voodoo curse will end?
Why Claudio Vargas? As soon as Duque gets out of that boot he will be good to go!
Do you guys remember the days when we were worrying who our fifth starter would be, between Pelfrey and El Duque, and when we thought that would be our big problem? Uugh… I miss that.
well its the lineup I wanted to see, hopefully Pagan can spark something.
WIllie said on his Wednesday appearence on the FAN that he has taken Pelfrey aside and told him that it’s time for him to step up and show something. (sorry, not a direct quote, but that is what he intimated)
Maybe he’ll bear down, and maybe the hitters will start hitting and maybe Schowenweiss won’t have to come in.
I want to be positive and hope for the best, but something tells me that the Phillies lineup is too much for Pelfrey and an early exit will mean an exhausted bullpen.
Don`t worry. I talked to some people high up in baseball and the Mets win in a laugher tonight, so just relax and enjoy the game.
My theory on the recent Phillies dominance over our Mets is that the Mets have a physically better overall team, especially in pitching but the Phillies have the oft overlooked intangable advantage of mental acumen, which explains how they are winning alot of these games. I like to draw a Parallel between the Neanderthals (Mets) and Homo Sapians (Phillies), who many archeologists theorize lived at the same time but the Homo Sapiens kept winning, ie. inventing better weapons and eventually putting the physically superior Neandertals out of business until they ceased to exist. I could make player comparisons but I don`t want to embarress anyone. All you have to do is look at Chase Utely’s Albert Einstein like performance yesterday and you can see how the Phillies can play past their stats. Anyway, go Mets!
interesting stat…we last beat philly on june 30th, and pelf pitched and lost the next day, july 1st and that began our 9 game losing streak to them…time to go full circle
GO BIG PELF!! I have my Credit card ready to order a shirt if you win!!
I am excited to see a slight change in lineup. On the fan, Willie said Castillo should be fine but gives players who pull themselves out of a game more than 24 hours to recoop.
With Reyes not getting on base as much as we like, and with Castillo not either, and Pagan stringing together some hits lately.. it would be good to start getting our routine first inning run(s) like we did two years ago and the beginning of last year. It was almost automatic we got Reyes in and it was a good feeling for the team to be up early.
didn’t we set some sort of record for scoring runs in the 1st inning in 06?
Not sure, tried looking around but couldn’t find much. Record or no record I feel that is when we did our best. We had those few come from behind Easley home run wins but we can’t bank on those. The first inning runs is what helped us out the most.
I think we finished 2nd in the mlb, 1st in the NL, which is still very impressive. This team was best when we were scoring early and tacking on late. I think the tacked on runs diminished the ambitions of the other team making our bullpen look better. In any case, scoring early and tacking on late is key to this team getting back in full stride.
I just got through lesson 3 of my Dale Carnegie Course.
Lesson: Enthusiasm. No wait I meant Enthusiasm!!
Now wait, better put….
ENTHUSIASMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Omar, save the season now and find Willie Randolph a Dale Carnegie course going on this week while they are still teaching about
ENTHUSIASMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For goodness sake I live in Philly burbs now and this is killing me!!!!!!
LETS
GO
METS
Maybe it’s just me, but I’d like to see Church hit #2 for a while and see how he does sandwiched between Reyes and Wright. Sure he doesn’t have great speed, but he’s okay out there.
Especially when Castillo is out. Put Church at #2 and Easily behind Delgado and Pagan in the 7th or 8th spot.
Also on an unrelated note. Any word on Ramon Castro?
Great idea. We dont need speed in the two spot, and I’d be fine with church “clogging up the bases” if he can get more fastballs with reyes in front of him, and even better pitches with Wright behind him.
I like Pagan in the 2 hole. He hustles like he is still trying to make the team as evidenced by his beating out a grounder to Utley yesterday. I like that move a lot.
I have zero expectations for this game, other than, the Phillies winning..AGAIN!!!! If the Mets do show up and decide to actually play baseball and WIN A GAME (OMG) then I will rejoice. This team needs to prove to us and themselves that they can win and the they can beat the Phillies. FIRE WILLIE and hire Gary Carter, he knows how to win as a Met.
“we can lay blame on the Willie Randolph and his external message, but what it really comes down to is the players ability to execute”
you are exactly right
This is what I want the conversation on the mound to be when Utley or Howard is up crowding the plate again:
Schnieder: Hit Mr Met.
Pelf: Why?
Schnieder: Just do it.
You get the rest.
As a fan I need them to start playing as angry as I feel.
I need Willie to tell start a fight with the Philly Fanatic then when both of them have been restrained and it looks like its over I need Willie to sucker punch him.
Go Big Pelf
Hahahaha. The mental picture of Randolph dropping the fanatic is hysterical.
Rollins is out - so we have a chance ? oh wait - our $25.0 mm man is out too. What will the offense do without our perfect #2 hitter ? It’s way too early to panic, but it is so f’g frustrating that after 5 games 40% of our fragile rotation is out, our $25m 2bman is out and so is our iron man LF’r….
The fact that it is so predictable is what makes it difficult. Any morons still predicting Petey will throw 200 innings, 10 CG, etc… ??? Anyone not expecting Del Gono to spend a few weeks on the DL, or Carlos II ?
If David or Jose go down, it is time to throw in the towel…. just saying if - not suggesting it will happen.
omg these comments are getting old think of something new
watchin on gamecast since in class…did pagan actually ground out to the pitcher or bunt?
Groundout.
yes he grounded out, the pitcher bobbled it for second so he didn’t have a play on Reyes.
This team does not hit under pressure