The New York Mets have gotten off to an inauspicious start to the 2011 campaign, but things are looking good right now as the Mets are on a four-game winning streak heading into Tuesday night’s game which opens a three-game series in Washington. The Nationals are 1.5 games ahead of the last-place Mets in the National League East, so if New York can stay hot, they can pull themselves out of the division cellar.

One of the Mets’ major problems is their pitching, from the starters to the bullpen, and that’s not going to be good for their baseball betting odds. The Mets have just eight quality starts, three of which have come from the 1-3 Jonathon Niese, they have converted 63% of their save opportunities, they’ve given up 22 homers and their 85 walks are second in the National League. We have no idea when lefty Johan Santana is going to be available to pitch, and there were whispers that the two-time Cy Young winner won’t come back at all in 2011. Chris Young has been their best pitcher, by far, but everyone knows he is just one sneeze away from going back to the disabled list.

Offensively, the Mets are decent, although there is room for improvement. Jose Reyes looks like he’s close to his 2005-2008 form, before injuries slowed him down. Ike Davis, Carlos Beltran and David Wright are all hitting the ball well, and Beltran is the real surprise here as no one knew what to expect after knee problems. Jason Bay has come off the disabled list and he looks like he has some of his power back, which the Mets need. But power isn’t completely necessary if the Mets, led by Reyes, can continue to steal bases, and they’re currently third in the National League in that category.

However, it doesn’t matter how many runs the Mets score, their pitching has to improve, especially in a division with Philadelphia and their star-studded rotation, not to mention Atlanta, Florida and even Washington, who all rank in the top six in the league in ERA (the Mets are 13th). Keep an eye on the pitching staff in New York.

Saturday nights loss was a bad one for the New York Mets as they gave up single runs in the eighth and ninth innings and the Flordia Marlins finished off the comeback with a 4-3 victory over the Mets. When you are in a playoff race like the Mets are right now, you can’t be losing games like that.

With the Mets up 3-0 on a two-run home run by David Wright and a rbi single by Luis Castillo, the Marlins started their comeback in the sixth inning. Dan Uggla singled to center field off of Mike Pelfrey to score the first two Marlins run. Then in the eighth inning, MIke Jacobs hit a solo home run to tie the game. In the ninth it was Aaron Heilman who walked in the game winning run to give the Marlins the 4-3 victory.

With the loss and a Phillies win, the Mets are only up one game in the division. Pedro Martinez will get the start on the mound Sunday so hopefully we will see a Mets victory.

Now there is a win that the New York Mets can really build off of.  They battled back and scored one run in the ninth inning and then another one in the tenth inning as they beat the Los Angeles Angels 5-4 in ten innings of action.  Huge win for the team and hopefully it will give them some good confidence.

Damion Easley hit the game winning home run in the top of the tenth inning to give the Mets the lead.  Prior to the home run, David Wright singled in Jose Reyes to tie the game at 4-4 in the top of the ninth inning.  Wright and Easley came up huge for the Mets!

Wright led the Mets at the plate with two rbi while Easley, Marlon Anderson, and Carlos Delgado all had one rbi each.  Delgado’s rbi came off a solo home run in the fourth inning.

Duaner Sanchez ended up getting the victory and is now 3-0 on the season.  Billy Wagner shut the door on the Angles in the bottom of the tenth inning to record his 16th save of the season.  Mets starting pitcher Oliver Perez pitched six inning while allowing nine his and four runs to get the no decision.

The Mets and Angels will play once again on Thursday.  The winner will win the series and it could be a huge step for the Mets if they can come away with the victory.

Mets Blog

A new manager, the same outcome that most Mets fans have come accustomed to this season.  Jerry Manuel’s first game as interim manager of the Mets didn’t go as he had hoped as the Mets were beaten by the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-1 on Tuesday night.  It was supposed to be a big pitchers duel between John Lackey and Johan Santana but Lackey got the best of the Mets while Santana gave up three early runs.

Santana gave up three runs in the first inning as the Mets fell behind early in the game.  An error in the first by Carlos Delgado helped the Angels in the first inning but Santana was still having problems without that error.  Santana ended up throwing six innings and giving up eight hits and five runs (four earned).  Jeff Mathis took Santana deep in the sixth inning as well.

Aaron Heilman and Claudio Vargas both pitched one inning in relief. Heilman pitched a scoreless seventh inning but Vargas gave up a run in the eighth inning on a infield single.

The one run for the Mets came in the first inning when David Wright grounded into a double play that scored Damion Easley.  Easley was pitch running for Jose Reyes who left the game in the first inning with some tightness in his left hamstring.  Hopefully Reyes won’t be out too long but you never know with a hammy.

Mets Blog

Talk about an ending that you usually don’t see in a baseball game.  Mets relief pitcher Scott Schoeneweis hit Paul McAnulty with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Mets lost to the Padres 2-1.  Very dissapointing outcome to a low scoring game.

Schoeneweis took the loss as he walked the bases loaded in the ninth inning before hitting McAnulty.  About the worst thing happened for Schoeneweis, you never want to walk the bases loaded.

Mike Pelfrey got the start for the Mets and pitched six innings.  He gave up eight hits and one run in a pretty good outing.  Pedro Feliciano, Joe Smith, and Duaner Sanchez all seen action in the game as well out of the bullpen.

The one Mets run came in the sixth inning when David Wright singled in Jose Reyes.  The Mets really struggled at the plate as they only had five hits the entire game.  They really need to start swinging the bat better and putting the ball in play.

Mets Blog

The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants 5-3 on Wednesday afternoon and with the victory they won the three game series by taking two out of three games.  The Mets now have won two straight games and are two games over .500 at 30-28 on the season.

John Maine threw six innings while giving up seven hits and two runs to get the victory.  Maine stepped up big for the Mets and recorded his sixth win of the season.  Duaner Sanchez pitched seventh and eighth innings and allowed one run and then turned things over to Billy Wagner in the ninth who shut the Giants down and recorded his 13th save of the season.

At the plate for the Mets, they got three runs in the first inning and than two more in the fourth inning for all of their scoring.  In the first inning, Carlos Beltran doubled to score Jose Reyes and David Wright.  Beltran then came around to score on a rbi single by Carlos Delgado.  In the fourth inning, it was a two run home run by Reyes that scored both runs.

Reyes and Beltran both finished the game with two rbi while Delgado had one rbi.

The Mets will start a four game series with the San Diego Padres on Thursday.

Mets Blog

The New York Mets used a huge fifth inning where they scored eight runs to defeat the San Francisco Giants by the score of 9-6.  It was awesome to see Pedro Martinez back on the mound and even getting a couple of hits in the game!  It was good win for the Mets, who really need to string together four or five wins in a row.

Martinez tossed six innings and gave up seven hits and three runs to get his first win of the season.  Martinez also had two hits and an rbi at the plate.  Maybe he was working on his batting all this time he was on the disabled list lol.

Joe Smith and Pedro Feliciano both threw scoreless innings after Pedro left the game but then the Mets called on Scott Schoeneweis who let three runs score and make the game a lot closer then it should have been.  Billy Wagner was able to record the last two outs of the game and pick up his 12th save.

Damion Easley was the big man at the plate for the Mets as he finished with three rbi while going 3-4.  While Easley had three rbi, it was six other Mets players that all chipped in with one rbi each.  Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Ryan Church, Carlos Delgado, and Martinez all had one rbi.  That is a lot of production up and down the lineup.

The Mets will play the Giants once again on Wednesday as they play an afternoon game out in San Francisco.  Mets Blog

The New York Mets got rocked on Monday night as the San Francisco Giants beat up on them by the score of 10-2.  The Giants came out and put up six quick runs in the first inning that put the Mets in a big hole that they were unable to get out of.  Talk about a knock out punch right away in the game.

Oliver Perez had a terrible outing as he gave up six runs on five hits while only record one out in the first inning.  Perez gave up two home runs and walked two batters.  That is exactly what you don’t want your starting pitcher to do.

So the bullpen was called on early in the game and Claudio Vargas came in and pitched 4 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball.  Vargas did a ver good job for the Mets.  Carlos Muniz then came into the game and gave up four runs on six hits over 1 2/3 innings.  Once Muniz gave up the four runs, it was all but over for the Mets.

The Mets offense was only able to record six hits in the game.  Usually Giants pitchers give up quite a few hits, but the Mets offense was so bad last night they were lucky to get six.  Jose Reyes and Luis Castillo both had rbi’s for the the Mets.  Reyes had a rbi double in the second inning and Castillo had a rbi single in the fourth inning.

The Mets will try to get back on track as they play the Giants once again on Tuesday.  The Mets are needed to pick up a win as they are back at .500 with a 28-28 record.

Mets Blog

The New York Mets outhit the Washington Nationals by two hits but they were no where close to that on the scoreboard as they lost 10-4 on Monday night.  Mets pitchers allowed the Nationals to score in all but three innings in the game.

Nelson Figueroa started the game and threw five innings while giving up five hits and six runs.  Figueroa took the loss as his record dropped to 2-3 on the season.  Jorge Sosa came in to pitcher after Figueroa and he gave up another four runs in the game in only one inning of action.  Duaner Sanchez, Joe Smith, and Billy Wagner all threw one inning each and did not allow one run.  Good job by those there pitchers.

Damion Easley and David Wright both hit solo home runs in the game.  Easley also had a rbi single to finish the game with two rbi.  Carlos Beltran also had a rbi single in the first inning for the Mets.

The Mets are now three full games out of first place behind the Florida Marlins.  Can the Mets rebound and win the next four games against the Nationals?  I see them winning two, but losing one more.

Mets Blog

The New York Mets opened a two game series against the Washington Nationals looking to stop their losing streak at three.  The Mets did just that winning tonight behind ace Johan Santana 7-3.   Santana was stellar, throwing 97 pitches in 7 innings, he gave up 2 runs on 7 hits, 1 walk, and 4 strike outs, and he also had some success at the plate hitting two doubles on the night.  The Nationals two runs came on the only misstep by Santana when he left a fastball over the plate giving up a two run double to pitcher Tim Redding.  Interesting note, up to this point the eight inning had belonged to Aaron Heilman, he was replaced tonight by Duaner Sanchez who tossed a scoreless frame, is this a sign of things to come? 

Brian Schneider returned to the line up after sitting out the past three games with a sore forearm that he injured in the second game against the Phillies.  Manager Willie Randolph looked to shake things up and did that by moving Ryan Church into the five hole and dropping Carlos Delgado to sixth in the line up.   This move seemed to benefit Carlos Beltran as he was 2-3 with a walk, single, and double  

The excitement happened in the sixth when Carlos Beltran started the inning off with a single, and scored on a ball hit by Ryan Church, who moved to third on a throwing error by Ryan Zimmerman.  Church would come in to score on a single by Angel Pagan who stole both second and third and then scored on Schneider’s groundout.  The Mets scored two late on a long single by Ryan Church.

The Mets and the Nats wrap things up tomorrow night. 

 Mets Blog