The Mets move on to Turner Field to kick off their three-game series with the Braves tonight at 8:50 PM at Turner Field in Atlanta.
Here is today’s starting lineup for the Mets:
1) Curtis Granderson RF
2) David Wright 3B
3) John Mayberry, Jr. LF
4) Michael Cuddyer 1B
5) Daniel Murphy 2B
6) Juan Lagares CF
7) Travis d’Arnaud C
8) Wilmer Flores SS
9) Jon Niese LHP
Here are today’s pitching matchups:
Jon Niese (9-11, 3.40 ERA in 2014) will start for the Mets. As one of the veterans of this pitching staff, Niese looks to kick-off his 2015 campaign the right way against Atlanta. Despite the losing record, Jon had a pretty good season in 2014, posting a 3.40 ERA and pitching 187.2 innings, the second highest number of innings in his career after pitching 190.1 in 2012. He allowed three earned runs or less in 27 of his 30 starts in 2014, third most in the National League, and has allowed three earned runs or less in 30 of his last 33 starts, dating back to September 13, 2013. He has a 3.21 ERA in 224 innings over 35 starts since that date. Niese has to make sure he goes over the top with his pitches, something we saw him go back-and-forth with this spring, but despite that, he was very productive in March as he pitched to a 1.65 ERA in 16.1 innings pitched.
Key matchups vs. Niese:
Freddie Freeman: 10-for-37, 2 HR.
Jonny Gomes: 5-for-9, 1 HR
Chris Johnson: 7-for-21, 2 doubles.
Eric Stults (8-17, 4.30 ERA in 2014) will start for the Braves. Signed in the offseason by Atlanta, the left-handed Stults really struggled with the Padres last season. Stults isn’t a strike out pitcher, registering only 111 K’s in 176 innings pitched (5.68 K/9), but he doesn’t walk many batters either, allowing 45 bases on balls (2.30 BB/9) last season. Stults’ real issue in 2014 was how hard he was hit around, allowing 197 hits last year, good for a .283 opponents batting average.
Key matchups vs. Stults:
John Mayberry, Jr: 4-for-8, 3 doubles.
Lucas Duda: 1-for-4, 2 K’s.
David Wright: 3-for-7, 4 BB.
Michael Cuddyer: 0-for-6, 4 walks, 1 K.
Can the Mets take care of business?
The Braves might be off to a 3-0 start after sweeping the Marlins, but let’s make no mistake, this simply isn’t a good baseball team. After trading away Melvin Upton, Jr., Evan Gattis and Craig Kimbrel, the Braves have little to fear in this offense. Yeah, Met-killer Freddie Freeman is still in the heart of that line-up, but with the severe lack of talent around him, I wouldn’t expect the Mets to give him anything good to hit this season.
The Mets on the other hand have much higher expectations than the suddenly rebuilding Braves, and are off to a 2-1 start after taking two of three from the Nationals. Mets pitching has been great so far this year, as the team has a collective ERA of 2.00 after three games. I would hope and quite honestly expect that to continue, even with the bottom of their rotation going in Atlanta this weekend.
Good teams beat the teams they’re supposed to, and the Braves are one of those teams.
Jeurys Familia’s new, temporary role.
With Jenrry Mejia sidelined with a sore elbow, Jeurys Familia is the Mets closer right now. Any questions about Familia’s velocity after this spring have been silenced as in two appearances so far he’s consistently hit 95-97 MPH with his fastball. His outing on Opening Day was a spotless 1-2-3 inning, but he did allow a run in his inning of work vs. the Nationals on Thursday, appearing in the 9th in a non-save situation.
Familia has the velocity and the stuff to succeed as a closer, and there was a contingent of people who wanted him to be the closer even before Mejia went down, so while temporary, I do expect him to succeed in this limited role and who knows, maybe he winds up stealing it at the end of the day.
Who’s got the power?
The Mets are one of five teams in the game without a home run this season. It’s only been three games and they faced some outstanding pitching in Washington this week, but it would be nice to see the Mets show off some of the power they put on display in Spring Training, during which they hit 39 home runs.
John Mayberry Jr. gets his first start.
In what was not totally unexpected, Mayberry will get his first start of the season, with Cuddyer playing first and Lucas Duda getting a night off against the left-hander Stults. Mayberry has excellent numbers against Stults and he has hardly seen any action over the first three games of the year. Terry Collins said last week it was important to find some at-bats for Mayberry early on, and the Mets will be facing a lefty in three of their next six games, so he will get an opportunity to play over that time, presumably.
Just Mets 