The Mets open a three-game series against the Pirates tonight at PNC Park in Pittsburgh at 7:05 PM.
Here is tonight’s starting lineup for New York:
Curtis Granderson – RF
Eric Campbell – 3B
Lucas Duda – 1B
Michael Cuddyer – LF
Daniel Murphy – 2B
Wilmer Flores – SS
Juan Lagares – CF
Kevin Plawecki – C
Noah Syndergaard – RHP
Noah Syndergaard (1-1, 3.18 ERA) will start for the Mets.
Gerrit Cole (5-2, 2.40 ERA) will start for the Pirates.
Key matchups vs. Cole:
Eric Campbell: 1-for-2, 2B, RBI
Lucas Duda: 1-for-3
Daniel Murphy: 1-for-6, 2 RBI
Here’s what I’m looking for from the Mets tonight:
Lucas Duda: Run producer.
There’s no question that Lucas Duda has been the Mets best hitter in 2015, and games like yesterday’s vs. the Cardinals enforce that. In the win, Duda hit two long home runs, both against left-handed pitchers (Jaime Garcia and Randy Choate), both on first pitches and drove in four of the Mets five runs. Duda got off to a slow start power wise, as even after yesterday he has just five home runs–the same number of home runs he had this time last year, by the way, per Maggie Wiggin)–but I suspect he’s going to have a big summer. With little protection in the lineup, he’s hitting, both righties and lefties and while he has five home runs he leads the team in extra-base hits. If Duda can build off of games like yesterday and continue to be a run producer, the Mets should have a great shot at a win.
Is Michael Cuddyer heating up?
While he’s only hitting .253/.319/.363 with five doubles and three home runs this season, Michael Cuddyer appears to be poised for a hot streak. In the past week Cuddyer is 9-for-26 (.346) at the plate with five RBI and has raised his batting average by 20 points. With Duda hitting as he’s done all season and Curtis Granderson producing as well, the Mets could have themselves a hot hitting offensive trio if Cuddyer heats up, even with the absences of David Wright and Travis d’Arnaud.
Show them why you’re here, Noah.
There’s been a lot of speculation lately about what the Mets will do when Dillon Gee returns from his stint on the disabled list. While he’s only made a pair of starts entering tonight’s game, I find it hard to believe that the team will opt to send Noah Syndergaard back down to Triple-A after what we’ve seen. His fastball has been electric, consistently hitting 98 MPH and his patent-pending “hook from hell” curveball has been devastating at times. Syndergaard has shown the ability to not only overpower hitters in each of his first two starts, but work out of jams as well. I expect another strong performance by Thor tonight–after what we’ve seen, frankly it’s hard not to.
Just Mets 