Just Mets

The Mets play Game 2 of their three-game series against the Marlins today at Citi Field at 4:10 PM.

Here is tonight’s starting lineup for New York:

Curtis Granderson – RF
Ruben Tejada – 3B
Lucas Duda – 1B
Daniel Murphy – 2B
Michael Cuddyer – LF
Wilmer Flores – SS
Juan Lagares – CF
Kevin Plawecki – C
Jon Niese – LHP

Here is tonight’s pitching matchup:

Jon Niese (3-5, 4.08 ERA) will start for the Mets.

Key matchups vs. Niese:

Michael Morse: 4-for-22, 3 2B, RBI, 5 K
Adeiny Hechavarria: 4-for-14, 3B, RBI
Giancarlo Stanton: 11-for-27, 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 2 BB, 8 K
Tom Koehler (3-3, 3.44 ERA) will start for the Marlins.

Key matchups vs. Koehler:

Lucas Duda: 2-for-20, 2B, RBI, 4 BB, 4 K
Daniel Murphy: 6-for-24, HR, 3 RBI, 2 K
Ruben Tejada: 5-for-18, 3 2B, 4 RBI, 2 BB

Here’s what I am looking for today:

Show me something, Jon Niese.

After a strong start start to his season, it’s been a really rough go of it for Jon Niese lately. After allowing four earned runs on seven hits and four walks in 4.1 IP in his last start, Niese now has an ERA of 5.10 in May and has allowed 46 total baserunners (38 hits, eight walks) in 30 IP this month. The Mets, who are 1-4 in his starts this month, desperately need a good performance out of the left-hander today. While the rotation is anchored by Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom, and is also getting strong performances from rookie Noah Syndergaard, they also have a struggling Bartolo Colon and Dillon Gee who is coming off of the disabled list. Pitching is this team’s strength, but they need to get more what they got out of Niese earlier this season–who was 2-1 with a 2.74 ERA in April–in order to succeed.

Daniel Murphy is back.

Things were looking bleak when Daniel Murphy was hitting just .198 through the first month of the year, but this past month it has been a completely different story for the Mets second baseman. This month, Murph is batting .347/.392/.442 with six doubles, a home run, 12 RBI and an .834 OPS. He’s always been a streaky hitter, and this latest hot streak couldn’t have come at a better time for this team. The Mets have gone 9-12 in May, and that’s with Murphy hitting far better than anyone on this team in that stretch. Imagine where this team would be without him. Murph hit a big RBI double in the 9th inning of last night’s game, which gave the Mets a chance and, while they were unable to complete the comeback, it’s hits like those that this team could use a lot more of.