Just Mets

The Mets will play the second game of their four-game series with the Diamondbacks tonight at 9:40 PM ET at Chase Field in Phoenix.

Here is tonight’s starting lineup for New York:

Curtis Granderson – RF
Ruben Tejada – 2B
Lucas Duda – 1B
Michael Cuddyer – LF
Wilmer Flores – SS
Juan Lagares – CF
Eric Campbell – 3B
Anthony Recker – C
Jonathon Niese – LHP

Here is tonight’s pitching matchup:

Jon Niese (3-5, 4.42 ERA) will start for the Mets.

Career vs. Arizona: 2-2, 6.67 ERA, 5 starts
Career at Chase Field: 1-1, 6.88 ERA, 3 starts

Key matchups vs. Niese:

Paul Goldschmidt: 1-for-5, BB, RBI
Wellington Castillo: 2-for-8, HR, RBI
Gerald Laird: 5-for-13, 2 2B, 2 RBI
AJ Pollack:  2-for-3

Jeremy Hellickson (3-3, 5.08 ERA) will start for the Diamondbacks.

Career vs. New York: 0-1, 19.64 ERA, 1 start
Career at Chase Field: 1-3, 7.04 ERA, 6 starts

Key matchups vs. Hellickson:

Curtis Granderson: 2-for-15, 2B, HR
Michael Cuddyer: 2-for-8, 2B, HR
Lucas Duda: 1-for-2, 2B, 3 RBI

Here’s what I’m looking for tonight from the Mets:

Jon Niese needs to step up, quick.

Rich MacLeod talked about this at length earlier today, but Niese has made four poor starts in a row, and it’s time for him to step up and give the Mets some quality length and a win tonight. All of his pitches have been way up in the zone with not a lot of life lately, and the opposition has absolutely clobbered him over the last month’s worth of starts.

Five of the eight home runs he’s allowed have come in his last four starts, and just hasn’t fooled anyone with his curve and cutter during that span, and has been leaving a flat two-seamer over the middle of the plate with regularity. So, the location of his pitches early should help determine how the night is going to go for him.

Who is going to hit?

The Mets lost Daniel Murphy to the disabled list for the foreseeable future, leaving not much offense for the club to work with. There’s clearly going to be a revolving door of Daniel Muno and Eric Campbell, at third base, at least until Dilson Herrera comes back potentially within a week.

But, unless the Mets acquire some big league replacements to their injured players, the offense might be even more difficult to watch now than it has been at any point during the season to date.

Button things up.

With no consistency in the lineup, the Mets simply cannot afford to kick and throw the ball around, make mistakes on the bases, throw to the wrong bases, not execute bunts, and other things they’ve struggled with so far this season. They just have to play better and minimize the mistakes so to keep themselves in these ballgames, and not let the floodgates open to the point they have no shot of hitting their way back.