The Mets will look to avoid the season sweep against the Cubs today at Citi Field at 1:10 PM.
Here is Thursday’s starting lineup for New York:
Curtis Granderson – RF
Darrell Ceciliani – CF
Daniel Murphy – 3B
Lucas Duda – 1B
Wilmer Flores – SS
Eric Campbell – LF
Johnny Monell – C
Jacob deGrom – RHP
Ruben Tejada – SS
Here is Thursday’s pitching matchup:
Jacob deGrom (8-5, 2.15 ERA) will start for the Mets.
Key matchups vs deGrom:
Kris Bryant: 1-for-2, HR, 2 RBI, BB, K
Anthony Rizzo: 2-for-6, HR, RBI, K
Starlin Castro: 0-for-5, BB, K
Jake Arrieta (7-5, 2.94 ERA) will start for the Cubs.
Key matchups vs Arrieta:
Curtis Granderson: 9-for-26, 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 3 BB, 3 K
Daniel Murphy: 2-for-9, 2 K
Lucas Duda: 4-for-9, 3 BB, 4 K
Here’s what I am looking for from the Mets on Thursday afternoon:
Jacob deGrom will do whatever he can.
DeGrom has been nothing short of stellar for the past few months, and really since the last time he faced these same Cubs at Wrigley Field in early May. I fully expect the ace of this staff to put together another great performance today, but it still may not be enough. Jon Niese and Bartolo Colon combined to pitched 14 innings while allowing one run in the past two games and the team is 0-2.
One measly, king-sized run.
For what seems like the umpteenth time this season, the Mets have not scored a run in their last 20 innings. They’re facing an “okay” Cubs pitching staff, and they really haven’t even come that close to scoring a run in two games in this series. When they have, they miss squeeze bunts and over run the bases.
It’s really been quite inept lately, even more-so than it had been before and it’s getting difficult to watch. The lineup “shakeup” wound up being more of the same for the most part today, but there’s not much that Terry Collins can do. He has to manage the players he has, and right now those players are mostly minor leaguers. They face a good pitcher in Jake Arrieta today, but something’s gotta give and they’ve gotta muster up a run any way they can.
Just Mets 