The Mets will look to take the rubber game of their three-game series with the Padres on Thursday afternoon at 1:10 PM at Citi Field.
Here is today’s starting lineup for New York:
Curtis Granderson – RF
Ruben Tejada – SS
Daniel Murphy – 2B
Lucas Duda – 1B
Juan Uribe – 3B
Michael Conforto – LF
Kevin Plawecki – C
Jonathon Niese – LHP
Juan Lagares – CF
Here is today’s pitching matchup:
Jon Niese (5-9, 3.75 ERA) will start for the Mets.
Andrew Cashner (4-10, 3.93 ERA) will start for the Padres.
Here’s what I am looking for from the Mets today:
The Mets have a series to win.
There is a very distracted feeling and tone around the team today when in fact this is a crucial game for the club to win. It would be a series win against a sub-.500 team at home, and it’s just something they cannot let slip away, especially since a lot of the discussion has been about how soft the Mets schedule is down the stretch of the season.
Terry Collins has a tall task to get his troops refocused after a circus at the ballpark last night, and a very un-talked about loss which has forced a rubber game this afternoon. It will be interesting to see how the club responds on the field, and whether or not they’re lacking the energy necessary to win.
A bounce back from Jon Niese.
Niese was a little distracted in his last start as his wife was moments away from delivering their first baby. It’s quite understandable for sure. Today is a different story, and presumably his head will be in the right place to get back on the outstanding track he had been on before last Friday’s start.
Change the discussion.
Winning solves every single problem imaginable, and doing so today would refocus the attention to what’s going on in between the lines rather than on the rumor mill.
Presumably, anyway.
The negative discussion, whispers, and gossip about the team is all solvable by winning this series this afternoon.
Just Mets 