The Mets open a three-game series with the Marlins on Monday night at Marlins Park in Miami at 7:10 PM.
Here is tonight’s starting lineup for New York:
Curtis Granderson – RF
Daniel Murphy – 3B
Yoenis Cespedes – CF
Lucas Duda – 1B
Wilmer Flores – SS
Kelly Johnson – 2B
Travis d’Arnaud – C
Michael Conforto – LF
Bartolo Colon – RHP
Here is tonight’s pitching matchup:
Bartolo Colon (9-10, 4.96 ERA) will start for the Mets.
Tom Koehler (8-7, 3.38 ERA) will start for the Marlins.
Here’s what I’m looking for from the Mets tonight:
No letdowns.
Terry Collins said he would address this with the team this afternoon, but it’s important the Mets don’t show up flat after such a momentous three games against the Nationals over the weekend. They arrived to Miami at around 4:45 AM this morning, so it’s worth addressing with his club.
The Mets are riding high right now. The environment and atmosphere changes for this team, however, as starting tonight, their next six games will be in mostly empty ballparks in Florida.
After all that buzz and emotion over the weekend, I’ll be on the lookout to see if the Mets can harness that energy and use it moving forward, or if there will be a bit of a hangover tonight coming off their recent high.
An important start for Colon.
The Mets have gotten stellar pitching all season long, especially over the last month against the top tiered teams in the National League. However, the one guy who hasn’t performed very well in that time has been Bartolo Colon, and that’s putting it lightly.
Colon has an ERA just shy of 5.00 this season and a 6.16 ERA over his last seven starts. In other words, he has essentially been unreliable for the better part of two months now, his last start against San Diego being very representative of that inconsistency.
This team is in a pennant race right now and tied with the Nationals for first place going into tonight’s game. If Colon continues to put up stinker after stinker, they may not have a choice but to make a decision. They simply can’t afford to have a throwaway game consistently down the stretch of the season.
Start winning on the road.
The Mets have been dreadful away from Citi Field this season. If they’re going to be in the playoffs, that must change going forward. They’re playing two second division teams this week away from Citi Field, so it’s a good time for them to get on the right track and start improving their marks on the road.
Just Mets 