The Mets will look for a series win against the Marlins on Tuesday night at Marlins Park in Miami at 7:10 PM.
Here is tonight’s starting lineup for New York:
Curtis Granderson RF
Yoenis Cespedes LF
Juan Uribe 3B
Lucas Duda 1B
Travis d’Arnaud C
Wilmer Flores 2B
Ruben Tejada SS
Jonathon Niese LHP
Juan Lagares CF
Here is tonight’s pitching matchup:
Jon Niese (5-9, 3.63 ERA) will start for the Mets.
Brad Hand (1-2, 5.12 ERA) will start for the Marlins.
Here is what I am looking for tonight from the Mets:
More quality from Niese.
Niese has really been an underrated part of the Mets rotation this year, but he’s really put together a string of fantastic starts, minus the one against the Dodgers 12 days ago thanks to the fine distraction of his wife going into labor. He has a 2.58 ERA in his last six starts and has nine quality starts in his last ten dating all the way back to June 5.
He has generally struggled against the Marlins to the tune of a 4.35 ERA in 17 career starts, but this is a depleted Marlins team at the moment, and they’ve struggled all year anyway, and they have struggled against left-handed starting pitching as well. So this is a good opportunity for Niese to right his ship against Miami and help extend the Mets winning streak to five games.
Lefty grooves.
It hasn’t been normal for Terry Collins to have both Lucas Duda and Curtis Granderson in the lineup at the same time when facing a left-handed starting pitcher, but this is a different offense now with which Collins doesn’t have to worry so much about playing match-ups. Besides, with the way the two of them are going, he can’t possibly sit either of them right now.
Hand isn’t exactly dominant against left-handed hitters, but Terry Collins has installed Juan Uribe and Juan Lagares in there anyway to give the Mets more looks from the right side, instead of having four of the eight hitters on the left side against Hand with Murphy and Conforto instead. It’s the beauty of having the versatile roster Collins now enjoys, but hopefully this plan works out and Lagares especially can start to break out of his funk.
Keep on hitting, keep on fielding, keep on winning.
The Mets are on a roll right now, floating on cloud nine with their new acquisitions and inspiring wins over the last four days, they’re going to lose eventually, but it would be a good idea to get those big hits again tonight, play sharp behind Niese, turn those double plays for their groundball specialist, and not have to deal with a rubber game tomorrow ahead of the off-day.
Winning teams take care of their own business, so there is every reason to expect the Mets to do all of the above, right?
Just Mets 