Series Preview: Braves vs Mets

Here we are again.  Series preview Deja… Mets.

The Braves were handed their first loss in 10 days on Sunday by the arm of Wade Miley and one crack of the bat from All-Star Paul Goldschmidt. Included in that 9 game winning streak of course, was a series sweep against the New York Mets.

The Braves turn right around and hit the road and their first stop is to Flushing to attempt to sweep the legs right under the Mets once again.  And as you can imagine, not a lot has changed since I last tackled this team.

Last weeks hilarious Mike Minor vs Dice-K game gets a rematch, and hopefully it goes a little better for the still struggling Mike Minor. Minor has had a bit of trouble missing bats, as he has given up 87 hits in 70.1 innings.  It’s eerily reminiscent of his 2012 first half, where he tallied an ERA over 5 before doing a complete 180 and being a dominant pitcher for the next year and a half.  This side showed when he struggled in and couldn’t complete the 5th inning in that game.  The hilarious part is that Matsuzaka was just bad enough for the Braves to win, surrendering 5 runs in as many innings.  The only highlight of the game for the Mets were the 3 very strong relief innings from Carlos Torres, one of the few bright spots in the Mets bullpen this year.

All-Star and ace Julio Teheran will bring his crafty brand of pitching to Citi Field against Jacob deGrom, who put up the biggest fight for New York last week in Atlanta.  deGrom lasted only 5 innings, but struck out 8 while walking only 2 and really only faltered in the first inning.

Dillon Gee is scheduled to make his first start in nearly a month against the Braves, after going on the DL with a strained right lat muscle.   Gee was off to another one of his solid-good, not great-okay-kinda-sorta seasons once again, defying the odds and countering his lack of muscle in his pitching with a low walk rate and a solid 40.9 GB%.  This dangerous finesse has earned Gee a 2.95 ERA vs the Braves in 73.1 innings over a dozen starts in the past, so the most work might be cut out for Atlanta in game 3 of this series.

Overall, there isn’t much reason to fear this won’t be another productive series for Atlanta.  The Mets aren’t any different than 5 days ago, which makes them a worse team than the Braves and a near definite series win.

Game 1:

7:10 PM EST, Monday, July 7th

Probables:  Mike Minor (2-5, 4.73 ERA) vs Daisuke Matsuzaka (3-3, 3.72 ERA)

Game 2:

7:10 PM EST, Tuesday, July 8th

Probables:  Julio Teheran (8-5, 2.29 ERA) vs Jacob deGrom (1-5, 3.77 ERA)

Game 3:

7:10 PM EST, Wednesday, July 9th

Probables:  Ervin Santana (7-5, 3.93 ERA) vs Dillon Gee (3-1, 2.73 ERA)

Game 4:

7:10 PM EST, Thursday, July 10th

Probables:  Aaron Harang (8-6, 3.67 ERA) vs Bartolo Colon (8-7, 4.04 ERA)