The New York Mets (63-52) open up a three game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates (66-46) on Friday night at Citi Field. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 and the pitching matchup will be Bartolo Colon against J.A. Happ.
The Mets are currently in first place in the NL East by a season high tying 4.5 games over the Washington Nationals. The Pirates are currently in second place in the NL Central, six games behind the St. Louis Cardinals but are currently 1.5 games ahead of the Chicago Cubs for the first wild-card spot in the National League.
The Mets and Pirates met in Pittsburgh for a three game series at the end of May a series in which the Pirates completely dominated. The Pirates won all three games and outscored the Mets 21-4 in the sweep.
Since that meeting though the Mets are a completely different team as they have bolstered their lineup by trading for Juan Uribe, Kelly Johnson and Yoenis Cespedes. Since the trade for Uribe and Johnson the Mets lead the National League in runs with well over five per game. The Mets are coming off a four game sweep of the Colorado Rockies where they outscored them 23-5 in the series.
Colon started off the year well but has been struggling especially lately. He is 10-11 with a 4.76 ERA on the season but has an incredible strikeout to walk ratio as he has only walked 14 batters in 134 1/3 innings this season.
The Pirates are coming off a series loss to the division leading Cardinals but were able to salvage one game in the series on Thursday. Andrew McCutchen has been raging hot since a slow start to the season and is definitely back in MVP form as he is hitting .299 with 18 home runs and 77 RBI (which is top 5 in the National League.) Along with McCutchen getting hot, rookie Gregory Polanco has been hitting well lately. In his last 25 games Polanco is hitting .336 with three homers and 13 RBI.
J.A. Happ will be making his second start for the Pirates on Friday night after he was acquired from the Seattle Mariners at the trade deadline. In his first start with the Pirates Happ allowed four runs in 4 1/3 innings to the Cubs.
With both the Mets and the Pirates in the middle of a pennant race this is a big series for both sides. The Mets want to be able to maintain their lead in the East while the Pirates try to maintain their wild card spot and catch the Cardinals in the Central. This will be the last series between New York and Pittsburgh this season.
Check out the live stream for tonight game here or listen on the radio here for the Pirates and here for the Mets.
