Life in baseball goes on after Atlanta split the series with the Nats and now the Mets come to town for a weekend series. New York is 11-15 4-7 Road and ended it six game losing streak this week and looks to peg back to back road wins tonight in 12 road game stretch. New York has scored 29 Runs and batting .194 in last 10 games and will face and Atlanta team who has offensive troubles also dropping six of eight overall. Minor is 3-2 3.13 ERA and coming off worst outing of the season where Minor allowed six Runs on six Hits with 2 HR vs. Detroit. Minor did win three of four of his first starts of the season and Atlanta has won five of six of Minor's starts vs. New York even with Minor's 6.03 ERA in this matchup. John Buck with 9 HR's and 27 RBI's is hitless in eight career At Bats vs. Minor. Marcum is 0-2 7.94 ERA but had 18 K's allowing five Runs in 10 Innings Pitched in two games in this matchup last season. C. Johnson is .369 but is 1 for 12 with five K's vs. Marcum. Atlanta will have to improve on Runners In Scoring Position as only three baserunners were in scoring position last night. Atlanta with 39 HR's but also 250+K's on the season so baserunners are a must when the Big Bats of Upton, Gattis and Uggla come up in the order. Atlanta has hit the Mets well with a .292 average 9 HR's and 52 RBI's while winning seven of eight at Turner Field and will have to resort back to fundamental hitting to break out of their current offensive slump. The Mets are coming to town and primed to steal one from Atlanta so Minor has to regain his early season form and Atlanta Batters have to find a solution for the strkeout problem. If Atlanta can put this A and B together they have much better chances of improving on their 12 of 14 in this matchup overall. Chipper Jones had big games vs. New York in his career. The time has now come for a new generation Atlanta Player to establish a tradition of coming up big vs. the Mets. Minor, Kimbrel, Upton and Gattis have the potential to be that new generation player and their legacy could start tonight. Source: ESPN And USA Today MLB Preview.
