IGT 7/30 - Welcome Back, Carlos... Wait, What?!

[Edgy MD]

Jon Niese opposes Andrew Cashner. Mets who've hit Cashner well include Juan Uribe and Daniel Murphy. Pads who've hit Niese well make for a long list.

Don't have another baby today, Mrs. Niese.

[Guest d'Kong76]

San Diego at NY Mets
When: 12:10 PM ET, Thursday, July 30, 2015
Where: Citi Field, New York City, New York
SportsDirect Inc.

The New York Mets appeared on the verge of landing a new leadoff hitter by the time they took the field Thursday for the rubber match of a three-game series against the visiting San Diego Padres. However, New York general manager Sandy Alderson said after Wednesday's game that a reported deal to acquire Milwaukee's Carlos Gomez will "not transpire," leaving the Mets in search of another bat prior to Friday's trade deadline.

New York managed only five hits in Wednesday's 7-3 loss but three of them were solo homers by Lucas Duda. The first baseman has clubbed six homers in his last four games and became the second player in franchise history with three blasts in one home game. Padres outfielder Justin Upton, another player linked to several trade rumors, homered and drove in three runs as San Diego improved to 7-4 since the All-Star break. Yonder Alonso also went deep among two hits to boost his career batting average against the Mets to .345.

TV: 12:10 p.m. ET, FSN San Diego, SNY (New York)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Padres RH Andrew Cashner (4-10, 3.93 ERA) vs. Mets LH Jonathon Niese (5-9, 3.75)

Cashner, who lost seven of his first eight starts this year, is coming off one of his best outings after limiting Miami to one run over seven innings. It marked the third time in four starts that Cashner has pitched at least seven innings and the fifth straight turn in which he has not surrendered a home run. He suffered a bizarre loss to the Mets on June 1, striking out 12 but allowing six runs and 11 hits in 4 2/3 innings.

With his wife in labor, Niese opted to make his scheduled start on Friday and was promptly rocked for six runs and eight hits over a season-low three innings. That ended a string of eight consecutive quality starts by Niese, who was 2-3 in that span despite allowing a total of 14 earned runs. Niese is 3-2 with a 2.04 ERA in five starts against San Diego but has struggled against Upton, who is 9-for-23 against him.

WALK-OFFS:
1. Mets rookie LF Michael Conforto is 0-for-9 with five strikeouts since his four-hit performance Saturday in his second career game.
2. Padres OF Will Venable and 3B Yangervis Solarte have each hit safely in four straight games.
3. Mets C Travis d'Arnaud (elbow) completed his rehab assignment at Double-A Binghamton on Wednesday and is set to rejoin the Mets.

[Guest d'Kong76]

@cgrand3 RF
Tejada SS
Murphy 2B
Duda 1B
Uribe 3B
@mconforto8 LF
@kplawecki26 C
Niese P
@juanlagares2 CF

@kcmets #cpftoocool

[Frayed Knot]

Flores not in the lineup ... THERE'S A DEAL BREWING!!!!

[Centerfield]

Where's d'Arnaud? Didn't they say his rehab was over?

[Edgy MD]

Expected to be activated for Friday's game.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Upton, CF
Norris, 1B
Kemp, RF
Upton, LF
Solarte, 3B
Gyorko, 2B
Hedges, C
Barmes, SS
Cashner, P

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

VENABLE NOT IN LINEUP!!!!11

[Frayed Knot]

In the meantime, we have to put away trade talk and win this frickin' game.
With the Nats & Marlins also playing at noon today, this is not only for the series win but we're either going to be 1 game or 3 games out about 3 hours from now - and not coincidently it dictates how we go into the weekend series vs the Nats.

[Edgy MD]

Weirdest morning-after-the-night-before day-game atmosphere at Citi Field since the Mets took the field with K-Rod in the pokey.

[Guest d'Kong76]

The campers don't care so long as the hot dogs and soda
keep on flowing!

[Guest d'Kong76]

And ice cream!!!

[ashie62]

Lets just win the series and move on to the next one.

[Guest themetfairy]

Granderson scores on Muffy's sac fly - 1-0 Mets.

And Tejada makes a beautiful play at short in the top of the second, making it two outs with a runner on first as opposed to one out with runners on first and second.

[Edgy MD]

Melvin Upton, Jr. still strikes me as the name of somebody who fronts a tasteful little jazz combo.

[fimg=400:18c1sf52]http://artisanage.com/sax/img/galleryAlto/BlackWhiteSaxman2.jpg[/fimg:18c1sf52]

Originals and reworkings of standards. The Melvin Upton, Jr., trio. You should hear their take on "Snowbird."

[nymr83]

i hope this game ends on a Flores-pinchhit-walkoff-homerun. i just do.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

I love Mets games with lots of campers in attendance.

[Edgy MD]

Five innings of shutout ball in. Looks like Good Niese is back.

[Edgy MD]

Curtis Granderson: Decidely un-sucky.

And don't be so quick to absolve the journalists, Howie. They stated something as fact that wasn't.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Ka-blam-derson!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

And Good Curtis refuses to leave.

I mean, DAMN.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Edgy MD wrote: Curtis Granderson: Decidely un-sucky. And don't be so quick to absolve the journalists, Howie. They stated something as fact that wasn't.

Right? The key bad-information mistake here was that Sherman broke the news SANS "pending physical."

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

In Sherm's defense, he added those 2 words moments later.

[Guest themetfairy]

I'm still casting blame on Jay Horwitz for failing to put the brakes on the story while everyone (including the Mets broadcast teams) was reporting it as a done deal. He could have substantially slowed down this train wreck while it was in progress.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Maybe this all started when Jay butt-dialed someone.

[Guest themetfairy]

Great - Niese looks ready to give back the lead....

[Edgy MD]

Don't warm Robles. Warm up Clippard. That's what he's here for.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

This would have been a great place to pitcher-abuse Big Bank Jank.

But hey! No need to be morose, sez Rube.

[Edgy MD]

RUBBLE PLAY!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Hey, they're doing that Orosco-on-his-knees bobble head idea we talked about before!