New York @ San Diego preview
Petco Park
Last Meeting ( Aug 9, 2009 ) NY Mets 5, San Diego 1
The New York Mets might have lucked their way into a stellar starting pitcher.
Of course, two good outings in a row doesn’t assure a season’s worth of quality starts but Hisanori Takahashi’s 12 scoreless innings have opened eyes as well as stifling opponents’ bats.
Takahashi will look for a third consecutive standout performance on Monday night when the Mets visit the San Diego Padres in the opener of a three-game series.
The 35-year-old left-hander was signed by the Mets in the offseason after pitching nine seasons in Japan. He was pitching in relief for the Mets until injuries (John Maine, shoulder and Jonathon Niese, hamstring) and ineffectiveness (Oliver Perez) led to a starting opportunity against the New York Yankees on May 21.
Helped by his hesitation motion that throws off the timing of hitters and makes his deceptive changeup doubly difficult, Takahashi blanked the Yankees on five hits over six innings to earn a second start. The follow-up outing was just as good as Takahashi again gave up just five hits in six innings in beating the Philadelphia Phillies.
Takahashi struck out 11 and walked just one in those 12 innings, continuing a trend of striking out more than one batter per inning. For the season, Takahashi (4-1) has fanned 44 batters in 38 innings to go with a 2.13 ERA.
The matchup against the Padres should be interesting as San Diego has struggled on the offensive side and its top hitter has fallen into a slump.
First baseman Adrian Gonzalez is in a 3-for-25 slump (.120) since winning National League Player of the Week honors the previous week. And whenever the left-handed Gonzalez isn’t hitting, it becomes even harder for the Padres to score runs.
San Diego has an NL-best 30-20 record but the impressive mark is primarily because of pitching, defense and speed (the Padres lead the NL with 54 steals).
Kevin Correia draws the start for the Padres and he hasn’t won since April 28.
Correia (4-4, 4.03 ERA) threw six shutout innings against the St. Louis Cardinals in his last start but wasn’t involved in the decisions.
The Padres have scored 38 runs in Correia’s four victories and scored just seven runs in his four defeats.
Correia is 0-3 lifetime against the Mets even though he has an impressive 1.63 ERA.
New York has struggled on the road this season with a 7-16 record. However, the Mets did match season-high totals for runs (10) and hits (16) on Sunday while winning at Milwaukee.
Catcher Rod Barajas (10 homers) is the club’s surprising home run leader. Third baseman David Wright has just one homer in his last 22 games and left fielder Jason Bay has just three all season - two coming in the same May 23 game against the Yankees.
The Mets do feature two outfielders in the midst of hot streaks: Angel Pagan (13-for-33) and Jeff Francoeur (10-for-19). However, Pagan is just an .091 career hitter against San Diego.