St. Louis @ New York preview
Citi Field
Last Meeting ( Apr 18, 2010 ) NY Mets 3, St. Louis 5
The St. Louis Cardinals are in the midst of a rough road trip and the New York Mets just finished a lousy one, so one of the two teams is going to be happy to be at Citi Field when they begin a three-game series on Tuesday.
The Cardinals had lost three straight, including the first two contests of their six-game swing through Chicago and New York before ekeing out a 4-3 victory over the Cubs in 11 innings on Sunday night.
Nursing a one-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Central, the Cardinals are not the same team when taken out of Busch Stadium. St. Louis is just 21-28 on the road.
The Cardinals' struggles aside, they can at least take solace in the fact that they are 13-6 against NL East foes - and they are catching the Mets at the right time.
New York is 2-8 in its last 10 and has lost two straight. The Mets are coming off a lousy West Coast swing and are in danger of falling out of touch in the NL East.
The Mets lost two of three to the division-leading Atlanta Braves at home before their road trip and then went 2-9 against the San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers. They were shut out in four of the 11 games.
New York is better at home, posting a 30-16 mark at Citi Field so far. The Mets will have their work cut out for them if they want to turn things around on Tuesday as they face rookie Jaime Garcia.
Garcia (9-4, 2.21 ERA) ranks third in the National League in ERA and has not lost in a month. He is 2-0 in his last four starts and is coming off a strong outing against the Philadelphia Phillies in which he yielded just one run and four hits in seven innings.
Garcia faced the Mets back in April and did not factor in the decision despite allowing just one hit and two walks with five strikeouts.
The Mets will counter with Jonathon Niese (6-4, 3.54 ERA), who has lost his last two decisions after going 5-0 in his previous six starts. In nine career starts against the Cardinals, Niese is 3-2 with a 3.23 ERA.
If Niese is going to turn things around for himself and for the Mets, he is going to need some help from his offense.
New York has scored just four runs in his last three starts. The Mets are hoping a return home wakes up their bats as they scored two runs or less in seven of the 11 games on their road trip.