• Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

May 5, 2015, Queens, NY  The New York Mets will close out their homestand with two games against the Baltimore Orioles.  The Mets have lost seven out of their last ten games, dropping them from their perch as the winningest team in baseball.  After the first 16 games, the Mets were 13-3, but the last 10 have allowed the other teams in their division to gain ground.  With a 16-10 record, the Mets’ lead is now just 3.5 games over the Washington National who are currently 13-14.  The Nationals were predicted by many experts to win the division and possibly the World Series.  It is doubtful they will remain a sub .500 team.

The key to the Mets woes has been their hitting, or lack thereof.  In the seven losses over the aforementioned 10-game stretch, the Mets scored only 13 runs.  Do the math; that’s less than 2 runs per game.  Matt Harvey has been the saving grace winning two games, and Carlos Torres won the other game.  Jose Lagares continues to be a bright spot, leading the team in batting average at .324.  Wilmer Flores and Michael Cuddyer are leading the team in homers with 3 apiece.  That’s a power shortage.  The team doesn’t have to be the 1927 Yankees or the 1976 Big Red Machine, but when your top homerun hitter five days into May has only three homeruns, that’s a problem.  On the rbi side of the ledger, Daniel Murphy is leading the team with 17.  Let’s compare these stats with the MLB league leaders: Dee Gordon of the Florida Marlins is batting .433, and Nelson Cruz of the Seattle Mariners has 14 homeruns and 26 rbi.

Matt Harvey is the MLB leader in wins at 5-0 and is the greatest bargain since the so-called Indians (Native Americans) sold an island called Manhattan to the Dutch (if you believe the legend).  Matt Harvey is being paid a whopping $614, 125.  Compare that figure to one of his teammates, Bartolo Colon, who is making $11,000,000, or even Jonathan Niese who is making more than 10 times what Harvey is making at $7,000,000.

Bartolo Colon will put his 4-1 record and 3.31 ERA on the line against the Orioles starting pitcher, Bud Norris (1-2, ERA 12.18).  First pitch for tonight’s game at Citi Field  is at 7:10 p.m. (tickets are still available), and the game can be heard on WOR 710 am or WEPN 1050 as well as be watched on SNY (check your local listings).

Professor Clifford Benton can be reached at cliffb@puresportsny.com.

By Vernon McKenzie

Graduate of New Institute Of Technology with a BA in Communications with a focus on Television Radio. Owner and Executive Producer of PureSportsNY

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