New York Mets Continue to Struggle, Acquire Uribe and Johnson
The National League East New York Mets are struggling. The Mets sit in second place in the NL East three games behind the first place Washington Nationals. New York has lost three straight and 6 of its past 10 overall.
On Saturday, the Mets play the NL West leading Los Angeles Dodgers who defeated the Mets Friday in the three-game series opener.
Zach Lee will start on the mound for the Dodgers. Lee will be making his major league debut. Zack Greinke was scheduled to pitch on Friday, but left for the birth of his child and was penciled in to pitch on Sunday.
The Mets will go with their ace Matt Harvey on Saturday. Harvey is 8-7 on the season with an ERA of 3.19.
The Mets have dropped to 49-48 on the season overall and 32-16 at home. Los Angeles is 56-42 overall and 23-25 on the road.
The current line has the Mets favored at -130, with the Dodgers at +110 and the run total sitting on 7.
New York is last in baseball with a team batting average of .233 and scoring with 3.41 runs a game. New York has been outscored 14-5 and has batted .172 over its current losing streak of three games.
New York attempted to fix their lack of offense after Friday’s loss to Los Angeles sending to minor league hurlers to Atlanta for Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe.
Uribe can play at third while David Wright recovers from his spinal stenosis. He currently is hitting .272 with 8 home runs and 23 RBIs.
Johnson has surged during July with an average of .311, with 3 home runs and 12 runs batted in. He has played first, third and the outfield this season. The playing status of both is unknown for Saturday’s game.
Harvey is 5-2 with an ERA of 2.95 in his nine starts at Citi Field, compiling an ERA of 0.90 over hits past three and winning each decision.
Harvey was not sharp in Monday’s loss at Washington 7-2. He gave up 5 runs over the opening three innings prior to leaving following the seventh.
Harvey has not fared well against Los Angeles, the Mets right-hander is 0-2 with an ERA of 5.29 in his three starts versus the Dodgers.
New York played Michael Conforto a top prospect in left field on Friday. He was 0 for 3 on the game but recorded his first major league RBI in his debut.
Terry Collins the Mets manager said Conforto looked patient at the plate and the coaches were pleased with how he performed.
Pick: Mets 4-3
