New York Mets Vs. Colorado Rockies: Mike Pelfrey Needs To Rebound After Dreadful Start

What is the best remedy after a bullpen ruins the season's best start to date (and the team records one hit after the fifth inning)? Another game on Monday night, of course!

The New York Mets will take on the Colorado Rockies in the second home series of the season beginning tonight at 7:10 p.m. EST (SNY). The starting pitchers for the first game of the four-game set will be the thus far disappointing Mike Pelfrey (0-1) and Jason Hemmel (1-0).

So far this season, in his first two starts, Pelfrey has been awful, plain and simple. He has pitched a total of 6 1/3 innings, allowing 12 hits, five walks and 11 earned runs. His ptiches have been all over the place and most importantly, he hasn't been able to keep his sinker down. Pelfrey's last start against the Phillies was an utter nightmare as he wasn't able to last past the second inning and gave up seven runs. The Rockies are no slouches in the batters box, either, with guys like five-tool Carlos Gonzalez and stud shortstop Troy Tulowitzki filling the heart of the order. In his career, Pelfrey has shown a very iffy mental makeup and it remains to be seen whether he can just forget about his first few outings and start anew tonight. Pelfrey said he is going to get back to using his fastball and splitter in this game; he only threw first-pitch fastballs to six of the 18 batters faced in his last outing, acording to an article on the New York Post.

Hammel is a guy who is very similar to Jason Marquis, in that he's not overpowering at all and will give up plenty of hits -- a 10.2 per nine innings mark last season. Against the Dodgers in his only start, he threw five innings, allowed six hits and four runs -- but still recorded the win. The Mets should be able to jump on him early, especially after relaxing in the second half of the game on Sunday night.

After the 7-3 loss to the Nationals yesterday afternoon, the Mets sent down Lucas Duda and the losing pitcher, Blaine Boyer, was designated for assignment. They recalled some bullpen arms, Ryota Igarashi and Jason Isringhausen. The Amazin's will go with a 13-man bullpen for the time being because as GM Sandy Alderson said: "We need some innings. We're not getting the results we need.