Fresh off a .500 homestand, with three wins in their past four games, the New York Mets will now play two series on the road, the first coming against the Colorado Rockies tonight at 8:40 p.m. EST. Chris Capuano will take on Jhoulys Chacin.
The last time the Amazin's faced the Rockies, Troy Tulowitzki went bizerk, going 10-for-16 with four homeruns and eight RBI. He's also hitting 2-for-23 in April, with just one homerun and one RBI, so he has to be due one of these days.
Chacin is a second-year pitcher who has four solid pitches, a fastball that will hover around 90-91 mph, and a plus slider, curveball and changeup. He's not extremely overpowering but because he has these offerings to turn to, he can be difficult to hit. So far this year he is 4-2 with 34 hits allowed in 41 innings -- a 2.85 ERA and 1.15 WHIP. He has struckout 32 this season, after fanning 138 in 137.1 innings in his rookie campaign. Thus far this year he has been a groundball machine: 60 percent of balls in play against him have been on the ground, with a BABIP number of .246 that surely will not be that low forever.
The Mets' left-hander, Capuano, tossed one of his better outings in his last start against the San Francisco Giants. He threw 6 1/3 innings, allowed two earned runs, two hits, walked three and struckout five. The 32-year-old is 3-2 on the season. He's a guy that's obviously not overpowering at all but his 5.40 ERA and 1.61 WHIP is surely not here to stay forever, especially with a .352 BABIP against him this season.
RIght now the Mets' offense has been fueled by their leadoff hitter, Jose Reyes, but really needs their star third baseman to pick up the slack a bit. David Wright is batting just .240 on the year, with a .349 on-base percentage and a below career average, .419 slugging percentage. He has five homeruns and 16 RBI to go along with 22 walks and 37 strikeouts in 34 games played. Wright hasn't had a homerun since his two-homerun game 13 games ago, and hasnt had an RBI since April 28.
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