New York Mets At Arizona Diamondbacks: Mets Look For First Sweep Of Season

In the middle of the week most New York Mets fans (myself included) were hitting the panic button over not just the amount of losses but the style in which they were losing. Now the Mets have won three straight and the club is putting together efforts that make you think they can be a decent team this year -- that is, until you realize the teams they've beaten, the Houston Astros and twice the Arizona Diamondbacks, two teams a good team should roll over.

This afternoon the Mets will look to put together their first four-game winning streak of the year and their first series sweep when they host the D'Backs. Jon Niese is coming off a loss in which he allowed two runs in six innings (and the Mets scored one run), and he's still looking for his first win of the year. With a streak of seven really solid starts in the books of for the Mets, Niese will have to keep up the starters' dominance in this one and he has a great chance to do so with an offense that's been flustered, for the most part, by Mets pitchers.

The D'Backs will send Armando Galarraga, who is 3-0 despite a 6.00 ERA, on the mound. Galarraga is a sinker-slider guy who gives up about a hit per inning and has very underwhelming strikeout rates. The Mets put 15 hits on the board yesterday and could very well smack the ball around a bit today.

Even with Angel Pagan on the shelf with an injury, the return of Jason Bay to the lineup has really made it a very solid one from top to bottom. Ike Davis has hit homeruns in three consecutive games and that six-hole seems to be fitting him very well. Bay has also made a very encouraging return to the lineup with hits in all three games and a big two-hit, three-RBI day yesterday that included his first homerun in ten months.