Mets 2010 preliminary schedule

The Mets will open their 2010 season at home against the Florida Marlins on April 5, according to the preliminary schedule that has been released.

For interleague games next year, the Mets will take on the AL Central with games against the Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins in June.

The 2010 season’s final regular season game will come on Oct. 3 at home against the Washington Nationals.

Here’s an image of the schedule via WFAN…

Tonight’s game rained out, day/night doubleheader tomorrow

Wednesday night’s game between the Mets and the Rockies has been rained out.

It has been rescheduled as part of a day / night doubleheader on Thursday.  If you had tickets for tonight’s game, they will be honored for tomorrow night’s game, not the day game.

Johan Santana will be pitching in the regularly scheduled 12:10 p.m. game, with Jon Niese shifting to the nightcap at 7:10 p.m.

The next 14

The Mets have 14 very important games coming up. If the season outcome hasn’t already solidified, it will be soon.

The Mets kick off in Washington tonight for a three game series, then on to Houston for three more.  They return home next Monday for four games against Colorado and four more against Arizona.

Those 14 games, coming against the good and the bad of the National League, will be the the true sign of the Mets season.

If the Mets can make some sort of run here, they might just have a shot.  If they flounder like they have been for all of June and July, then the nail is officially in the coffin.

The next two weeks, 14 games in 15 days, will determine if the team has a shot in 2009.  If it ends up like most fans think it will, the Mets might actually become sellers. 

Wouldn’t that be weird to see?

Tonight’s Mets / Pirates game postponed

The rain is too much in Pittsburgh and tonight’s Mets game has been rained out.

No makeup date has been announced yet. 

Update – 7:37 p.m.: The game will be made up on July 2 at 12:35 p.m. 

The Mets will be returning from a series in Milwaukee and had an off-day before taking on Philadelphia in Citizen’s Bank Park.  They will now be making a Pitt-stop to make up tonight’s game.

They have announced it will not be made up in a doubleheader tomorrow, so don’t get your hopes up.

This is probably the best thing for the New York Mets.  It gives Carlos Beltran another day to rest and gives the overworked, short-rostered team some much-needed time off to recuperate.

The “game chat” will still go off at 7 p.m.  There is a lot for Mets fans to discuss.

A sweep would do wonders

The Mets will welcome the Braves for their final series in Shea, and a sweep would be wonderful.

If the team from New York can take both games today, then a win tomorrow would just be a bonus. It's tough to win two games on the same day, especially with a pitcher making his second start in the big leagues pitching in the night cap.

If the Mets can manage to take all three games, their magic number can be lowered to 11. If the Phillies lose any games, that number will dip even lower. The Mets don't have an off day between now and the end of the season, and if they are going to make the playoffs, it look entirely plausible that they will clinch at home.

Say they take two of three this series, their MN will dip from 14 to 12. Say the Phillies drop two to the Brewers, the number will be at 10 by Monday morning. The Mets then go on a seven game road trip, starting in Washington for a four game set, and then to Turner Field for three.

Let's err on the side of caution, and say the Mets win only four. The number drops to six. Say the Phillies win four over that same span. The number slips down to four, and it's September 22nd.

The Mets finish the season with seven in a row at home, facing the Cubs for four and the Marlins (again?!) for three to bring an end to the regular season. If all goes according to my plan, the Mets MN is four with the rest of their games at home. Seems logical, no?

The Mets lost a coin-flip to the Phillies, and any possible tie breaker will take place in Philly. So hopefully the Mets can get it done, and if they do get it done, they do it at home. Obviously, beggars can't be choosers and clinching is clinching, I don't care where they do it. I'd prefer it at home, but my heart won't be broken if they do it in Atlanta.

As it stands, all the Mets need to do is win. Simple as that. Easy on paper, a little harder to pull off, but the way this team is playing I think it's plausible and possible.

See you for two tomorrow

The Mets and the Braves final series at Shea will have to wait.

Tonight's game has been rained out, but will be made up tomorrow as part of a single-admission doubleheader.

The Mets are the game of the week on FOX tomorrow, so the 3:55 pm game will start as planned. Roughly 30 minutes after the end of game one, the second game will begin in front of the same crowd.

So if you have tickets tomorrow, enjoy a long, hopefully dry, day of baseball.

Two up, nineteen to play

I'm am far from a pessimist. I almost always see the bright side in life and generally expect the good to happen over the bad.

But I can't help myself to look at the Mets this year and think about 2007 all over again. I've been pretty vocal about forgetting about last year, putting it behind us and just moving on. Well, the Mets have made that kind of hard to do.

Thankfully, they salvaged a win last night, as Johan Santana was masterful and the offense (Carlos Delgado) found a groove. Serious talk must be had about the year Delgado is having, and if the Mets can make it into the playoffs, he may very well win the MVP.

But here the Mets stand, with nineteen games to play and a two game lead. The two teams share almost the same schedule, with all but four games coming against similar teams. The Phillies get the Brewers, the Mets play the Cubs.

So it will be a test, a test of who can beat the Braves, Nationals, and Marlins. Who can take down the NL East rivals down the stretch, something the '07 Mets failed to do.

I hate to say it, but here we go again. Here's to another crazy September, another three weeks of scoreboard watching, another 23 days of agida. Break out the Pepcid, it's time to worry.

Trap games

The Mets will begin a three game series with the Florida Marlins tonight. The Marlins were in contention for a long time, much longer than anyone expected, but have faltered lately and are now six games back of the Mets.

They've lost six of their last ten, but are still very much alive. The Mets have a critical stretch of games upcoming, with the next nine against the Marlins, Brewers and Phillies. As of now, I can see the Mets focusing more on Milwaukee and Philadelphia, over Florida.

The Mets could take two of three against the Marlins, or sweep them, but Mike Pelfrey will take the mound for one of the games and he is yet to beat the fish this season.

The Mets have only 28 games left, so each game is extremely crucial, especially with only a one game lead over the Phillies. Hopefully they focus on each game separately, and not look ahead to stronger teams like the Brew-crew and the hated Phillies.

Halfway there: 40-41

With yesterday's win over the Yankees, the Mets completed the first half of their 2008 season exactly one game under .500.

The first 81 games were interesting. You never know what you're going to get with these Mets. One day you can get a pitching meltdown coupled with an offensive explosion. Other days it's dominant performances on the mound and a sub par effort at the plate.

The Mets will keep you guessing. So far their play has been decent, as shown by their record of 40-41. It doesn't seem new manager Jerry Manuel has done enough to light a fire under some of the players, but they do seem to be smiling and enjoying the game more.

The Mets really need to turn it on for the next eight games. They'll face the St. Louis Cardinals and their NL east rivals Philadelphia Phillies, both on the road, before coming home for a home stand before t he All Star break.

Their division is wide open and ripe for the taking. The Phillies, Marlins, Mets and Braves are all have a very good shot at winning the division. All four teams are within four games of first place. The last 10 games have seen the Phillies go 2-8, the Marlins go 4-6, the Mets go 5-5, and the Braves go 4-6.

With the Mets taking on St. Louis, the Phillies and Braves will face each other in the "I don't know who to root for" series. Still, I feel the Marlins are playing way over their heads and won't hold on for the whole season.

I'll come right out and say it: the Mets have a definite shot at winning this division. With tighter play over the next 82 games, the Mets can make the playoffs, and I think they will.

Another doubleheader

Tonight's game has been rained out.

Because the Mets almost never play the Texas Rangers, the game will be made up tomorrow in a day-night traditional doubleheader.

A day-night traditional doubleheader will leave the Mets to head out to Los Angeles late early tomorrow night.

Oh great. That's going to be awesome. Just what this team needs right now.

This might give the front office some time to think over Willie Randolph and his job status, which is probably a terrible thing for him.

UPDATE: I'm a fool. I just assumed that it was a day-night doubleheader, which it is not. It's actually, surprisingly, a traditional doubleheader with one game starting at 1:10 p.m. and the same ticket allowing you to stick around and watch the second game right after.

So if you're going today, enjoy the double dip of baseball!

Subway game set

According to my crosstown blogger in arms, tonight's game will be made up as one of those super special "Subway Games" in June.

The Yankees will play the Mets at Shea at the end of June, but the final date is yet to be nailed down. One game will be played in Shea, as previously scheduled, and the other game of the doubleheader will be played in Yankee Stadium on the same day.

I called it.

As of now, the game looks like it will be made up on June 27th.