The San Francisco Giants host the New York Mets for a three game series starting Friday night.
The Giants return home after an impressive road trip to the Midwest, where they proved that their MLB-best 39 wins is no fluke.
The Mets have had an up-and-down season so far, as they've been anywhere from four games over 500., to as many as six games under.
This series represents a huge opportunity for both teams to gain ground in their respective divisions as we cross the one-third mark of the 2014 season.
Records:
Giants: 39-21, 1st place in NL West, 8.5 games ahead of Los Angeles.
Mets: 28-32, 4th place in NL East, 4 games behind Atlanta.
Season Series: First meeting of 2014; the Mets won last year's season series 4-2.
San Francisco Outlook: The Giants have continued to roll along, finishing 5-2 on a tough Midwest trip to St. Louis and Cincinnati.
The pitching has found its groove, specifically in the name of Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong – who combined for just three earned runs in 14.1 innings in the final two games in Cincinnati.
Bumgarner (8-3, 2.68 ERA) and Vogelsong (4-2, 3.39 ERA) have anchored the pitching staff with Matt Cain nursing a hamstring injury, but Cain is set to return to the mound on Friday, giving the Giants a healthy rotation once again.
Meanwhile, the hitting has stayed hot – thanks to huge contributions by Michael Morse (13 HR's, 41 RBI's), Angel Pagan (.321 average, 11 steals) and Hunter Pence (8 HR's, .290 average, 44 runs scored).
They sit a season-high 8.5 games up in the division, and with the returns of Cain and Brandon Belt looming, there's reason to believe San Francisco can still get better.
New York Outlook: The Mets have played a lot of baseball on their current road trip.
Because of a rainout in April, the Mets played a five game series in Philadelphia last weekend, and thanks to back-to-back 14 inning games, they played a total of 57 innings in a five day span.
That series clearly had a lingering effect, as they were just swept in Chicago.
Despite sitting four games under 500., the Mets are just four games off the pace in a tightly contested NL East division.
Even without ace Matt Harvey (recovering from Tommy John surgery), the Mets have held their own on the mound – they come into this series with 39 quality starts (3rd in the NL) and a modest 3.66 ERA (12th best in all of MLB).
The offense has been a different story, as they rank 28th in the majors with a .235 team batting average, and dead last with a paltry .350 slugging percentage.
The good news is that the NL East is still wide open, with no team separating themselves from the pack yet. If David Wright and the offense can figure things out, New York has a shot to compete.
What to watch for: There are some familiar faces in both dugouts, with the Giants and Mets swapping a number of players over the last several years.
The most noteworthy in this series are Pagan and Zack Wheeler.
Pagan has thrived since being traded to San Francisco for basically nothing (Ramon Ramirez and Andres Torres are both out of baseball) prior to the 2012 season, and has established himself as one of the top lead-off hitters in the game.
Wheeler was traded to New York in 2011 for Carlos Beltran, and though he has had some growing pains, the 24-year-old still possesses huge career upside and may be turning the corner.
Pagan has faced his former team nine times since being traded, going 8-33 (.242 average) with two homers and four RBI's.
Wheeler will take the mound on Sunday for his third career start against the team that drafted him. Last year, Wheeler went 1-0 with a 3.75 ERA across two starts versus San Francisco.
The series will come down to whether or not the Mets can keep pace with the Giants offense.
New York will attempt to slow it down as they send their top three pitchers to the mound with Jon Niese (3-3, 2.69 ERA), Bartolo Colon (5-5, 4.52 ERA) and Wheeler (2-5, 3.89 ERA) all pitching well as of late.
The Giants will counter with Cain (1-3, 3.66 ERA), Tim Hudson (6-2, 1.89 ERA), and Tim Lincecum (4-4, 5.01 ERA).
What they're saying:
Cain returns to oppose Mets rolling Niese (SFGiants.com)
Numbers adding up for Giants to make NL playoffs (The Giants Cove)
Dillon Gee might be 2-3 weeks from returning to Mets (MetsBlog)
Tejada/Flores platoon is working and will continue (MetsBlog)
For more content by Chris Kersevan, check out his writer’s page and on Twitter @cker7
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