This. Is. Pitiful.

LET'S. GO. METS.

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Gettin' Back On Track at the PNC

Jon Niese bounced back from a horrific 4 home run outing in Toronto to help deliver the Mets to a 3-1 win yesterday afternoon to leave the steel city with a series victory and a .500 road trip.

After getting called out by Dan Warthen for his lack of preparation, Jon Niese was outstanding, using his backdoor cutter on the outside part of the plate to establish his sinking fastball on the inner-half of the plate. The Pirates were having such trouble with these pitches he all but abandoned his curveball. Niese's stuff is too good for outings such as the Toronto one, and as long as he makes the proper pre-game preparations and in-game adjustments those outings will be few and far between.

In yesterday's game post, I failed to mention how awesome a job both Mike Baxter and Kirk Nieuwenhuis did bouncing back after dropping the ball on Monday. In this win, they continued to put the error out of mind as each had huge rolls in this win. Baxter went 1 for 4, scoring on David Wright's double in the 5th inning. Cap'n Kirk went 2 for 3, touching the plate once and gaining an RBI on a sac fly in that 5th. Just as it looks as if the league might have caught up to him, Kirk continues to adjust as well and do the right things to help us win. Both him and Baxter are huge parts of this team.

Bobby Parnell has done a complete 180 from last year.  With 2 on in the 8th and after Jon Niese could not get the last out, Parnell was brought in to face Andrew McCutchen with 2 on. Catcher Rob Johnson threw down to 1st to try to pick off the runner, but Ike Davis could not handle the throw and it trickled down the line, moving the runners over to 2nd and 3rd, including the tying run at 2nd. The old Parnell more often than not would buckle under the pressure, but this year's Bobby Parnell has such confidence in his stuff that he reared back and threw a smokin' fastball to the outside and low part of the strike zone. McCutchen checked his swing, but it didn't matter because the pitch caught the strike zone. Instead of throwing the fastball as fast as he can right over the plate, he's locating it so nicely, as well as throwing his breaking stuff for strikes. He's becoming a pitcher, instead of just a thrower. BOOM!!!! Bobby P.

After only 7 games at home in the last 25, the Mets are back in the Citi for an awesome 11-game homestand, beginning tonight against the San Diego Padres. Jeremy Hefner, making his 1st Major League start, will take on the southpaw, Eric Stults. Let's sweep the Fathers.

LET'S. GO. METS.

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A Good Excuse to Go Look at the Lights

Our work softball team played a sick game Friday that we unfortunately lost in the bottom of the 7th, 11-12, after staging a 2-out rally to score 5 in the top half to take the lead by 1. After the game, I turned on my phone-radio as we walked to the subway, hearing Jon Niese give up a walk and a single to open the bottom half of the 1st. It sounded as if he might get out of it by whiffing the next two batters, but he then left a ball over the zone to the Toronto Blue Jays at their Rogers Centre, and you just don't do that. Down 0-3.

We went underground and before I lost service I was able to see that the Mets had scored 1. Sweet. Maybe it will be tied when I go elevated.

Well...

No.

By the time we got upstairs, Jon Niese had given up 8 runs and was out of the game. They had already crushed 4 home runs off the guy, and later I found out he just kept throwing the cutter, which was not working, not making any adjustments whatsoever. Looks like Manny Acosta is gonna be the mop-up guy. Great. Let's leave a few more up in the zone.

I saw Acosta give up a 2-run home run to make it 1-10, and at that point our company had arrived. So, I gave up the Mets (at least the televised version) and traveled up to my roof to take a look at this view.

I. Love this town.

A view like that definitely helps take the sting away from the 5-14 loss. I saw Scottie Hairston hit his 3-run opposite-field homer, which was nice to be the only NY team in the last 3 days to score more than 1 run in a game at the Roger (The Yanks scored only 1 in each of their two games right before we arrived in Toronto.) We went out after that and apparently Rob Johnson pitched a 1-2-3 9th inning. Haven't watch that yet. I'm sure I'll see a clip or two.

The Mets try to even the series today at 1:07PM, when "The Handyman" Miguel Batista takes on Brandon Morrow. Let's see as close to a repeat performance as we can get from Miguel. Let's knot this series up.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Converted Mets Fan is now on Twitter. Follow me @convertedmetfan. And for Rising Apple twitter updates, click here.