New York Mets Tickets - Opening Day vs. Padres

San Diego will come to the Big Apple to play the New York Mets in their home opener on April 13th, 2009. Home openers are always a delight for fans because the team is usually in good condition health-wise, they've still got a shot at the playoffs, and the stadium is sparkling clean. This is going to be especially true for Mets fans because they'll get to spread out in the brand spanking new Citi Field. What could be better? So start searching the internet on sites for some New York Mets tickets to opening day. Although we don't know who the pitcher on this day will be exactly, we'll take a few moments to preview the game as best we can.

Pitcher's Duel
The New York Mets begin their 2009 season with a road trip, a three-game series in Cincinnati and a three-game series in Miami. They return to Flushing, New York to play in their new home on April 13th in a night game, so the park should be packed with anxious fans. The bad part about waiting to play your home opener is that you're not guaranteed to see the team's best starting pitcher. This will be the seventh game of the year for the Mets and the Padres, so they'll have been through one cycle already. The way things look now, the Mets will start either Mike Pelfrey or Oliver Perez (and not Johan Santana, the guy you'd much rather pay to see). And even though the Padres would rather start ace Jake Peavy in every game, they'll probably put out Chris Young or Cha Seung Baek. The Padres might have a slight edge if the game is between Young and Pelfrey, but when you throw in (no pun intended) the fact that the Mets just landed K-Rod as their closer, while the Padres lost their regular closer, Trevor Hoffman, you have to side with the Mets in terms of pitching strength in this game.

Batter's Battle
We're going to give the offensive edge to the Mets without much further ado. Well, who doesn't like ado? How about some evidence to back up this claim of Met's superiority? The Mets scored the second most runs in the NL and had the fourth best team batting average in 2008. David Wright made the All-Star Game, averaged .302 and slugged .534. Jose Reyes started slow but then finished the regular season with 204 hits, best in the National League, led the league with 19 triples and racked up 56 stolen bases, 2nd in the NL. With the Carloses (Delgado and Beltran) in the thick of the order, the Mets are a balanced, explosive offensive team. The Padres, on the other hand, struggled last season. They scored the fewest runs in the NL and had the second lowest team batting average. While Adrian Gonzalez and Brian Giles are great players individually, they need help to become an elite team. The Pads didn't bring in enough firepower over the offseason to compare with the Mets.

Prediction
Predicting a baseball score this far out in advance is like trying to predict the weather in San Diego. You're most likely going to be off by about one or two in either direction. The Mets should win this one by a score of 4-2, as they'll have the huge home crowd, the new stadium, a superior offense, and a better bullpen.

Seed Newsvine

Bookmark this article in your preferred program

Comments

Add Comment

Popular Articles in this cathegory

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.