It's Mike Burns v. Johan Santana tonight at 7:05.
Burns (0-1, 3.72) will make his second career start. In his last outing, he held the Twins hitless through three innings but eventually took the loss, allowing four runs on six hits and three walks in 5.2 innings. It's his second career appearance against the Mets: He held them scoreless in two relief innings for the Reds in 2007. It was his final appearance as a Red.
Johan Santana (9-5, 3.08 ERA), meanwhile, has more Cy Young Awards (two) than Burns has major league starts (one). He shut the Brewers out for seven innings as part of a 1-0 Mets victory back in April, and kept his ERA under 2 through his first ten starts of the season. There's a pretty good chance Santana will factor in the decision in tonight's game: He's done so in 14 of his 15 starts this season and ten straight, dating back to April 29. It's possible the Brewers are catching Santana at a good time: He's 2-3 with a 5.93 ERA in June.
Bill Hall picked up two meaningless hits late in last night's contest and earned himself some opportunities to get struck out by Santana:
RF Corey Hart
SS J.J. Hardy
LF Ryan Braun
1B Prince Fielder
2B Casey McGehee
CF Mike Cameron
C Jason Kendall
3B Bill Hall
RHP Mike Burns
(h/t JS)
You know things are bad when you're batting behind Jason Kendall. In the bullpen:
Mitch Stetter threw 24 pitches (1.1 innings) last night.
Carlos Villanueva threw 21 pitches (.1 inning) last night.
Todd Coffey threw 11 pitches (.1 inning) last night.
Trevor Hoffman threw one pitch (.2 innings) last night.
Chris Smith last pitched on Sunday.
Mark DiFelice last pitched on Sunday.
Chris Narveson last pitched on Sunday.
Tuesday's Game Thread is now open.