It's Parra time! Follow the jump for all the usual business.
Manny Parra (1-3, 3.54) is making his second start of the season for the Brewers. In his first start he pitched four innings, giving up four hits and four walks while allowing just one run. He then made way for Marco Estrada who gave up just two hits and one run, placing the Brewers in a position to vanquish their foes, the Reds, by the score of 4-2. Trevor Hoffman pitched the ninth and the Brewers lost. Anyway, Parra's FIP this season is pretty much in line with his ERA, at 3.63. He also has a very high opponent BABIP, .365--the same as all of last season. Interestingly, in his Major League career, Parra has never had an opponent BABIP below .330, which has resulted in him having a high WHIP both in his career (1.65) and this season (1.61). But don't get me wrong, it's not just the hits. He also walks a lot of batters (4.4 BB/9 career). No current Mets have faced Parra ten or more times.
Fernando Nieve's (1-2, 5.09) last name means "snow" in Spanish. He's had 18 starts and pitched 166.2 innings over parts of four years between the Astros and the Mets. This will be his first start of 2010, having pitched out of the bullpen prior to tonight. I don't know a whole lot about him, but statistically he hasn't been great. This year he has a 5.66 FIP, and over his career, his FIP is 5.26. He appears to be having issues with control this season, posting a brutal 6.26 BB/9. He's almost walking more batters than he's striking out (K/9 of 6.65). For a pitcher, that's obviously not a good thing. Even with poor numbers like those, things could be even worse as he has been fairly lucky this season, giving up just a .226 BABIP to opposing batters. Nieve had not faced any current Brewers ten or more times.
The Lineups tonight, courtesy of Tom H:
Brewers
2B Rickie Weeks
C George Kottaras
LF Ryan Braun
1B Prince Fielder
3B Casey McGehee
RF Corey Hart
CF Carlos Gomez
SS Alcides Escobar
LHP Manny Parra
Mets
SS Jose Reyes
2B Luis Castillo
LF Jason Bay
1B Ike Davis
3B David Wright
CF Angel Pagan
C Rod Barajas
RF Jeff Francoeur
RHP Fernando Nieve
In case you didn't notice the bolded part, George Kottaras is hitting in the two-spot for the first time this season. Also, as much as I like Kottaras, I wish that Jonathon Lucroy was starting more. Just wanted to get that out there.
The bullpen is nice and rested after Our Savior, Yovani Gallardo, decided to go ahead and be awesome yesterday.
Claudio Vargas is no longer a part of the bullpen.
Jeff Suppan pitched 2 innings (25 pitches) Wednesday.
Trevor Hoffman pitched 1 inning (16 pitches) Wednesday.
Marco Estrada pitched 1 inning (28 pitches) Thursday.Carlos Villanueva pitched 1 inning (22 pitches) Thursday.
Zach Braddock pitched 1 innings (17 pitches) Thursday.Todd Coffey pitched 1 inning (11 pitches) Thursday.
John Axford pitched 1 inning (9 pitches) Thursday.
Chris Capuano pitched 4 innings (59 pitches) last night in AAA. Welcome back!
Go Crew!