No time for Bad Ollie
The feel good story the Mets were writing during their winning streak has suddenly gone terribly off script. It was one thing for Phillies ace Roy Halliday to stop them cold—that was not totally unexpected—but it was unnerving for their best starters, Mike Pelfrey and Johan Santana, to get pounded in consecutive starts.
The eight-game winning streak is firmly in the rear view mirror as the Mets are in Cincinnati for a three game series with the Reds. First up is Oliver Perez and he needs a quality start. Period. Perez [0-2, 4.35 earned run average] will be opposed by Mike Leake [2-0, 3.25 ERA].
During his career, Perez has come up big and small, so there is no way of handicapping this start. But there is a positive statistic for Perez vs. the Reds. In 19 starts, he is 9-5 lifetime. And Perez should not have to worry about throwing in the cold—an excuse in his last outing against the Dodgers-- as Cincinnati is having the same mild temperatures as the New York area.
