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Meet the Mets
The Mets fell to the Braves 4-0 on Friday evening. Matt Harvey allowed a two-run home run to Jason Heyward in the first inning and that was all Atlanta would need, as Paul Maholm shut the Mets down. The former Pirate and Cub tossed a 3-hit complete game shutout and Dan Uggla added a two-run homer in the eighth off of Josh Edgin to give the Braves some insurance.
Choose Your Recap: MLB.com, ESPN NY, Daily News, New York Times, Associated Press, Star-Ledger, Bergen Record
Johan Santana is back, everybody! Believe it! The man will make his return from the DL this evening and take on Kris Medlen. Game time is at 7:10 PM and will be on SNY. The Mets are targeting 90 pitches for him.
There's some more good news from the injury department, as Dillon Gee is progressing nicely in his recovery from surgery to repair an artery in his shoulder. Despite this, Gee is unlikely to return to the mound this season.
After struggling initially in his return to Buffalo, Lucas Duda has turned it on in the last week and it looks like he may make it back to Queens before the end of August. While Duda has struggled, the Mets' other young slugger Ike Davis has turned it on over the last third of the season and the team desperately hopes that's for real.
Tim Byrdak does not regret the heavy workload that likely contributed to his shoulder injury.
The Mets signed righty Drew Carpenter to a minor league deal. The former Phillie and Blue Jay will head down to Binghamton.
Terry Collins likes Andres Torres and Ruben Tejada at the top of his lineup and he thinks Tejada is a great fit in the number two slot long term.
Wilmer Flores has been around for a while but at the ripe young age of 21, the infielder is starting to turn heads with his bat.
Around the NL East
How about those Nationals? After beating the Diamondbacks 9-1 on Friday, they've reeled off seven straight victories and are a major league best 70-43. Meanwhile, the Phillies defeated the Cardinals 3-1 on Mike Lieberthal night in Philly. The Phils are just 2.5 games behind the Mets at the moment...I'm scared. Luckily for us, there's the Marlins, who fell to the Dodgers 5-2. Hanley Ramirez rapped three hits in his return to Miami.
Around the Majors
Perhaps Manny Machado is big league ready after all. The 20-year old hit two home runs in his second big league game yesterday.
In a hellish 2012 season, one of the best developments has been the emergence of third baseman Will Middlebrooks. Well, Red Sox fans...this is some 2009 Mets stuff: Middlebrooks is likely done for the year after he suffered a broken wrist on a hit by pitch.
Omar Vizquel wants to manage a major league team now, not three years from now. That's (sort of) his stance.
Grant Brisbee looks into small sample size and the stories that you'd be reading if the first half didn't exist. Awesome stuff and it just shows HOW IMPORTANT APRIL REALLY IS (no, it's not).
Craig Calcaterra runs down Barry Bonds' Hall of Fame chances and perhaps the slugger has a better shot than people think.
TROLL! An online battery ad does a nice job of trolling Philly sports fans.
Want to help choose the new nickname of the Yankees' AAA team in Scranton Wilkes-Barre? Of course you do! Well, now you can, if you visit the team's website. You can go there and vote for awesome names like the...Black Diamond Bears? And the...Fireflies?! Or the...PORCUPINES?! What the hell...the Trolley Frogs? Gahh these aren't baseball team names!