Mets at Indians
Bartolo Colon takes the mound in the place he started his major league career in 1997 when his struggling New York Mets visit the Cleveland Indians on Friday to start a three-game interleague series. The 42-year-old Colon has accumulated 218 victories, including 75 with the Indians from 1997-2002, and hopes to help the Mets snap out of an early funk.
New York’s pitching staff has kept the team in games during a 3-5 start, but the Mets are batting .194 and averaging 2.5 runs per game after ending a four-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over Miami on Wednesday. “We’ve gotten off to a slow start,” New York manager Terry Collins told reporters. “It happens. … There’s a lot of teams that get off to great starts and falter.” The Indians have yet to lose a series and won their first by outscoring the Tampa Bay Rays 10-1 in two straight victories the past two days. Cody Anderson opposes Colon after veteran Marlon Byrd belted his first homer for the team in a 6-0 triumph on Thursday afternoon as Cleveland improved to 4-3.
TV: 7:10 p.m. ET, SNY (New York), SportsTime Ohio (Cleveland)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Mets RH Bartolo Colon (0-1, 1.23 ERA) vs. Indians RH Cody Anderson (0-0, 3.00)
Colon pitched six solid innings in his first start of the season last Saturday in a loss to Philadelphia, permitting one run on five hits with seven strikeouts. The 42-year-old from the Dominican Republic has not walked anyone in 7 1/3 innings this season, including a brief relief stint, and issued just 24 bases on balls in 194 2/3 frames in 2015. Byrd is 6-for-14 with two homers versus Colon, who is 6-4 against his former club.
Anderson allowed two runs on six hits in six innings last Saturday without factoring in the decision as the Indians lost at the Chicago White Sox 7-3 to begin his second major league campaign. The 25-year-old Californian went 7-3 (4-1 at home) with a 3.05 ERA in 15 starts last season – none of them against the Mets. Anderson, who was a 14th round pick by Cleveland in 2011, has just 46 strikeouts in his first 16 major league games.
WALK-OFFS
1. Cleveland OF-INF Jose Ramirez has produced multiple hits in three of the five games he has played in this season.
2. New York OF Curtis Granderson is off to the worst start among the team’s regulars, going 3-for-31.
3. The teams met for a three-game interleague series in 2013 with the Indians taking two of three at home.