Sigh. With the Mets now officially mathematically eliminated from playoff contention at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies, the rest of this season is meaningless to our fans in regards to postseason aspirations. But for the few of us left that will care, this is the time to see how these professionals respond to their earliest elimination since 2005. Will they continue to play hard as they did in Philadelphia; where even though they lost 3 of 4 three of the games were decided by 1 run and the other by 2...or will they roll over? Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves continue to hang in there. Winners of their last four including an extremely impressive three game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals on the road, the Braves find themselves 7.5 back of the Phillies in the NL East and 6 back of the Rockies in the Wild Card. Their playoff chances right now stand at 3.5%.


Pitching Matchups for this Series:

Tonight: Pat Misch (1-2 3.86 ERA) vs. Tommy Hanson (9-3 2.83 ERA)
Misch's last start (L 3-6 vs. FLA): 6IP, 5ER, 6H, 2BB
Career vs. ATL: 0-0 3.00 ERA, 1.67 WHIP, .333 BAA in 4 relief appearances
Road this season: 1-0 2.42 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, .265 BAA in 11 appearances (2 starts)
Hanson's last start (ND 1-2 @ HOU): 8IP, 5H, 7K
Has never faced the Mets.
Home this season: 6-1 3.42 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, .242 BAA in 8 appearances (all starts)

Wednesday: Bobby Parnell (3-8 5.49 ERA) vs. Derek Lowe (14-9 4.47 ERA)
Parnell's last start (L 4-13 vs. FLA): 5IP, 6R (5ER), 7H, 5BB, 6K
Career vs. ATL: 0-1 10.57 ERA, 2.61 WHIP, .400 BAA in 8 appearances (1 start)
Road this season: 1-2 5.81 ERA, 1.86 WHIP, .327 BAA in 27 appearances (2 starts)
Lowe's last start (W 9-7 @ HOU): 5.2IP, 5ER, 8H, 2BB, 5K
Career vs. NYM: 2-3 7.89 ERA, 1.89 WHIP, .352 BAA in 11 appearances (5 starts)
Home this season: 6-3 3.90 ERA 1.46 WHIP .284 BAA in 15 appearances (all starts)

Thursday: Nelson Figueroa (2-5 4.57 ERA) vs. Jair Jurrjens (11-10 2.81 ERA)
Figueroa's last start (L 2-4 @ PHI): 5.1IP, 2ER, 9H, 5BB, 3K
Career vs. ATL: 2-0 4.22 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, .264 BAA in 10 appearances (3 starts)
Road this season: 1-2 1.89 ERA, 1.58 WHIP, .276 BAA in 4 appearances (3 starts)
Jurrjens' last start (W 1-0 @ STL): 8IP, 6H, 2BB, 7K
Career vs. NYM: 4-1 2.87 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, .219 BAA in 6 appearances (all starts)
Home this season: 5-6 2.76 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, .224 BAA in 15 appearances (all starts)

The Mets have a mere 2 victories from their starters this month out of their 4. Can the Mets translate narrow defeats into victories? Can Parnell get it together? Will the Mets score for Figueroa? Which Misch will we see, the one that allowed 5ER in the first against the Marlins or the one that shut them down in his next 5IP? Stay tuned.