Finally, New York fans get to see Stephen Strasburg. I have been waiting a while to see him face the Mets MAJOR league team. I actually saw his last minor league start against the Buffalo Bisons. He was pitching with the Syracuse Chiefs and went five innings, allowing three hits, no runs, one walk, and five strikeouts. Three words. He looked awesome.

Courtesy of NewYorkMets on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/NewYorkMets/status/17660757036 here is today’s lineup, with some notes from me of course:

1. Angel Pagan – CF  Pagan is starting his second straight game after being out with an injury. Pagan went 1-for-5 in his return yesterday.

2. Alex Cora – 2B  Honestly, Cora is hitting second in the order? I don’t understand that at all. Just because he had a three-run triple yesterday and scored a run, he gets rewarded by hitting second? Jose Reyes is still out, but still, I do not understand. I honestly think this will really come back to haunt the Mets today if they wind up in an RBI situation with Cora up. With Strasburg pitching—it’s a big IF.

3. David Wright – 3B  Wright had a big night last night going 3-for-5 with his 25th double of the year.

4. Ike Davis – 1B  Davis brought home a run yesterday but went 0-3. He is currently in the middle of a huge slump.

5. Jason Bay – LF  Bay has been a streaky hitter this year but the surprise about him has been his defense. Coming into this year, I heard a lot of people complaining about his defense, but he has done a stellar job in left field this year.

6. Josh Thole – C  I am really surprised by this move honestly. I have to wonder if something is wrong with either Rod Barajas or Henry Blanco that the Mets are not telling us. Blanco has become the personal catcher for the knuckleballer, the Mets announced his last start, so I wonder why they are throwing rookie Thole out to catch him.

7. Jeff Francoeur – RF  Gosh Francoeur has been such a streaky hitter this year. But he has stayed consistent defensively. He had a nice time at the plate last night though, going 2-for-4.

8. Ruben Tejada – SS  This is Tejada’s fourth straight start at his natural position, with Reyes still out with the strained oblique. What surprises me here though is why Cora hitting second and Tejada hitting eighth? Another thing is, with Reyes out, the Mets had an EXCELLENT opportunity to give Fernando Tatis a start or two at second base, have Cora play short, and give Tejada a day off. Reyes is expected back tomorrow.

9. R.A. Dickey – SP  Dickey has had a great year thus far, only having one bad start, which came last time out against the Marlins.

Today’s starting pitching matchup will be R.A. Dickey (6-1, 2.98 ERA) for the Mets against Stephen Strasburg (2-2, 2.27 ERA) for the Nationals. Strasburg is coming off two consecutive losses.

Notes: Game time today is 4:10pm. Today’s game will be broadcast on FOX.

Flushing Baseball Daily reporter, Tyler Moore. Follow Tyler on Twitter, where he’ll discuss Mets, and also his posts. If you wish to email him, send an email to Tyler with the subject of Flushing Baseball Daily Mail. Thanks for reading!

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