Houston @ New York preview
Citi Field
Last Meeting ( Aug 27, 2010 ) Houston 1, NY Mets 2
For all their struggles since the All-Star break, the New York Mets are still tough to beat at home - a lesson the Houston Astros know all too well.
The Mets send ace Johan Santana to the mound on Saturday looking for their sixth consecutive home win against the Astros when the teams continue their three-game series at Citi Field.
New York has gone 16-24 since the All-Star break to fade from the playoff picture. For all of their troubles, the Mets are 38-24 this season at Citi Field, where Houston has never won in four games since the park opened last year.
Santana (10-8, 2.94 ERA) will look to pick up where Mike Pelfrey left off Friday, holding the Astros to six hits over eight scoreless innings in a 2-1 victory. The setback snapped Houston's five-game winning streak.
Santana has his own streak to protect.
The two-time Cy Young Award winner has thrown three consecutive complete games, though the last two lasted only eight innings as Santana found himself on the wrong end of one-run losses on the road. The first of those tough-luck losses was a 4-3 defeat in Houston in which Santana allowed four runs and nine hits over eight innings.
If he goes the distance on Saturday, Santana would become the first Mets pitcher since Dwight Gooden in 1988 to throw four consecutive complete games.
Santana has posted a 1.67 ERA over his past four starts, though he is only 2-2 during that stretch, a product of the poor run support that has hurt him all season. The Mets have averaged 2.93 runs in his 27 starts and have been shut out with Santana on the mound three times and limited to one run in six of his outings.
Santana is 2-2 with a 3.00 ERA in five appearances against the Astros, who initially signed him as an amateur free agent out of Venezuela in 1995. Outfielders Carlos Lee (12-for-39, three homers) and Hunter Pence (4-for-13, two homers) have given Santana trouble.
Although he has gone the distance only twice this season, Brett Myers (9-7, 3.08 ERA) has been a workhorse for the Astros. Myers has pitched at least six innings in each of his 26 starts to tie Larry Dierker's franchise record set in 1970.
Myers has been particularly strong over the past two months, going 4-1 with a 2.29 ERA in 10 starts in July and August. He has posted quality starts in nine of those 10 outings.
The 30-year-old right-hander didn't factor in the decision in a 3-2 loss to New York on Aug. 18. He allowed two runs and seven hits over seven innings. Myers is 9-6 with a 4.88 ERA in 28 career appearances against the Mets.
Myers probably won't have to worry about the Mets player who has had the most success against him. Jose Reyes, who is 15-for-47 (.319) against Myers, is nursing a strained right oblique, an injury that forced him to miss time earlier this season and flared up Thursday.
The Mets won without the benefit of an extra-base hit Friday, managing only three singles against Nelson Figueroa.
Third baseman David Wright went 0-for-3 to snap a six-game hitting streak, though he drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. Wright is 17-for-43 (.395) with four homers over his past 11 games.