Pittsburgh @ New York preview
Citi Field
Last Meeting ( Sep 13, 2010 ) Pittsburgh 0, NY Mets 1
Not a lot has gone right for the New York Mets in 2010, but R.A. Dickey sure has been a pleasant surprise.
Dickey will be looking to continue his career resurgence when the Mets face the Pittsburgh Pirates again on Tuesday.
A former first-round draft pick of the Texas Rangers in 1996, Dickey ascended slowly to the major leagues as the rarest of all pitchers - one without an ulner collateral ligament in his pitching arm. He survived as a swingman for Texas for parts of five seasons with a fastball that barely reached the high-80s and fringy breaking pitches.
When it became clear that his arsenal would not work in the majors, Dickey spent the better part of the next four years bouncing around the minors trying to perfect a hard knuckleball.
He gained some success with the pitch out of the Minesota Twins’ bullpen in 2009, posting a career-best 4.62 ERA in 35 appearances. But when no one would offer him a major league contract in the offseason, New York made one of the few smart moves of the franchise’s recent history and inked him to a minor league deal.
John Maine’s injury and Oliver Perez’s ineffectiveness opened the door for Dickey to make it back to the majors, and he has excelled in the National League.
The 35-year-old Dickey has allowed three runs or less in 17 of his 22 starts this season, providing the Mets with one of their most consistent performers. Dickey has managed to harness his knuckleball enough to not only fool hitters but to keep it in the strike zone, yielding just 34 walks in 145 1/3 total innings.
He picked up a win at the Washington Nationals last week when he allowed two runs and five hits in six innings without walking a batter.
A strong finish in September should clinch him a spot on New York's roster again next season, though with the expected front office turnover coming after the season, it’s not clear if any of the players will be back from the disappointing squad. Nevertheless, Dickey has proven that he still belongs on someone’s major league roster.
The Pirates will hand the ball to Zach Duke on Tuesday.
The left-hander, like his team, is crawling toward the finish line this season. He has allowed four runs in each of his last three starts, the last one coming in just one inning of work against the Atlanta Braves last week - his shortest outing of the season.
Duke is just 2-4 with a 6.37 ERA and a .331 batting average against since Aug. 1.
His best start in that span came against the Mets, however, when he earned a win after surrendering one run and five hits in seven innings. New York has never provided a huge challenge for Duke, who owns a 4-1 career record with a 2.91 ERA against the club in seven starts.
The Mets took the series opener, 1-0, on Monday when pinch hitter Nick Evans drove in Ruben Tejada in the bottom of the 10th inning for the walk-off win.