Tres vs Texas

The Texas Rangers are the ultimate in polar opposites, making for a .500 record of 34-34.

They are the best hitting team in MLB (Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Milton Bradley).
And they also have the worst pitching in MLB. (Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla (default ace), Scott Feldman, Kason Gabbard).

They even have a manager in Ron Washington who weathered an early headhunting this season as many were calling for his firing.

The good news is that the Mets starting pitching has been ranged anywhere from adequate (Maine, Pedro) to good (Perez) to fantastic (Pelfrey, Santana) over the past 9 games.

The bad news is the Mets' bullpen. A 4.14 bullpen ERA is 13th in the NL. In losing six of their last seven, the relievers have a 7.43 ERA, and Wagner is 0-1 with a 23.14 ERA in his last three appearances.

The Mets are 4-7 in June going into the series against the Rangers, and they're in desperate need of series wins. After winning series against Florida, Los Angeles and San Francisco, going 7-3 over those games, the team then lost 6 out of 7 games, losing 4 straight to San Diego and dropping 2 out of 3 to Arizona.

The pitching matchups definitely favor the Mets, even with the shaky bullpen that has reared its head over the past week. The problem is offense. The Mets bats are wildly inconsistent and sputter to score runs and there's no rhyme nor reason as to when/why their bats will heat up or cool down. Texas doesn't have that problem.

It goes without saying that the Mets must win this series before they go back on the road to face an extremely tough AL West-leading Angels, and another 3 against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver. The same very weak NL West basement-dwelling team that took 2 of 3 from New York over Memorial Day Weekend.

The season isn't over yet, but the clock is ticking for the turnaround.