Streaky Ike Davis, Splits by runs allowed, Byrdak v. Harvey

It has been a streaky season for Ike Davis here in 2012. The Mets hope that his 2-for-4 performance Thursday night which featured a double and a homer is an indication that Davis is about to go on another tear. On a team struggling to find power, the Mets need Davis to be a threat in the middle of the order if their offense is going to be productive.

After bottoming out on June 5th, when he had a .501 OPS after 53 games, Davis posted a .281/.341/.647 line over his next 170 PA, which included 15 HR in 153 ABs. But after a 4-for-4 game with 3 HR on July 28th, Davis hit the skids with a stretch to rival his season-opening downer in production, if not length. In 58 PA prior to Thursday, Davis had a .507 OPS and this came with him sitting out several games against tough LHP.

Davis extended his homerless streak to 59 PA before connecting in the fourth inning on a deep blast. In addition to his solo shot, Davis also drove in a run with his double in the ninth. He now has 65 RBIs, which is second on the team and only 10 behind leader David Wright. Davis has a 15.12 OBI% while Wright has an 18.27 mark

RUNS SPLIT – Because of Frank Franciso’s ninth-inning meltdown, the Reds finished with four runs in Thursday’s win for the Mets. It was just the 15th time all season that the Mets won a game where they had allowed four or more runs. Here are the team’s records in splits by runs allowed:

Three or fewer: 41-4
Four or more: 15-58

Here it is by runs allowed:

0: 10-0
1: 18-0
2: 8-1
3: 5-3
4: 5-10
5: 7-9
6: 2-10
7: 1-7
8+ 0-22

BAXTER KEEPS HITTING – An RBI single in the sixth inning Thursday night gave Mike Baxter a modest six-game hitting streak. Baxter is now starting most games where the opposing team throws a RHP. He’s appeared in 10 games in the month of August, all starts, and has a .450 OBP. Unfortunately, he has just a .717 OPS in that span, which tracks well with his OPS in games started here in 2012. Baxter has a .739 OPS in 23 games as a starter and a 1.234 OPS in 29 games where he comes in off the bench.

INJURY UPDATE – This season does not seem as bad as the past few years in terms of injuries for the Mets. However, that is mostly an illusion due to the fact that the team’s biggest stars have avoided lengthy DL stays. When the Mets put Tim Byrdak on the DL, it was the 16th time since the beginning of April that the team used the disabled list. For a comparison, the Braves have used the DL nine times since April and the Yankees eight times. Byrdak went on the DL on August 2nd, making today the 15th-straight day without the Mets putting a player on the disabled list, a season-high.

GOOD PITCHING OR BAD HITTING? – In the past week, the Mets have seen two of the best pitching performances from opposing teams, as rated by Game Score, that they have all season. Paul Maholm put up a Game Score of 86, the second-highest mark against the Mets this year, when he tossed a three-hit shutout on August 10th. Mike Leake put up a 79, the fourth-best mark, with his complete-game, four-hit effort five days later.

HARVEY VERSUS BYRDAK – In his fifth game of the year with the Mets, Matt Harvey hurled 7.2 strong innings to pick up his second win of the season. Harvey now has 30 IP on the season, almost an identical amount to the 30.2 IP of Byrdak in 56 games. Since their innings totals are so similar, let’s compare their overall stats.

Since fWAR uses FIP instead of ERA, the gap between them is not very big. But if we were to use the WAR from Baseball-Reference we would see Byrdak with a 0.0 bWAR and Harvey with a 0.9 bWAR, helped out by hit 0.2 from hitting.

THE WRONG KIND OF CONSISTENCY – Since taking three out of four games from the Giants, the Mets have lost four consecutive series, each by a 2-1 margin. The Mets start a three-game series against the Nationals Friday night. The Mets went 1-2 against the Nationals the first three times they’ve met this season. Last series the Nationals swept all three games.