New York, NY (WFAN) -- The Mets head south to face their long-time rivals the Atlanta Braves and then go west to take on the defending National League Champion Colorado Rockies.
After missing him in their first two series with the Braves in April, the Mets are scheduled to face Tom Glavine Tuesday afternoon in the first game of the day-night doubleheader. Glavine's career record against the Mets is 16 and 7 with a 2.86 earned run average in his 35 lifetime outings against New York. His last start against the Mets at Turner Field was back on June 6, 2002. Glavine went seven innings for the win and John Smoltz got the save in the 3-2 Atlanta victory.
Glavine, Smoltz and Chipper Jones are the only current players from either team who appeared in that game. The last time the Mets defeated Glavine at Turner Field was back on September 20, 2000. Glavine allowed three runs in six innings, two coming on solo homers from Edgardo Alfonzo and Todd Zeile. Glavine's only other loss to the Mets at Turner Field (which became the Braves home park in 1997) was on July 11, 1997 in which he gave up eight runs in 7 and 1/3 innings in a 9-7 Mets win. Overall, Glavine is 5 and 2 with four no-decisions in his 11 games vs. the Mets at Turner Field.
The Braves took both meetings of the rain-shortened two game series against the Mets at Turner Field last month, 11-5 and 3-1. Kelly Johnson hit a pinch-hit grand slam in the first game of that set, one of five homers and four of 18 runs batted in that Johnson has collected vs. the Mets in his 28 career games against them.
From this date one year ago to now, the Mets have gone 83 and 79 thru a season equivalent 162 games. Here are the overall N.L. East standings over this span:
- Philadelphia - 92-73
- NY Mets - 83-79
- Atlanta - 81-83
- Washington - 77-87
- Florida - 76-87
This weekend, the Mets will play the first of two series in Colorado against the Rockies. The Mets were swept in their lone trip to Coors Field in 2007. The Rockies outscored the Mets 34-12 in those three games and out-homered New York seven to two. The Mets will face the Rockies again in Denver in June and at Shea in July just prior to the all-star break.
Last week it was announced that Willie Randolph will be one of Clint Hurdle's coaches when the Colorado manager leads the N.L. All-Stars in the mid-summer classic. Casey Stengel (1962 at both D.C. Stadium & Wrigley Field for the N.L.'s manager Fred Hutchinson of the Reds and 1964 at Shea for Walter Alston of the Dodgers) and Davey Johnson (1986 at the Astrodome for Whitey Herzog of the Cardinals) were the only other Mets managers to serve as coaches in the All-Star game.
Claudio Vargas made his Mets debut last week, joining Jason Vargas, who is currently on the disabled list for the Mets after hip surgery back in March, as the second player with the last name of Vargas in club history. The Vargas's will need a lot of help however to climb the list of players with the same last names on the Mets all-time roster. Jones is the most common name in club history. Eight Jones's have played for the Mets: two Bobby's, Barry, Chris, Cleon, Randy, Ross and Sherman.
There have been six players named Johnson: two Bob's, Ben, Howard, Lance and Mark. Five other last names have been shared by as many as five players in Mets history: Hernandez, Miller, Smith, Taylor and Wilson.
