Morning News: Firings, deGrom, What's Next.

Immediately following the Mets 5-3 loss to the Pirates on Memorial Day afternoon, Sandy Alderson pulled the plug on hitting coach Dave Hudgens after four years of being the Mets' hitting coach. Hudgens has been a close friend of Sandy's dating all the way back to his day's as Oakland A's minor league hitting coach and talent evaluator.

Lamar Johnson will replace Hudgens. Lamar had been serving as the team's minor league hitting instructor.

According to Hudgens, the team's offensive struggles at home can be attributed to the size of the ballpark and criticism from fans. Hudgens will be a guest on the Mike Francesa show today on WFAN at 3:00 PM.

In addition to the Hudgens firing, the Mets also released reliever Jose Valverde after his late game meltdown yesterday at Citi Field. Vic Black will be called up from Tripkle-A to take his place.

In yesterday's loss, Jacob deGrom lowered his ERA to 1.86 after tossing 6.2 shut out innings. The first two innings got shaky for Jacob,  as he needed 50 pitches to work in and out of trouble. deGrom will most certainly stay in the rotation when and if Dillon Gee returns.

Next up, the Mets continue their three game series with the Pirates at Citi Field when Jon Neise (3-3 2.70 ERA) faces Edison Volquez (2-4, 4.37 ERA) at 7:10 PM.