Mets Lose Again
The New York Mets rallied to tie the game with two in the top of the ninth only to give the game away in the bottom of the inning. Dan Uggla singled with two out in the bottom of the ninth off Pedro Feliciano to give the Florida Marlins a 7-6 victory.
After striking out the first two batters of the inning Feliciano (2-3) gave up a double to Jorge Cantu. Then Uggla singled up the middle and Cantu beat the throw from center fielder Jesus Feliciano.
It was a back and forth affair, with each team overcoming three run deficits. The Mets went up 1-0 as Jason Bay hit a sac fly in the first. Then they went up 3-0 in the top of the third after Jose Reyes doubled in Ruben Tejada and Angel Pagan hit a sac fly to drive in Reyes.
It could have been more but David Wright was thrown out twice, each time ending innings. Once, in the first after Pagan scored on the sac fly, Wright tried to move up to second, and in the third when he was thrown out stealing second.
The Marlins got to Hisanori Takahashi in the bottom of the third. He had retired the first eight batters he faced before opposing pitcher Nate Robertson singled to center. It was all downhill from there. After he loaded the bases, Hanley Ramirez emptied them with a grand slam to left center and the Marlins were now up 4-3.
It was the eighth grand slam that the Mets have allowed, which leads the major leagues.
Takahashi allowed the fifth consecutive batter to reach base when Cantu doubled, then Uggla homered to put the Marlins up 6-3. Neither of the homers would have left the yard at Citi Field, but were both round trippers in Hiram Bithorn Stadium.
The Mets cut into the lead in the 7th inning when Jeff Francoeur singled in Fernando Tatis to make the score 6-4.
Trailing 6-4 in the ninth, the Mets rallied off Marlins closer Leo Nunez. Rob Barajas led off the inning with a single, then pinch hitter Chris Carter doubled. Francoeur grounded out to drive home Barajas.
Josh Thole -pinch hitting for Tejada- singled through a drawn-in infield to tie the game at 6. Nunez was able to get the next two outs to keep the game tied heading into the bottom of the inning where Uggla won the game.
The Mets try to avoid the sweep with Mike Pelfrey (10-2, 2.71 ERA) on the mound.
Mets Drop Opener
The New York Mets left the country and got hammered in the opening game of the series with the Florida Marlins 10-3. The Marlins pounded out six extra base hits and gave R.A. Dickey (6-1) his first loss of the season.
The Marlins didn’t waste the chances they were given. They took the lead in the first inning without a hit. A walk and stolen base by Chris Coghlan moved him into scoring position, after a sacrifice moved him to third, he scored on an error by Jose Reyes. They left a total of just two men on base all game.
The Mets got the run back in the second on the first of two homeruns by Jason Bay, but it would get no better from there.
In the third inning the Marlins broke it open. Pitcher Ricky Nolasco opened the inning with a ground rule double. The Marlins added a pair of doubles in the inning and by the time the dust settled it was 5-1.
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That was all Nolasco (7-6) needed as he retired 15 straight Mets at one point. He struck out nine and made only two real mistakes, both of which were hit out of the park by Bay. This was the second time this season that Bay has hit two homers in the same game, an odd stat for someone with just six homeruns for the entire season.
The Mets bullpen was roughed up allowing five runs and three homeruns in the final three innings. Fernando Nieve allowed a pair of homeruns in his two innings, and Ryota Igarashi allowed the last in his single inning of work.
The Mets look to rebound tonight with Hisanori Takahashi (6-3, 3.78 ERA) on the mound.
Mets Bomb Twins
The New York Mets hit three homeruns and Jon Niese pitched six shutout innings as the Mets took the finale from the Minnesota Twins 6-0.
Jeff Francoeur and David Wright each hit two-run homeruns and Ike Davis connected for a long homerun onto the Shea Bridge above the bullpens. The three homers the Mets hit on Sunday in the 4th & 5th innings were as many hits as they had in all nine innings on Saturday.
“[Davis] crushed that one, he’s got stupid pop,” Francoeur said. “I said to David, ‘Mine went farther.’ David said, ‘Mine went out faster.’ Then Ike his that one, and we both shut up.”
The homerun by Davis in the 5th inning came after the one by Wright and it was the second time the Mets have hit back-to-back homers this season. The homerun was the 154th of Wright’s career and tied him with Dave Kingman for 4th on the Mets all time list. Up next on the list is Howard Johnson with 192.
Wright is already the Mets franchise leader in doubles and is two or three seasons away from moving into the top spot in numerous other offensive categories including RBIs, extra base hits, runs, hits and base on balls.
On the other end of the Mets spectrum is Jesus Feliciano, who had his second three-hit game in the past four games (all in relief of Angel Pagan) and now has nine career hits. Francoeur became the third Met on this homestand to miss the cycle by just one leg, in this case Frenchy was lacking the triple.
Jon Niese (5-2) pitched six innings for the win. He allowed just four hits and three walks while striking out five. He has been wonderful since coming off the DL and is 4-0 in June with an 2.67 ERA. Niese should be 5-0 but could not make it through the fifth inning in the blowout/rain-delayed win against the Tigers in his most recent start.
Elmer Dessens, Pedro Feliciano and Bobby Parnell each pitched a scoreless inning to close out the victory for the Mets. The shutout was the 11th for the Mets this season, which leads the majors.
The Mets finished 13-5 in interleague play this season, the most wins ever by the Mets in interleague play. Along with the Braves loss, the Mets climbed back to just a half game out of first. They have won 14 of their last 17 at home.
The Mets head to Puerto Rico next to take on the Marlins for a three game series then on to Washington DC for a four game set against the Nationals. The Mets should get their first shot at Stephen Strasburg in the Sunday finale on the Fourth of July. Talk about fireworks.
Mets, Twins Split First Two Games
On Friday night the New York Mets got the big hit from David Wright they didn’t get on Thursday. Trailing 1-0 in the fourth inning Wright came through with a double to left that scored Jose Reyes to tie the game.
Wright would come around to score after Ike Davis singled and Denard Span’s throw to home got away from the catcher. Wright -who had initially held up at third- was able to sprint home as no one was covering the plate. He added a homer in the sixth that finished the scoring as the New York Mets defeated the Minnesota Twins 5-2.
Wright leads the NL in RBIs with 59 and is second with a WAR rating of 3.6. WAR is recent stat and it stands for Wins Above Replacement. Basically it asks the question, “If this player got hurt and the team had to replace them with a minor leaguer or bench player, how much value would the team be losing?” So, without Wright this year, the Mets would have 3.6 fewer wins.
The WAR stat isn’t an average, its a running total, so expect Wright’s numbers to go up. The leader last year in the NL was Albert Pujols (9.2), who has been the NL leader every year since 2005. Anything above 8 is considered MVP level. Wright’s best year was 2007 when his WAR was 7.8, coincidentally it was also his highest MVP finish, fourth.
Mike Pelfrey won his 10th game by pitching six long innings. Despite only allowing six hits, two runs and walking no one, he threw 117 pitches. That’s a ton of pitches for just six innings, an average of over five per batter he faced. Without walking anyone and striking out just two, totals like that are seldom seen. He had three battles that lasted 10 or more pitches.
Pelfrey (10-2) was picked up by the pen. Bobby Parnell and Pedro Feliciano pitched perfect innings in the 7th & 8th and Francisco Rodriguez got his 17th save in working the 9th. As is his habit, if its a save situation K-Rod must make it exciting. He put two men on before getting the final two outs.
Reyes had two hits and continues his great play from the lead off spot. Jason Bay had an RBI double, and at 31 was the oldest Mets position player on the field. The Mets continue their youth movement, in addition to Ike Davis and Ruben Tejada getting the call up this year, Josh Thole got his first start of the season, replacing Rod Barajas, and looks to be the catcher of the future.
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On Saturday afternoon it was a different story for the Mets. Carl Pavano allowed just three hits in throwing a complete-game shutout as the Minnesota Twins defeated the New York Mets 6-0.
Johan Santana recent struggles continued and he was knocked around as the Mets fell behind 4-0 before they even batted. Santana barely survived the first inning, an inning during which he threw 41 pitches. The trouble was that his old team was able to lay off his best pitch, the change up.
“I think that when you’re playing with a team so long or faced a guy so long you tend to pick up things,” Mets manager Jerry Manuel said. “Today early you didn’t see many swings — or attempts — at the changeup. And then when he began to mix other pitches in you started to see that they were swinging at some changeups and missing.”
Over his last four starts Santana is 1-3 with an ERA of 5.96 and has allowed four or more runs in each of those starts. This is way up from his first 12 starts, during which he was 4-2 with a 2.76 ERA and had only allowed four or more runs three times.
The Mets continued the trend of not scoring many runs for Santana and Saturday was the second straight game in which they didn’t score a run for him. In five of his previous six starts the Mets have scored two or fewer runs in support of him. On Saturday they had just one runner in scoring position.
On Sunday the Mets try to avoid losing their first home series since mid-May by throwing Jon Niese. He tries to continue his red hot June (3-0, 3,25 ERA) by facing off Scott Baker.
Mets Drop Final Game Against Tigers
The New York Mets lost the final game of the series to the Detroit Tigers 6-5. Mets starter Hisanori Takahashi couldn’t make it out of the 5th inning as the Mets fell behind 6-1. They were able to close the gap to 6-5 but couldn’t get the big hit when they needed it.
The Mets were able to close the gap to 6-4 in the sixth inning off of Armando Galarraga (3-1), who got his first win since his “perfect-game-that-wasn’t” . Jose Reyes led off the inning with a walk and went to third on a single by Jesus Feliciano. David Wright followed with a double. After a ground out that scored another run, Jason Bay singled home Wright to make the score 6-4.
In the seventh the Mets had the bases loaded with one out and Wright at the plate. This time the third baseman failed to get the hit that could have put the Mets ahead as he struck out swinging. Ike Davis followed by flying out to center to end the inning with the score 6-5. That was all the Mets were able to get and they dropped the final game of the series.
Continuing his season of polar opposite starts Takahashi fell to 6-3. He has started seven games this season and he has either been really good, or really bad. In his four good starts he has allowed just one run in 25 innings (0.36 ERA), walked four and no homeruns. In his three bad starts he has allowed 16 runs in 13.1 innings (10.80 ERA), walked eight and given up five home runs. If the pattern holds he should get hammered in his next start as well. So far he’s been two good starts, two bad starts, rinse and repeat.
The Mets finish the homestand and their interleague play with three games against the Minnesota Twins.
