Diamondbacks 5, Mets 3: Another Dreadful Day in the Desert

At this rate, it'll be a pleasant surprise if the Mets are able to finish the season with an 81 and 81 record.

Through the first three innings, Chris Capuano and Jason Marquis kept the game scoreless, but with two outs in the top of the third inning, Angel Pagan drilled a groundball single off Marquis' shin. He remained in the game to finish the inning and batted in the bottom of the third, but things got weird in the top of the fourth.

Lucas Duda began the inning with a solo shot to right field to put the Mets on the board, and one Jason Bay out later, Marquis hit Josh Thole with a pitch because his leg gave out during his delivery, causing both players to fall to the ground in pain at the same time. I'll bet you haven't seen that before. It turns out Marquis had broken his leg on the ball Pagan hit off his shin, but he was able to stay in the game a while before succumbing to the injury.

The Diamondbacks took the lead in the bottom of the inning when Capuano allowed singles to Ryan Roberts and Sean Burroughs before yielding a game-tying, ground-rule double to Paul Goldschmidt. With Henry Blanco at the plate, a wild pitch by Capuano allowed Arizona to take the lead. He got the next two outs, and the Mets reclaimed the lead in the fifth.

Angel Pagan singled, and Justin Turner followed up with a long double to tie the game. After David Wright grounded out, Lucas Duda hit a multi-hopper that found its way through the middle of the infield to put the Mets ahead by a run.

The Mets' lead didn't last very long because Justin Upton is in absolute beast mode this year. With two outs and nobody on - luckily - Upton hit a no-doubt bomb well into the left-center field seats to tie the game once again.

In the sixth inning, Jason Pridie led off with a single but got picked off first base with a 3-2 count to Ruben Tejada, and that effectively put an end to the Mets' half of the inning. Arizona took the lead back in their half of the inning on a pair of two-out doubles by Goldschmidt and, of course, Henry Blanco. Capuano's final line was typical of his recent work: 6 IP, 6 K, 0 BB, 4 runs.

The Mets had the chance to keep the seesaw in motion in the seventh inning as Pagan doubled and advanced to third on a long flyball out by Turner that Justin Upton ran a long way to catch. Micah Owings got out the inning unscathed, however, by striking out Wright, unintentionally-intentionally walking Duda, and striking out Bay. The Mets didn't make much noise in the eighth inning, either. 

Ryota Igarashi came on to pitch the bottom of the inning, and he was an unwatchable wreck on the mound. He started by continuing the weekend trend of hitting Diamondbacks with baseballs as he plunked Ryan Roberts. He then walked Burroughs and gave up a single to Goldschmidt to load the bases. Igarashi put the finishing touch on his horrendous outing by walking Blanco to give the Diamondbacks their fifth run of the game.

Terry Collins turned to Tim Byrdak, who did his job efficiently, retiring Lyle Overbay on a harmless short fly ball to left field, and was pulled in favor of Pedro Beato with righties coming up for Arizona. Beato got a soft liner right back to the mound by Willie Bloomquist, turned to third, turned to second, and then turned to first, where he still had plenty of time to double off Blanco and theoretically keep the Mets in the ballgame.

Unfortunately, David Hernandez came into the game for the Diamondbacks and retired the Mets in order to end the game, completing Arizona's sweep and handing the Mets their fifth straight defeat.

The Mets continue playing baseball tomorrow night at 10:05 pm in San Diego.

SB Nation Coverage

* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* AZ Snake Pit Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Lucas Duda, +22.0% WPA
Big losers: Chris Capuano, -21.6% WPA, David Wright, -19.2% WPA, Jason Bay, -17.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Justin Turner rib-eye double in the fifth, +16.0% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Henry Blanco rib-eye double in the sixth, -16.5% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -22.5% WPA
Total batter WPA: -27.5% WPA
GWRBI!: Henry Blanco

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.