The Mets scratched out a run in the first, thanks to their legs and some holey gloves on the part of the Rays. But Tampa Bay responded right away, taking advantage of a rusty Chris Young to load the bases and score twice. All was eerily quiet for a while thereafter, save for a few infuriating misplays by Mets outfielders confused by The Trop's baseball-colored roof. Young worked around trouble, while the Rays' Andrew Cobb set down 9 Mets in order.

Cobb's luck ran out in the top of the fifth, when a trio of two-out hits put the Mets back on top. They padded their lead on some more two-out magic in the seventh, scoring six times against Cobb and the Rays' bullpen. The rally was capped by a no-doubt three-run homer from Ike Davis (not a typo). Another two runs crossed the plate in the eighth, including the fourth RBI for Jordany Valdespin, who was DHing and therefore could not offset his run production with errors.

In short, a rare laugher for the Mets. Some more of those would be a nice palate cleanser between all the one-run seat squirmers. Wouldn't count on it, though,

Full recap to come.

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by BurleighGrimes; your effort in the game thread embiggens us all.