R.I.P. 2013 Mets for real, you guys.
After plating 19 runs in the season's first two games, the New York offense flatlined this afternoon, scoring just once against Padres starter Eric Stults and a cadre of five relievers. The Mets connected for a meager five hits with a full 60% of those three coming off the Eric Simon-trolling bat of Justin Turner. Despite drawing five walks to go with the quintet of safeties, the home team couldn't get a runner past second base until John Buck's ninth inning home run. The cause of the power outage? An extreme lack of contact from the heart of the order. Batters three through six batters combined to strikeout eleven times in 16 plate appearances.
It's a shame the Mets couldn't do anything offensively because Dillon Gee made a rather impressive return to the Citi Field mound for the first time since being diagnosed with a blood clot in his throwing shoulder last July. He struggled with his control a bit, walking three and tossing just 53% of his pitches for strikes, but overall he looked a lot like the pitcher he was prior to the emergency surgery that ended his 2012 season. All told, Gee fanned four and held the Padres to three hits in six and a third. Unfortunately, he allowed all three consecutively. Mark Kotsay and Yonder Alonso stroked back-to-back singles in the fourth, then rookie Jedd Gyorko brought home the lead runner with a double to pick up his first big league RBI.
Jeurys Familia pretty much single-handedly put the Pads ahead for good in the eighth. The hard-chucking reliever made an inauspicious 2013 debut by walking the first batter he faced, Chris Denorfia. Denorfia moved to third on Alonso's second hit of the day, then scored the game's decisive tally when Familia uncorked a nasty, nose-diving, and totally off the mark slider into the dirt at the back of the left-handed batter's box. Josh Edgin and Brandon Lyon helped put out the fire, but given the whifftastic tendencies of Mets hitters on the day, the dream of a 162-0 season was already charred to a ID-the-victim-via-dental-records crisp to that point. 2014 or bust!
Roll call to come...