Mets 3, Padres 0: Jon Niese Draws Two Walks, Also Throws One-Hit Shutout

The topic of the 10:30 Wednesday Mets Mind-Boggler was "Mets Regular Season One-Hitters". By 9:30 PM Thursday, a new name was added to that list -- Jonathon Niese. The young lefty threw the game of his career, allowing just a 3rd inning double to Chris Denorfia and facing 28 batters, one over the minimum. Niese prevented a Padres doubleheader sweep and let fans stop worrying about Johan Santana, for a few hours at least. He also drew two walks. Maybe Eric "The Amazing Criswell" Simon should make the next Mets Mind Boggler topic "Mets Regular Season No-Hitters". Or, if he is feeling selfish, "Times Eric Simon Has Won The Lottery".

Niese never threw more than 17 pitches in an inning, and in five separate innings threw 10 or fewer pitches. He assaulted the strike zone -- his K/BB ratio was 6:0. It's now 45:19 on the season, which is excellent, especially considering his pretty 51% groundball rate. Niese's BABIP entering the game was .373 and it's much lower now. Regression is a beautiful thing, especially to a basement-dwelling saber-jerk such as myself. Let's hope Jonathon can keep that hamstring healthy and continue pitching great, alongside his boy Mike Pelfrey.

The Mets lineup improved over its feeble game one showing, but that's not saying much. Jose Reyes went 3-4 with a stolen base against Padres starter Jon Garland and Ike Davis added two hits. Jesus Feliciano had a rough go of it in his first MLB start -- 0-4 with a double play and just nine pitches seen. He's probably in Jerry's famous doghouse, meaning we'll never hear from him again. Also, Ruben Tejada grounded into a 5-4-3 triple play (video here).

Other random bullet thoughts, which don't really pertain to this game:

• Fernando Tatis has one plate appearance in June. Alex Cora has 12. I say start Tatis at second base when Ruben Tejada has a day off. Tatis is actually pretty decent.
• Jenrry Mejia's K/BB ratio is 1.23 and his xFIP is 4.69. Both are pedestrian. Bobby Parnell's K/BB last year as a reliever was 1.72, with an xFIP of 4.58. Mejia's groundball rate is far superior, but 2010 Mejia is basically 2009 Parnell. While Parnell is no relief ace, I'd wager he could equal Mejia's performance. Mejia to the minors, please.
• The game one gamethread today featured 54 users with a total of 1,223 comments. That's an average of 22.6 comments per user. Game two had 53 users and 975 comments, for an average of 18.4 comments per user. I participated in both and the discussion was funny, lively, and, dare I say, compelling.

To the chagrin of everyone, it's interleague play time again. The Orioles are up first on the docket, as the Mets travel to beautiful Camden Yards for a weekend series. I'll use that as an excuse to link two old posts I made about the Mets and The Wire, the brilliant HBO series set in Baltimore:

• Way Down In The Hole: The Wire And Gangsta Mets
• Farewell Carlos Delgado

R.A. Dickey faces Jeremy Guthrie tomorrow night. Guthrie is a control specialist with flyball tendencies -- maybe some dingers are in order?

Poem by Howard Megdal

Padre attack against Niese was quite meager
Their only hit was a mere Texas Leaguer
Niese was a thoroughbred, a bullet train
Pies are okay; this calls for champagne

SB Nation Coverage

* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Gaslamp Ball Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Jon Niese +40.5% (as pitcher), Jose Reyes +15.9%
Big losers: Ruben Tejada -14.8%, Jesus Feliciano -8.8%
Teh aw3s0mest play: Jose Reyes single +9.3%
Teh sux0rest play: Chris Denorfia double -7.1%
Total pitcher WPA: +40.5%
Total batter WPA: +9.5%
GWRBI!: Jeff Wincoeur

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by fxcarden; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.