Is anyone else disappointed in themselves for getting a little excited there?
The Mets trailed from the first inning on, but rallied to score two runs in the seventh to cut the deficit to 5-3. An RBI triple by Ike Davis chased home David Wright and Jeff Francoeur followed with an RBI single that plated Davis. Manny Acosta and Bobby Parnell held the Marlins at bay in tops of the eighth and ninth innings, setting things up for bottom-of-the-ninth drama for the second straight night.
Wright led off with a mighty blast over the center field wall off of closer Leo Nunez, narrowing the score to 5-4. I got out of my chair and stood there watching like a slack-jawed goon as if the game meant anything. The odds were still long on a Mets comeback, but things were percolating and I wanted to be in proper celebrating position should the unlikely somehow happen.
With none out and down a run, Davis came to the plate with designs on doing something special. Unfortunately, Davis had already reached his one-hit limit with the aforementioned eighth-inning triple, so he reluctantly popped out to second for the first out of the ninth. Francoeur, showing blatant disregard for the agreed-upon "one hit" rule bounced a single to center for his second hit of the game. A Josh Thole single moved Francoeur to second with the would-be tying run, and a Mike Hessman ground out left runners on the corners with two outs and Luis Castillo, Tuesday night's hero, approaching the dish.
Castillo cut right through the tension with a four-pitch walk to load the bases, leaving the game in the hands of Jose Reyes. As "Jose, Jose, Jose, Jose"s rained down from the seats above, Reyes took a first-pitch strike from Nunez and grounded the next pitch meekly to Gaby Sanchez at first, who flipped it to Nunez for the game's final out.
I sat down, humbled and nonplussed. I'm still not sure why I stood up in the first place; I had to know it would end like this.
Other things:
- Pat Misch is a mild ground ball pitcher but he gave up far more fly balls tonight than usual. He induced seven swinging strikes in 82 pitches, an 8.5% rate (average for starting pitchers is 7.8%).
- The Mets' first three hitters -- Reyes, Angel Pagan, and Carlos Beltran -- went 0-for-12 with a walk. Not only was the table not set, but little Jimmy took a dump on it and then kicked out one of the legs.
- The Mets struck out just once as a team tonight; it was only the third time this season they struck out fewer than twice. Once was last week against the Pirates when Beltran was the only whiff victim. On May 25, no Met struck out in an 8-0 win over the Phillies.
- Josh Thole's .376 on-base percentage leads the team. It's 90 points higher than Francoeur's and 52 points higher than Davis's. First base (.817) and right field (.779) have the highest collective OPSes by position in the NL this season. Catcher (.709) has the lowest.
Jon Niese takes on Anibal Sanchez at 7:10pm on Thursday night.
Poem by Howard Megdal
Mets victories are
Like found money in your coat
Quickly lost again
SB Nation Coverage
* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* FishStripes Gamethread
Win Probability Added
Big winners: Josh Thole, +29.2% WPA, David Wright, +10.0% WPA
Big losers: Jose Reyes, -36.7% WPA, Pat Misch, -17.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Thole single in ninth, +12.0% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Reyes ground out to end game, -26.8% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -16.2% WPA
Total batter WPA: -33.8% WPA
GWRBI!: Hanley Ramirez
Game Thread Roll Call
Nice job by MookieTheCat; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.
| Num | Name | # of Posts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | MookieTheCat | 87 |
| 2 | Gina | 83 |
| 3 | jdon | 68 |
| 4 | Evan_S | 68 |
| 5 | aparkermarshall | 57 |
| 6 | Syler | 50 |
| 7 | Michkin | 49 |
| 8 | fxcarden | 48 |
| 9 | Brian. | 29 |
| 10 | secret defense | 18 |