The Mets continued one half of their 2011 m.o. -- taking care of business vs. bad teams, struggling against good teams. And the Nationals, featuring Alex Cora and Ivan Rodriguez in their starting lineup, are bad. Like Jon Niese last night, Dillon Gee held the hapless Nats scoreless deep into the game. Gee didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning and finished with an effective but not dominant line of 7.2 innings, 3 strikeouts, 3 walks, 2 hits and 0 runs. He also induced more groundballs than flyballs, a welcome oddity considering his flyball profile.
Frank Rodriguez allowed a double to Laynce Nix in the ninth inning, briefly portending a horrible meltdown. But he closed the door with some help from a great defensive play by Justin Turner and an atrocious call against the Nats by first base umpire Phil Cuzzi. Nats manager Jim "Smartball" Riggleman unsuccessfully pleaded his case after it appeared Jayson Werth was safe at first after a groundball to Turner with one out in the ninth inning and Nix on second. Here's a still of the play:
Nice job by Daniel Murphy selling the play but it appears that Murph's foot is off the bag and Werth beat or tied the throw. Whatever, I'll take it. Adam LaRoche followed with a weak groundout to end the game.
Livan Hernandez continued to devour the Mets, allowing just one run in seven innings with seven strikeouts. He threw a 61 mph pitch today. One run was sufficient though as Turner's RBI single in the fourth inning held up. Jason Bay went 3-for-4 with a double. All three base hits were well struck.
The Mets won the battle for fourth place and now sit at 21-22 heading into the Yankees series. Neither CC Sabathia nor Bartolo Colon will pitch for the Yanks this weekend so there is a nice opportunity to start Monday at .500 or better. Tomorrow night's game starts at 7:10 and the pitching matchup is R.A. Dickey vs. Freddy Garcia.
Wayne Hagin-ism of the game: "Guess who's coming to dinner? It's not Sidney Poitier, it's Justin Turner!" -- via Catsmeat
SB Nation Coverage
* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Federal Baseball Gamethread
Win Probability Added
Big winners: Dillon Gee +44.0% (as pitcher), Frank Rodriguez +14.2%
Big losers: Daniel Murphy -11.1%, Jose Reyes -8.5%
Teh aw3s0mest play: Justin Turner RBI single +14.3%
Teh sux0rest play: Laynce Nix double -13.6%
Total pitcher WPA: +68.7%
Total batter WPA: -18.7%
GWRBI!: Justin Turner
Game Thread Roll Call
Nice job by mistermet; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.
| Num | Name | # of Posts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | mistermet | 77 |
| 2 | David G | 65 |
| 3 | graves9 | 46 |
| 4 | Syler | 45 |
| 5 | Russ | 42 |
| 6 | Seaver73 | 28 |
| 7 | TKFJ | 23 |
| 8 | The real Julio from Paterson | 22 |
| 9 | The Frito Pundito | 21 |
| 10 | dcmetsfan | 21 |