Losing to the Yankees is bad enough in its own right, but doing so while losing Jose Reyes after two innings of play is considerably worse.
The early highlight of the game for the Mets came on Brett Gardner's attempt to reach base on a very good bunt. Daniel Murphy made a Wright-like barehanded pickup and threw Gardner out at first base. The Yankees didn't score in the first, and they wouldn't score through the first five innings as Dillon Gee looked great.
Reyes began the bottom of the first with an infield hit to second base, and it seemed like things were going well. Two batters later, Reyes awkwardly attempted to steal on a 3-2 pitch to Carlos Beltran, luckily returning to first base safely because Yankees' shortstop Eduardo Nunez mishandled the throw to second base from Russell Martin.
The Mets didn't score, and although Reyes played the field in the second inning, he was pulled from the game in the top of the third. The official word from the Mets was that Reyes was taken out for precautionary reasons because of tightness in his left hamstring. Uh oh.
Like the Yankees, the Mets didn't score through the first five innings, but they did make a few nice plays in the field to help keep the Yankees off the board. In the third, Lucas Duda threw out Eduardo Nunez at the plate on a one-out ground ball with the infield in. In the fourth, Jason Bay made a diving catch with two outs and the bases empty on a ball hit into the left-center field gap by Robinson Cano.
Their best chance to score came in the bottom of the fifth inning when, with one out, Bay, Duda, and Josh Thole all singled to load the bases. Gee came up to the plate, but with two strikes in the count, he swung, grounding to third for an easy double play to end the inning.
Then came the sixth inning. After getting a quick out, Gee quickly got into trouble. Curtis Granderson hit a solo home run to break the scoreless tie. Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez singled, and Cano followed with a triple down the right field line. Both runners scored easily, and the Mets were down 3-0. Nick Swisher then hit a fly ball to fairly deep left field, and Cano had no problem tagging up and scoring. The inning came to a merciful end when Justin Turner made an outstanding leaping catch on a line drive by Nunez.
Outside of a two-out double by Beltran, the Mets went down quietly in the bottom of the sixth, which would be Bartolo Colon's last inning. Colon needed only 80 pitches to go six innings, striking out six Mets and walking none.
Gee took the mound in the seventh and allow only a two-out walk to Granderson while pitching a scoreless inning. Like Colon, that was his last inning, and he did strike out seven while only walking two in his outing. Over his past few starts, Gee hasn't come crashing down to earth, but he definitely has regressed.
Most of the remainder of the game was pretty quiet. Cory Wade pitched a pair of scoreless innings for the Yankees, and Manny Acosta threw a scoreless inning for the Mets. Tim Bydrak allowed a solo home run to light-hitting Eduardo Nunez, who the Mets inexplicably can't get out in this series.
Sergio Mitre came on to pitch the ninth for the Yankees and allowed a leadoff double to Murphy, who advanced to third on a wild pitch. Mitre then walked Angel Pagan, and the Yankees started warming up Mariano Rivera with runners on the corners and nobody out. Pagan took second base before Bay grounded out to score Murphy. Duda, who had a great day the plate overall, replicated Bay's at-bat with a ground out of his own that scored Pagan.
The Yankees' lead had been cut to three runs, but the Mets had nobody on with two outs, and Josh Thole grounded out weakly to the mound to end the game.
The Mets attempt to avoid the sweep tomorrow at 1:10 pm with R.A. Dickey on the mound, and the Yankees will start Freddy Garcia.
SB Nation Coverage
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Pinstripe Alley Gamethread
Win Probability Added
Big winners: Josh Thole, +3.8% WPA
Big losers: Dillon Gee (hitting), -20.9% WPA, Dillon Gee (pitching), -15.4% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Josh Thole single to load the bases in the fifth, +8.0% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Curtis Granderson solo home run and Robinson Cano two-run triple in the sixth, -19.1% WPA each
Total pitcher WPA: -15.4% WPA
Total batter WPA: -34.6% WPA
GWRBI!: Robinson Cano
Game Thread Roll Call
Nice job by Evan_S; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.
Num | Name | # of Posts |
---|---|---|
1 | Evan_S | 74 |
2 | aparkermarshall | 72 |
3 | Joseph Kirby | 65 |
4 | santana9237 | 47 |
5 | CTRefJay | 44 |
6 | Syler | 38 |
7 | MetsFan4Decades | 36 |
8 | tmu | 36 |
9 | ScottfromPeekskill | 29 |
10 | Shevshevy | 28 |