Of all the awful games the Mets have ever had at Yankee Stadium, this one ranks somewhere in the middle. Well, maybe it ranks lower than that, but the Mets have really had some awful losses to the Yankees in the Bronx over the years.
The first inning went well for both starting pitchers, but after the Mets went down in order in the second, Johan Santana issued a leadoff walk to Alex Rodriguez, and Robinson Cano drilled the first pitch he saw for a two-run home run to put the Yankees on the board.
An inning later, Santana had two outs with Rodriguez at the plate again, and he got ahead in the count. Unfortunately, Rodriguez singled, and Cano once again homered on the first pitch he saw. Nick Swisher hit a solo shot next, and Andruw Jones, of all people, hit one, too. In the blink of an eye, Santana had allowed four home runs and six runs in total. He stayed in the game to finish the fourth and fifth innings, but it was yet another horrible start for Santana in the new Yankee Stadium. It's a stretch, but if there was an upside in his outing, it was that Santana had 5 strikeouts to just 1 walk.
Hiroki Kuroda, on the other hand, was making the Mets look foolish at the plate. He hand't allowed a hit until Omar Quintanilla hit a two-out double in the sixth inning. If Curtis Granderson hadn't been playing extremely shallow, he probably could have caught the ball. Luckily, he couldn't get to it, and Kuroda's early no-hit bid was over.
Elvin Ramirez came on in relief of Santana, and he struggled, to say the least. In 1.2 innings, he gave up 3 runs and issued 4 walks without recording a strikeout. It's still too early to judge what Ramirez might be capable of at this level, but he's looked bad so far. The major concern with Ramirez was control, and his inability to limit walks has unsurprisingly resurfaced after a short stint in Buffalo in which he issued none.
Miguel Batista finished off Ramirez's second inning with an out, and Jon Rauch threw a scoreless frame before the Mets plated a courtesy run on a Lucas Duda double in the ninth.
All in all, it was a very poor game. The Mets will try to bounce back tomorrow at 7:15 pm. Dillon Gee takes the mound for the Mets, while Phil Hughes does so for the Yankees.
SB Nation Coverage
* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Pinstripe Alley Gamethread
Win Probability Added
Big winners: None. No Mets player had a positive WPA.
Big losers: Johan Santana, -27.1% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Derek Jeter's GIDP in the second, +4.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Robinson Cano's two-run home run in the second, -15.0% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -27.4% WPA
Total batter WPA: -22.6% WPA
GWRBI!: Robinson Cano