Friday night's game in Arizona was just about as dreadful as Thursday night's game was enjoyable. It's not obvious from the final score — Diamondbacks 11, Mets 5 — but the Mets did have an early lead in the contest before things went down the tubes really quickly.
Ike Davis hit a home run in the top of the second to put the Mets on the board first, and a two-out single by Andres Torres drove in the Mets' second run of the game.
To say things fell apart in the bottom of the inning would be an incredible understatement. The sequence of events was:
- Paul Goldschmidt grounded out to shortstop. Okay, that's good.
- Justin Upton singled. No big deal.
- Chris Young singled. Well, this isn't ideal.
- Stephen Drew singled to load the bases. Uh oh.
- Niese walked Henry Blanco to force in a run. Oh boy.
- Opposing pitcher Josh Collmenter hit a single to tie the game at two, and the bases were still loaded. Yikes.
- Willie Bloomquist hit a dribbler down the third base line, and Niese picked it up and threw to first. He had zero chance at getting an out on the play, and his throw went well wide of Ike Davis, bouncing down the right field line. Two more runs scored as a result. @#*&$@#
- Aaron Hill hit a sacrifice fly to center, and Arizona was ahead 6-2.
The Mets didn't really stand much of a chance from there, but David Wright temporarily resuscitated the Mets' effort with a three-run home run in the top of the third inning.
But Niese went on to allow a couple more runs, and Elvin Ramirez allowed three more runs in the seventh inning, effectively ending the game.
The Mets will attempt to bounce back on Saturday with Chris Young on the mound and Ian Kennedy opposing him for Arizona.
SB Nation Coverage
* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* AZ Snkae Pit Gamethread
Win Probability Added
Big winners: Jon Niese, -51.9% WPA
Big losers: Andres Torres, +11.0% WPA, David Wright, +10.2% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: David Wright's three-run home run in the third, +16.9% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Willie Bloomquist's infield single and the ensuing throwing error by Niese that scored three runs in the second, -19.7% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -56.9% WPA
Total batter WPA: +6.9% WPA
GWRBI!: n/a (Niese error)