The good news for R.A. Dickey is that the writers who choose the Cy Young Award winners have, in a couple instances, looked past pitchers' wins over the past few years. It's not that Dickey can't or won't finish the year with the most wins in the National League — he still has 18 — but the Mets' offense clearly isn't going to help his cause in that regard.
For what felt like the hundredth straight game, the Mets just couldn't put together anything at the plate. Sure, they were facing Cliff Lee, a very formidable opponent, but lately it seems like every opposing pitcher is Cliff Lee.
Dickey began the game by striking out Jimmy Rollins, but Mike Nickeas, who was somehow starting over Kelly Shoppach, let the ball get past him. Rollins reached first base safely, and he later scored on a sacrifice fly by Chase Utley. LOLMets, naturally.
Dickey wound up pitching seven innings, and he struck out eight and issued just one intentional walk. He allowed solo home runs to Rollins and Domonic Brown in the fifth and seventh innings, respectively, and the combined trio of runs was far too much for the Mets to match on Monday night.
Aside from Daniel Murph's run-scoring single in the fifth inning, the Mets were putrid at the plate. Mets hitters struck out ten times against Cliff Lee and once more against the detestable Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth for good measure. Ruben Tejada drew the lone walk of the evening as the Mets saw just 123 pitches on the night. Scott Hairston was particularly inefficient: 0-for-4 on just 12 pitches.
At this point of the season, there's not much to get excited about besides individual achievements, but it sure would be nice if the Mets' bats would wake up over the next couple of days to help diminish the Phillies' odds of sneaking into the wild card game. As of Monday morning, Baseball Prospectus still had their chance at postseason play at 0.4 percent. Here's hoping the math wins out.
SB Nation Coverage
* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* The Good Phight Gamethread
Win Probability Added
Big winners: Robert Carson, +2.6% WPA
Big losers: Scott Hairston, -13.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Daniel Murphy's Blue Collar Bloop in the fifth, +11.0% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Domonic Brown's solo home run in the seventh, -12.4% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +0.3% WPA
Total batter WPA: -50.3% WPA
GWRBI!: Jimmy Rollins