Mets vs. Dodgers Recap: Mets dominated by Kershaw

Tonight, the Mets were coming off a crushing loss to the Nationals and returned home having gone a disappointing 2-4 on one of the most important road trips of their season. And to get back on the horse, they gave the ball to Bartolo Colon in hopes that he would stop pitching like Bryce Harper’s dad and more like the accurate and infinitely humorous Bartolo we all love. If nothing else, tonight was an opportunity for the Mets to make a statement. To re-assert themselves as playoff contenders. To show the NL East and all of Major League Baseball . . . ("Hmm? What was that? Kershaw, did you say? Ahhhhh.")

Yeah, never mind.

In all fairness to Colon, the Mets' starter threw better than he had in a while tonight. He scattered five hits over eight innings of work, struck out three, and clearly regained the command that is so critical to his game. His only blunder came in the third against—who else—Jimmy Rollins. The Dodgers' shortstop and enemy to all that is good and right with the world hit a solo home run in the top of that inning and put the Dodgers up 1-0. Other than that, Colon kept the Amazins in it and seemed to get stronger as the game went on.

On the other side of things the Mets' hitting was, as to be expected, agonizingly impotent. You know your offense is terrible when you go into games praying you’re not going to get no-hit. Those prayers went ignored for two-thirds of tonight’s contest as Clayton Kershaw decided to set the Mets down in order until the seventh inning.

Mercifully, there was no perfect game for Kershaw tonight, as in the seventh that notorious lefty-killer Curtis Granderson scooped a single into right, cueing a collective exhale from Mets fans everywhere. A batter later, Wilmer Flores got the second hit of the night, and all of a sudden the Mets had the go-ahead run on base with one out, but naturally that ended quickly thanks to a John Mayberry strikeout and Eric Campbell ground out. The Mets again got the leadoff man on in the eighth in the person of Lucas Duda, but the Dude got picked off of first and the Mets didn’t put up a fight after that in the inning.

Sean Gilmartin came on to pitch the ninth for the Amazins, and after he loaded the bases, Terry decided to just give up and brought in Carlos Torres. Torres promptly threw six straight balls, walked in an insurance run, and threw a pitch to the backstop before Dan Warthen came out to try and prevent him from going nuclear. Torres did recover, but he also allowed a sacrifice fly to Yasiel Puig that put the Dodgers up 3-0. Naturally, the Mets went down without a fight in the bottom of the ninth to put an end to yet another miserable offensive performance from the Amazins.

SB Nation GameThreads

* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* True Blue LA GameThread

Win Probability Added

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Big winners: Bartolo Colon, +20.7% WPA; Wilmer Flores, +5.7% WPA
Big losers: John Mayberry Jr., -14.8% WPA; Eric Campbell, -12.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Lucas Duda single, bottom of the eighth
Teh sux0rest play: Lucas Duda caught stealing, bottom of the eighth
Total pitcher WPA: +10.0% WPA
Total batter WPA: -60.0% WPA
GWRBI!: Jimmy Rollins