Mets vs. Padres Recap: Let's not talk about it.

Today’s rubber-match versus the Padres was the kind of game that makes you hate baseball. Hate the Mets, hate the Padres and their team THAT MOST LIKELY IS NOT GOING TO EXIST IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS, hate rain, hate everything. Blowing a 7-1 lead will do that to you.

Alas, that's what the Mets did today, as, in a fashion so painful it defies description, they lost to the Padres 8-7.

After a rough outing in his previous start versus the Dodgers, Jon Niese looked solid today. He scattered six hits over six innings and allowed only one run while striking out, you guessed it, six.

Things were going great for the offense, too. The Mets got on the board early when Curtis Granderson hit a double over the head of Justin Upton and later scored on a Daniel Murphy sacrifice fly. In the fifth, the Mets got some insurance in spite of themselves. After Kevin Plawecki’s leadoff single, Niese was logically sent up to bunt him over. This being the 2015 Mets, Niese utterly failed to do that, but the Padres couldn’t turn two so there was still a runner on with one out. Padres starter Andrew Cashner then walked Juan Lagares to bring Grandy to the plate, who put a 2-2 slider over the right field fence to make the score 4-0.

The Padres themselves finally broke through in the sixth against Niese. The Mets' starter issued his first walk of the game and then allowed two singles to make the score 4-1. After a mound visit, Niese got his first out of the inning on a Justin Upton line out, but Yangervis Solarte singled to load the bases for Jedd Gyorko. Thankfully, Gyorko grounded into a double play, and Niese ended his day on a positive note.

On the other side of things, the good times for the offense continued in the sixth, when Juan Uribe gloriously led off with his first homer as a Met to add another run to the tally. Michael Conforto and Plawecki then reached on a walk and an error, respectively, and Jon Niese redeemed himself by successfully bunting them over. Shawn Kelley then came in to replace Cashner and promptly allowed a Juan Lagares sacrifice fly to plate Conforto that put the Mets up 6-1, and a Ruben Tejada single that made the score 7-1.

But just when you thought you could sit back, relax, and let the last two innings float by (WHY DID YOU THINK THAT IDIOT IDIOT IDIOT), Bobby Parnell came in and decided to spice things up! The righty coughed up a double to pinch hitter Yonder Alonso, and after recording an out, walked pinch hitter Brett Wallace and allowed a single to Melvin Upton Jr. to load the bases. Terry called upon Hansel Robles to put out the fire, and instead, Robles grooved an 0-2 fastball over the plate to Derek Norris that the latter smacked over the left field fence to make the score 7-5. Thankfully, Robles escaped the inning, and Tyler Clippard pitched a scoreless, if not anxiety-free, eighth inning.

Out came Jeurys Familia for the ninth. With thunder and lightning in the background, Familia recorded two quick outs and had a 0-1 count on Derek Norris before the umps decided to call the players off the field. May they forever be cursed for that decision, because after 44 minutes, Norris hit a soft single into right to bring the tying run to the plate. Matt Kemp then singled to bring Justin Upton up with two men on and two out. Familia threw him one pitch, and that was all it took for the unthinkable to happen. Upton hit a fly ball that just kept carrying until it placed itself over the center field fence and gave the Padres an 8-7 lead. Familia got the next batter, but at this point the rain had started to fall heavily again and we found ourselves in another rain delay, this one even longer than the first. Just to be clear: the Mets had gone from being two strikes away from winning to needing a comeback in the ninth in a matter of six minutes.

As if it couldn’t get any worse, SNY decided to show the Mets Yearbook from 1977 during the rain delay, because that’s what every fan of the Amazins wants to be reminded of after blowing a six-run lead: the 1977 Mets.

Now, to be fair, the Mets had not lost any game in which Familia had blown a save this year up until today. So three hours later, when the game resumed, there was hope the Mets could still get a victory. But you want to know what? Hope is dead, and the Mets killed it, because Craig Kimbrel set the top of the order down 1-2-3 to send the Mets home with a loss.

SB Nation GameThreads

* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* Gaslamp Ball GameThread

Win Probability Added

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Big winners: Jon Niese, +25.4% WPA; Curtis Granderson, +16.3% WPA
Big losers: Jeurys Familia, -78.1% WPA; Hansel Robles, -5.8% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Curtis Granderson homer, bottom of the fifth
Teh sux0rest play: Justin Upton homer, top of the ninth
Total pitcher WPA: -54.9% WPA
Total batter WPA: +4.9% WPA
GWRBI!: Justin Upton