Mets vs. Rockies Recap: Pinched and numb

The Mets, after coming back on three separate occasions, coughed up their series finale with the Rockies today 5-4 at Coors Field. This was one of the more frustrating losses of the season, with the ninth inning playing out in about the most avoidable and yet inevitable way possible.

Rafael Montero got into early trouble, allowing the first two Rockies to reach on singles, but eventually got a double play ball off the bat of Nolan Arenado and a soft ground ball from Gerardo Parra got him out of the first.

German Marquez started for the Rockies, and started quite strong, only allowing one baserunner over the first three innings. Although he is averaging 8.8 strikeouts per nine innings, Marquez only struck out five over his six innings. He faded a bit in the back half of the start, but still left the game with the lead and a quality start.

In the third, Montero struck out the first two batters of the inning, before giving up four straight hits, including a double to Charlie Blackmon, leading to two runs. The Mets answered in the top of the fourth when Yoenis Cespedes hit a laser of a home run to left field.

In the top of the fifth, Amed Rosario hit his second triple in two days, and was driven in by a sharp single from Montero that ate up DJ LeMahieu at second base. In the bottom of the inning, Blackmon led off with a home run, putting the Rockies ahead yet again. A walk to LaMahieu followed up the home run, but another Arenado double play got Montero out of further difficulty.

It was deja vu in the top of the sixth, when Curtis Granderson walked and eventually scored on a Rene Rivera single. In the bottom of that inning, again, the Rockies led off with a home run, this time off the bat of Mark Reynolds. After a Jonathan Lucroy single, Montero was pulled for Josh Smoker, who got out of the inning unscathed.

One last time, the Mets came back from a deficit, with Michael Conforto leading off the seventh with a single, and then was driven in by an Asdrubal Cabrera double. The bullpen was solid for the second straight game, with Smoker, Erik Goeddel, and Jerry Blevins all putting in solid performances.

In the bottom of the eighth, Hansel Robles entered an quickly recorded two outs. After getting two strikes on Trevor Story, Robles landed oddly coming off the mound and ‘pinched his genitals.’ After a visit from Ray Ramirez, Robles stayed in the game and completed the inning.

Robles came out to pitch the ninth, and the game fell apart quite rapidly. After getting ahead of Lucroy 1-2, Robles hit him with a pitch. Pat Valaika sacrifice bunted Lucroy over to second, putting the winning run in scoring position. Blackmon was then intentionally walked, before Robles walked both LeMahieu and Arenado unintentionally, leading to Lucroy scoring the winning run.

After the game, Robles complained of numbness in the fingers of his pitching hand. When asked why he stayed in the game, being unable to feel the ball, he answered, “I was already there so I wanted to get out of the inning.”

The Mets return home tomorrow to face the hottest team in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers, where their newly acquired ace Yu Darvish will face off against the Mets’ own ace, Jacob deGrom.

SB Nation GameThreads

Amazin’ Avenue
Purple Row

Box scores

ESPN
MLB

Win Probability Added

Fangraphs.com

What’s WPA?

Big winners: Asdrubal Cabrera, +31.3% WPA, Rene Rivera, +16.6% WPA
Big losers: Jay Bruce -32.4% WPA, Hansel Robles -20.2% WPA, Rafael Montero -12.3% WPA, Jose Reyes -17.0 WPA, Yoenis Cespedes -16.6% WPA, Michael Conforto -11.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Asdrubal Cabrera’s game-tying double in the seventh
Teh sux0rest play: Nolan Arenado’s walk in the bottom of the ninth
Total pitcher WPA: -19.5% WA
Total batter WPA: -30.5% WPA
GWRBI!: Nolan Arenado