Game #73: A's 7, Mets 3

If there was ever a sure thing, it was supposed to be this game. But a funny thing about sure things: once you call them, they usually ain't. Such was the case tonight.

Dillon Gee proved to be all too mortal, turning in the worst start of his season and helping to bury the Mets in a hole they couldn't climb out of, falling to the streaking Athletics, 7-3. It was Oakland's 6th straight win.

The Bad Stuff:

• You'd think Dillon Gee, Mr. Undefeated, would have no trouble against one of the worst teams in the AL. All he needed to do was get the ball over the plate...that's where your trouble starts. Gee only gave up 3 hits, but he walked 6 A's in 4 innings, allowing 4 earned runs. Four of those walks came consecutively in the 3rd inning, allowing Oakland to score without even swinging the bat. The most baffling part of that line is that the A's coming into the game were 3rd-to-last in the AL in on-base percentage.
• With the loss, he falls short of Doc Gooden's 1988 mark of 8 straight wins to start a season. It also marks the first time in 2011 the Mets have lost a Dillon Gee start.
• DJ Carrasco didn't fare much better. In his first appearance since the balk-off in Atlanta, Carrasco allowed 3 more runs on 4 hits and 2 walks. His ERA now stands at a dismal 5.94 on the year.
• New York's best chance to come back was in the 8th, when they scored one and loaded the bases with two outs for Josh Thole. With Jose Reyes looming in the on-deck circle, Thole sliced one just foul to left, but couldn't bounce back and grounded out to end the rally.
• Reyes struggled against the Oakland arms, going 0-5 with 4 flyball outs. Jose has cooled off in the past 4 games, hitting only 2 singles in 17 at-bats. It's a disappointing trend, but considering he hit a mind-boggling .433 with an equally astounding 1.153 OPS in his previous 20 games, I think we can excuse this drought. I mean, he is only human. He'll come around.

The Good Stuff:

• Jason Bay's resurgence reached a crescendo tonight. In the 6th, he finally blasted a Josh Outman fastball off the second deck of the left field bleachers. It was Bay's 3rd home run of the year, his first extra-base hit in 89 at-bats, and, I believe, the first home run he hit to left in Citi Field as a Met. In the 8th, Jason almost hit another one to dead center, but Coco Crisp (best name in the bigs, by the way) kept it in the park with his glove, and Bay had an RBI triple instead. With a 3-3 night (including a couple nice plays defensively), Jason has hit .417 with 4 RBIs and 2 stolen bases in his past 6 games. The biggest thing for Bay at this point is to get out of the mental slump he's in, and those two blasts may finally be enough to break him out.
• Angel Pagan also had a good night at the plate, going 1-3 with a walk and scoring 2 runs.
• The bullpen finally stopped the bleeding after the 6th when Manny Acosta, Tim Byrdak, and Bobby Parnell combined for 3 innings of shutout ball. Parnell got into a jam in the 9th, loading the bases with one out, but he got Kurt Suzuki to ground into a double play to end the threat.

Final Analysis:
The newspapers will show the Mets lost tonight, and it was disappointing to lose to a last-place AL team. Jason Bay will sleep well tonight knowing he did everything he could to help his team win, and had Gee and Carrasco not done their best impressions of Charlie Sheen from Major League, the team might have done just that: win. Alas, it was not to be.

Their 4th loss in 5 games, coupled with a 4-run Nationals comeback in the 9th against Seattle, drops the Mets back to fourth place in the NL East. They've still got a chance to win the series over Oakland, but at three games back of .500, two wins won't be enough to get to the top of the hill. That task will have to be done in Texas. Not impossible, but it will require two wins in the next two days.

MM