Monday, September 26, 2011

Game #160: Reds 6, Mets 5

Jose Reyes walked back to the dugout after scoring on David Wright's single in the third inning. (NYTimes.com)
As they opened up their final series of 2011, New York went through a very painful flashback. Remember in May when they lost like 6 straight home games after leading through the 6th? Well...

The Reds scored 3 runs in the 7th and the Mets couldn't piece together a 9th inning rally, falling in the series opener 6-5.

The Bad Stuff:
  • Leading 4-3 in the top of the 7th, Tim Byrdak came on to get the team straight through to the 8th. Except instead of straight threw, he took a few wrong turns, swerved a little, and ended up driving through a storm of Reds. After giving up back-to-back singles, he turned it over to Josh Stinson, who got hammered by Chris Heisey for a 3-run homer, wiping out the lead and Chris Schwinden's first W.
  • The Mets got the first two men on in the bottom of the 9th, but Nick Evans and Josh Thole topped off a 2-11 RISP night for New York: Evans bunted into a force out and Thole grounded into the game-ending 4-6-3 double play.
The Good Stuff:
  • Chris Schwinden didn't do too bad in his final start of the season: 5 innings, 5 hits, 3 runs (2 earned). Granted, that unearned run came on Schwinden's own error, but it won't count against him this time.
  • Jose Reyes recaptured some of his June magic, going 3-4 with a run and 2 RBIs. His last hit was an 8th inning double in which he got thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple. Wish we could've gotten the out back, but it's still good to see him going for triples again (he's only had one since July...and still leading the league with 16). His batting average is now up to .334, mere decimal places ahead of Ryan Braun with two games to go.
  • Aside from that last at-bat, Nick Evans had a good day at the plate, going 2-5 with a double and 2 RBIs.
Final Analysis:
Okay, so we won't get the sweep and we're set to finish worse than last year. Let's just get a series win and call it a day, shall we? Two games to go. Make them some good ones.

MM

***Correction***
Jose did not try to stretch his 8th inning double into a triple; he was thrown out at second after making a wide turn.

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