Cincinnati scored 4 runs in the 8th inning and the Mets offense once again wasted a solid Johan Santana start to fall to the Reds 6-3.
The Bad Stuff:
- Up 3-2 in the top of the 8th, a usually solid Jon Rauch was brought in to be the bridge to Frank Francisco in the 9th. Frank-Frank would never get the chance: Rauch gave up 3 runs in the inning to earn the L and DJ Carrasco let one more in under his watch.
- The New York offense probably should have been up more than just a run after facing a starting pitcher who came into the game with 5 losses and a 7+ ERA. But Mike Leake found his touch against the Mets, allowing just 1 earned run in 6 innings of work.
- Johan Santana tossed 6.2 innings and allowed 2 runs on 6 hits, walking 2 and striking out 5, putting himself in line for a second W that will have to wait at least another week.
- Lucas Duda had a good day at the plate, going 3-4 with an RBI.
- The Mets' best offense came in the 6th: Duda led off with a single and Daniel Murphy reached on a dumb throwing error by Joey Votto. Ike Davis showed signs of life with an RBI double, then after Justin Turner's popout, Mike Nickeas laid down the perfect suicide squeeze to plate Murphy; it was the team's second successful squeeze in three days.
Even the official news that Citi Field would host the 2013 All-Star Game wasn't enough put a charge through the home team tonight. The pitching wasn't awful in the beginning, but the energy has been zapped from the offense the way writing an automotive paper zaps the energy from a humanities major (of course, I'm speaking in generalities). But once the team gets through this technical paper of a stage, a burst of creativity and offense may be on the horizon. But for now, the team is destined for weak offense and sloppy metaphors from its Midwestern beat writer. Curse you, liberal arts lab science core requirement.
MM
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