Game #142: Nationals 5, Mets 3

(NYDailyNews.com)

The Mets made a bit of history tonight by breaking a historically long drought...and even that wasn't enough.

R.A. Dickey gave up a late 2-run homer to Tyler Moore and the Nationals put the Mets away late for the 5-3 victory.

The Bad Stuff:

• R.A. Dickey was roughed up early but escaped with only one run against him in the 1st inning. After New York grabbed the lead in the 5th, he was well on his way to win #19. But lest we forget, we shouldn't just assume he can go out and pitch nearly perfect every time; sometimes he will be merely good. Dickey allowed a one-out single to Kurt Suzuki in the 7th, his first knuckleball to Tyler Moore didn't knuckle, and Moore deposited it into the left field stands. Nationals up 3-2 and R.A. would make his exit after that inning, beneficiary of quality start of 3 runs on 8 hits (3 by Bryce Harper, who had 4 in the game) in 7 innings.
• Unfortunately for Dickey, those two runs were all the support he would get. The Mets went down 1-2-3 in the 7th and 8th, and by the time Scott Hairston delivered run #3 with a 9th-inning homer, Frank Francisco had let two more runs leak in and it wasn't enough.
• New York went 1-6 with RISP (I suppose we should count ourselves lucky to even get that one hit), hit into 2 double plays, and stranded 7 men on base, including leaving the bases loaded with one out in the 1st.

The Good Stuff:

• Now here's that history-making stuff I was talking about earlier. It's the kind of history only the Mets could make. After 4 innings tonight, the team had gone, according to Howie & Josh on WFAN and confirmed by Adam Rubin on Twitter, 110 consecutive innings without scoring more than one run at home. That's either 0s or 1s on the hometown scoreboard for a little more than 12 games in a row. Said Josh Lewin: "That's the longest drought since '09...1909, that is." Yes, the 1909 Washington Senators had the longest such streak in baseball history with 119 consecutive innings without "crooked numbers," as Howie Rose put it. First thoughts: again, the people at Elias Sports Bureau have way too much time on their hands. Second, that's pretty darn bad. You thought the Diamondbacks played in the desert? Try Citi Field since the All-Star Break.
• Fortunately, in the 5th inning, we all got to freeze that number at 110. Ruben Tejada hit a one-out single, his third hit in a 3-5 night, and came home on Daniel Murphy's 36th double of the year. New York fans would've been satisfied with just that run, but David Wright woke up in time to slash a single into left to bring home Murphy and finally put a "2" in the home boxscore. About freakin' time.
• Scott Hairston hit his 17th home run of the year in the 9th, tying a career high he set with the Padres in 2008 and in San Diego and Oakland in 2009. He got there this time about 30 plate appearances quicker than in '08.

Final Analysis:
A friend of mine (Tigers fan) tweeted me this after tonight's game. Enough said. Good night, folks.

MM