Sunday, June 30, 2013

Game #78: Nationals 13, Mets 2

In Zack Wheeler's Citi Field debut, New York fans witnessed a masterful performance from a bona-fide ace. Just not the one they wanted.

Gio Gonzalez shut the Mets down for seven innings and the Nationals got to Wheeler and the bullpen, resulting in a humiliating 13-2 loss in the Mets' June finale.

The Bad Stuff:
  • Zack Wheeler had a great 1st inning, and that was about it. Adam LaRoche's 2nd-inning home run opened the door for Washington to get four runs off Wheeler in that inning. He was knocked out of the game after 4.2 innings having allowed five runs on six hits.
  • Brandon Lyon must have felt bad enough about Zack's rough outing, because he made Wheeler's performance look positively Cy Young-esque. Lyon let in six 8th-inning runs while only retiring two Nats.
  • It got so bad that even backup catcher Anthony Recker got on the mound for an inning. Recker allowed a two-run homer to Ian Desmond in the 9th.
  • Meanwhile, there was nothing the Met offense could do against Gio Gonzalez, whose final line consisted of seven three-hit shutout innings.
The Good Stuff:
  • John Buck's two-run home run in the bottom of the 9th kept the home team from being shut out.
  • Josh Satin had two more hits, including his fourth double, to increase his average to .375.
  • David Wright smashed his 17th double of the season.
Final Analysis:
And I thought Friday's blown victory sucked...at least there was life in the team that night.

Zack Wheeler will get better, that's almost a given. It's just rough to see him struggle so mightily when his peer Matt Harvey adjusted finely to the big leagues. It's just going to take patience...something we Mets fans should be great at by now.

MM

No comments:

Post a Comment