Games #15 & #16: Giants 6-7, Mets 1-2

David Wright flips his bat in frustration after striking out in a loss to the Giants Monday. (NYDailyNews.com)

It was a double dose of fun for fans of San Fran. For New York fans, it was twice the nightmare, plus having to put up with a sickly alliterate sentence like that first one.

Miguel Batista got rocked and the real Tim Lincecum finally stood up as the Giants took the first game of a twin bill, 6-1. It was more of the same in the second game as Madison Bumgarner outpitched Dillon Gee to give San Francisco a doubleheader sweep of the Mets, 7-2.

The Bad Stuff:

• Where to even begin? Let's start with starters, who it seems both tried to outdo each other in terms of badness. Spot-starter Miguel Batista gave up 6 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits in 3.2 innings of the first game, while Dillon Gee allowed 7 runs to cross on a whopping 12 hits in 6.2 innings of the night game.
• The Mets' bats couldn't do much either against the vaunted Giant starters: "Big-Time Timmy-Jim" and "Maddy-Bum" (doubt they call him that) gave up 1 run each in a combined 12 innings of work, striking out 12 Amazin's between them.
• David Wright had one of the toughest games at the plate, combining to go 0-7 with a walk and a run. Wright finished the series 1-14, bringing his batting average down way under .500.
• Also continuing to struggle at the plate is Ike Davis, who went 0-4 with 2 Ks in the first game and struck out pinch-hitting with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 8th of the second game. Davis is now hitting .136 in 2012 with more strikeouts than total bases.
• Thanks to special rules allowing additional callups for doubleheaders, Jordany Valdespin made his debut in game two, pinch-hitting in the bottom of the 8th; he popped out to short with the bases loaded after swinging at the first pitch.
• The injury bug bites again: Jason Bay bruised his ribs in the second game; fortunately x-rays were negative.

The Good Stuff:

• The bullpen stopped the bleeding in both games, combining for 5.1 scoreless innings in the first game and 2.1 innings in the second.
• The shining star of the first game was doubleheader callup Jeremy Hefner, who went tossed 3 scoreless innings.
• Bobby Parnell also had a good day, tossing 2 scoreless innings between the two games and striking out 4.
• Daniel Murphy picked up 2 hits in the first game and drove in a run with a sac fly in the second.

Final Analysis:
Ouch. It's back to reality for Mets fans: after starting out 7-3, the team has dropped 5 of their last 6 to fall back to .500. Things are going south fast for this young team, and they'll need to find a way up north against the Miami Marlins tomorrow. Hopefully a visit from their old mainstay at shortstop is just the thing to revive the Amazin's.

MM