Game #61: Cardinals 2, Mets 1

Undefeated no more. But at least he got the decision.

Matt Harvey's stellar effort was rewarded with his first loss of the year as the sleepwalking Mets fell to the Cardinals 2-1.

The Bad Stuff:

• Adam Wainwright owned the entire New York order like he owned Carlos Beltran in 2006 (as if the memories weren't painful enough), shutting out the Mets over seven four-hit innings. Wainwright improved to 10-3 on the season and saw his ERA drop to 2.18.
• In the few chances the Amazin's got with RISP, they hit 0-4 and stranded eight men.

The Good Stuff:

• Matt Harvey deserved far better, as he usually does. Harvey turned in his second straight seven-inning, one-run start, allowing five hits and a walk against seven strikeouts on 97 pitches.
• Marlon Byrd saved the Mets from being shut out by the Redbirds as he launched a one-out solo home run off St. Louis closer Edward Mujica in the 9th. Byrd's 10th shot of the year puts him one behind John Buck and Lucas Duda for the team lead.
• Byrd, Buck, and David Wright combined for all seven New York hits; Wright's three singles brought his average back up to .288.

Final Analysis:
Matt Harvey must feel like R.A. Dickey did in 2011: helpless. Were he pitching for any other team, #33 would have at least eight or nine wins. Instead, he'll settle for the second decision, and the first bad one, in his last 10 starts.

There isn't much left to say about the offense; it is what it is.

MM

Game #53: Marlins 8, Mets 1

Remember when the Mets swept the Yankees earlier this week? Yeah, those were good times.

Collin McHugh was shelled in his spot start and the Mets couldn't get the motor running in the Marlins' waters, falling 8-1 to lose another Miami series.

The Bad Stuff:

• Collin McHugh's first start of the season went like just about every other appearance he's made: four runs and six hits in four innings.
• Jose Fernandez, meanwhile, kept New York at bay with seven scoreless, three-hit innings, including eight strikeouts.
• David Wright went 0-4 again, dropping his average to .277.
• Ike Davis also had an 0-for, going 0-3.

The Good Stuff:

• Omar Quintanilla had two hits
• Justin Turner kept the Mets from being shut out with an RBI double in the 8th.

Final Analysis:
What a way to celebrate the anniversary of No-Han...

By the way, happy anniversary, Johan Santana!

That is all. Tomorrow will be better. Probably.

MM

Game #52: Marlins 5, Mets 1

And just like that, the momentum is gone, drowned in a fish tank in front of 15,493 Floridians.

Ed Lucas broke the scoreless tie and opened the floodgates against Shaun Marcum as the Mets' five-game winning streak was snapped 5-1 against the Marlins.

The Bad Stuff:

• For six innings, Shaun Marcum was brilliant and was looking to continue New York's recent string of quality starts. Then came the 7th, when Miami scored four runs on four hits, a walk, and a sac fly. Marcum's final line went from nearly spotless to very much spotful: 6.2 innings, 7 hits, 4 runs, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts. A 5th-inning intentional walk to Greg Dobbs also broke a streak of 121 batters faced without a walk by Mets starters.
• Meanwhile, the once-potent New York offense returned to its familiar impotence against Miami's Jacob Turner, who tossed seven scoreless, five-hit innings in his first start of the season.
• David Wright's cold spell continued as he went 0-4 with two strikeouts to drop his average down to .283.

The Good Stuff:

• Daniel Murphy picked up Wright's slack by going 2-4 with an RBI double to score the Mets' only run of the game.
• Omar Quintanilla got two hits and scored in his second game filling in for the injured Ruben Tejada, and his first in the leadoff slot.
• Ike Davis had himself a double in the top of the 5th, and he would have had an RBI if Marlon Byrd had not been picked off trying to steal second base one pitch earlier.

Final Analysis:
How is it that after sweeping the almighty New York Yankees, adding that to a come-from-behind win over the division-leading Atlanta Braves, the Mets end up losing to the historically bad Miami Marlins? I guess that's the way it falls for a team that frankly isn't going anywhere this year. This game brought us back down to earth in time for the end of the month.

The good thing is that while 22-30 is far from great, at least it's not 14-41. Also, for every game the Marlins actually win, the farther they get from losing 120 games like the '62 Mets. Yes, in some twisted way, I don't want the Marlins to have a worse record than our Lovable Losers. They make me feel special. And if you're reading this blog, you know what I'm talking about.

MM

Games #45 & 46: Braves 7-6, Mets 5-0

Fans at Citi Field today found themselves recipients of a double feature: they were treated to not one but *two* excruciating Mets losses for the price of one. Oh, goody.

Brandon Lyon allowed two runs in the top of the 10th as the Braves won last night's suspended game 7-5, while Dillon Gee's 5th-inning implosion and a serious lack of offense combined to bury the Mets 6-0 in the nationally-televised regularly-scheduled game.

The Bad Stuff:

• After Jeremy Hefner's great outing on Friday night (see Good Stuff), LaTroy Hawkins let the lead blow up in his face in the 7th, and Scott Rice was no good in the 8th as Atlanta took the lead. New York rallied to tie the game before rain washed out the ending, but after Bobby Parnell's solid 9th to start off Saturday evening's conclusion, Brandon Lyon let in two Braves runs, including one on a B.J. Upton sac bunt, in the top of the 10th.
• Despite getting the first two runners on against the almighty Craig Kimbrel in the bottom of the 10th, the Mets could not put together another rally, as Ruben Tejada failed to advance the runners with a bad sac bunt and Justin Turner grounded into the game-ending 4-6-3 double play.
• In the full Saturday game, Dillon Gee looked solid for 4.2 innings. Then a Chris Johnson single eventually led to five Atlanta runs, including a home run by opposing pitcher Mike Minor.
• The New York (I guess you can call it) "offense" was powerless against Minor, who allowed just three hits and struck out 10 in 7.1 innings.

The Good Stuff:

• The aforementioned Hefner had one of his best outings of the season, allowing two runs on three hits in six innings, including two walks and seven strikeouts on 94 pitches. Despite being on a roll, Terry Collins removed him from the game before the 7th so "he could feel good about himself."
• John Buck hit his 11th home run of the year in the first game.
• Daniel Murphy went 3-4 in the first game with two runs and a key RBI during the 8th-inning comeback.
• Ruben Tejada scored the tying run of the first game on a wild pitch in the 8th and followed up with three hits in the second.
• Following a "golden sombrero" (four strikeouts) on Friday night, Ike Davis actually kept the 10th-inning rally going with a single of Kimbrel, his first hit in what seems like a career and a half.
• While the game was broadcast on FOX, it may not have been completely national: in Indiana at least, they showed us the Cardinals-Dodgers game. So maybe it wasn't the whole country who saw how much we suck. Come tomorrow night on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, though...

Final Analysis:
There is only one word I can use to describe this team, which has now lost five straight and 11 of 14: Ew. Just ew. Nothing is going right for anyone, and even when it does for a moment, the team snuffs out its own success. And Terry Collins's reason for removing Hefner? Pretty lame.

You have to now start wondering whether the New York Mets will be the worst team in baseball in 2013. With the Marlins and Astros struggling so mightily, such a feat would have been hard to believe. All I can say about that is it's a double-edged sword: we will be terrible this year, but we won't even get the top pick in the 2014 MLB Draft. What a gyp.

MM

Game #21: Phillies 4, Mets 0

The very least you could say is that, at two hours thirty-five minutes, the pain was relatively quick.

The Mets had no answer for Kyle Kendrick, and the Phillies rode a big 6th inning to a 4-0 series-opening win.

The Bad Stuff:

(NYDailyNews.com)

• Coming off a series in which Philadelphia's big three of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Cole Hamels all lost, it was Kyle Kendrick who needed to be a stopper. But no one expected him to stop New York to the tune of a complete-game, three-hit shutout. He gave up no extra-base hits, walked just one Met, and struck out five of them, turning in one of the finer starts of his career with 107 pitches.
• The Mets only got a single at-bat with RISP (they failed) and stranded the only four runners to get on base (clearly).
• In what was in the first half of the game a real pitcher's duel, Dillon Gee cruised to five quick shutout innings himself. Then in the 6th, the roof caved in: three consecutive singles by Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Michael Young provided the opening score, and Ryan Howard's three-run homer all but guaranteed a Philly triumph.

The Good Stuff:

• Ruben Tejada, David Wright, and Justin Turner were the only New Yorkers to manage hits off Kendrick on the night, while Ike Davis drew the walk.

Final Analysis:
Dillon Gee, while spectacular for his other 72 pitches, was undone by a horrendous stretch of 11 tosses to start the 6th, and his team paid for it in the W-L column, falling below .500 for the first time in 2013. For the sake of comparison, it took until late summer for the Mets to have a losing record in 2012. Hopes are fading faster for these Mets (some would say at least there's no chance for soul-crushing false hope), and if they consistently make guys like Kyle Kendrick look like any of his better peers in the Philly rotation, it has the makings of a very, very long summer.

MM

Game #3: Padres 2, Mets 1

A common refrain of mine whenever the Mets score a bunch of runs is to say, "Hey now, pace yourselves! We might need those runs later!" Usually this is just a little blip I include in the Bad Stuff on days when there wasn't any Bad to speak of. After the blowouts of the past two games, however, that mantra carries more weight than usual.

John Buck's 9th-inning home run was too little, too late, as the Mets wasted a strong outing by Dillon Gee and a chance at a season-opening sweep, falling to the Padres 2-1.

The Bad Stuff:

• After scoring 19 runs over games on Monday and Wednesday, the New Yorkers ran out of gas against Eric Stults and the Friar bullpen, only managing five hits and striking out a whopping 14 times.
• The worst culprits of this sudden zombie syndrome at the plate were the most important part of the order, as the tandem of David Wright, Ike Davis, Marlon Byrd, and Lucas Duda combined to go 0-12 with 10 Ks (Daniel Murphy pinch-hit in the 6-hole in the 8th inning, striking out to give the 3-6 hitters 11 Ks on the afternoon.
• Jeurys Familia fell well short of potential during his stint in the 8th, walking Chris Denorfia, allowing him to go to third on a Yonder Alonso single, and bringing him home with a wild pitch in the next at-bat. The only out he got was a foul-out to first of Jedd Gyorko, bringing his season ERA "down" from infinity to a less-than-infinite 27.00. The good news? He's got nowhere to go but down. Probably.

The Good Stuff:

(NYDailyNews.com)

• Dillon Gee looked impressive in his first start since before last year's All-Star Break, allowing one run on three hits in 6.1 innings with three walks and four strikeouts in 93 pitches. Those three hits were concentrated during a brief lapse by Gee, coming consecutively in the 4th inning.
• The Mets' five hits were also concentrated into just two batters, as Justin Turner went 3-4 with a double in his first action of 2013, while John Buck continued to impress, going 2-4 with a monstrous home run off San Diego closer Huston Street in the 9th.

Final Analysis:
Gee showed no signs of rust after returning from a potentially serious blood-clot last July. With the bottom part of the Mets' rotation in question, it will be especially important to have consistency from the top three starters. Though the sample size is admittedly small, the body of work of Gee, Matt Harvey, and Jonathon Niese is so far outstanding.

Buck saved the home team from an embarrassing shutout, proving to be the MVP of the Mets' position players in the first series of 2013. Look for an extended piece on his importance on RisingApple.com soon.

Starting a second straight season with a sweep would have been nice, but all-in-all the opener was a successful one for the Mets, who will look to add to their momentum by thrashing the feckless Fish this weekend. With series against the Marlins, Phillies, Twins, and Rockies coming up, the Amazin's should be expected to at least finish the month of April with a winning record.

MM

UPDATE: Here is that extended piece: "John Buck: Placeholder or Tenant?"