6/1 Mets Game Recap – Collin McHugh Ineffective, Mets lose 8-1

The Mets keep following up the thrilling Subway Series Sweep with listless baseball against the worst team in the league. With 20-year-old phenom Jose Fernandez on the mound and Collin McHugh not having it, they drop the series against those Miami Marlins, who won their 15th game of the year. The Mets drop to 22-31.

Box Score and Lowlights Here.

Omar Quintanilla lead things off with an opposite field single to left. Before Jose Fernandez could throw another pitch, the ump stepped forward and called a balk on the young hurler, but then realized time was called (though no ump acknowledged time was called, so the whole thing looked completely spazzy.) Daniel Murphy then grounded out to Fernandez, moving Quintanilla over to 2nd. David Wright unfortunately flied out to center before Lucas Duda grounded out to shortstop, breaking his bat in the process, and stranding Omar to end the inning.

That’s basically the most the Mets threatened.

Collin McHugh, pitching for the first time in 11 days, had trouble with his control early and walked 2 of the 1st 3 batters he faced. Ozuna struck out however, and it looked like he may get out of it. Chris Coghlan, though, lined a single up the middle, scoring the runner from 2nd. Ozuna attempted to go 1st to 3rd, but was gunned down by Rick Ankiel, showing off his arm with his 1st Metsian assist. The run counted, however, and the Mets went back into the dugout with a 1-0 deficit.

With the Mets quiet in the top of the 2nd, McHugh quickly got the first 2 outs, but then walked Jeff Mathis. Jose Fernandez then singled on the 1st pitch of the At Bat, the ball basically rolling all the way to the wall. Had it been anybody else running, he might have been at 2nd on the play as the Mets attempted to throw Jeff Mathis out, and then have gotten to 3rd when the throw failed with a sailor over the plate. But Jose Fernandez didn’t even go to 2ND on the throw, going slowly to 1st then standing there when the play at the plate occurred. McHugh then got Juan Pierre on a bunt groundout to 1st, limiting the damage once again to only 1. 2-0 Marlins after 2.

In the bottom of the 4th, the Mets and Collin got into instant trouble with back-to-back singles by Coghlan and that Greg Dobbs guy, setting up 1st and 3rd with no out. Adeiny Hechavarria then hit a sac fly to center, sending Coghlan home for the 3rd Fishy run. Mathis then hit it into the right-center gap, just enough over from the right-field-starting Jordany Valdespin to make him have to slide to keep it from going to the wall. He cued it over to Rick Ankiel, but the runner would have scored regardless. 4-0 Marlins. Not quite halfway through.

After McHugh started the 5th inning off with a single, Robert Carson headed in and gave up a hit instantly to Placido Polanco. He got 1 out on a grounder to short and the force out at 2nd, then had a sick pickoff move to get the runner at 1st. Chris Coghlan followed popped up, and the Mets got out with no runners scoring.

Didn’t matter, though. The Marlins tacked 4 more on in the 7th off Robert Carson and Greg Burke, which included a run scored by Fernandez after leading off with his 1st ML extra-base hit (double.)

The Mets got on the board with 2 out in the 8th when Justin Turner drove in Juan Lagares with a pinch-hit double.

Notables:

• Collin McHugh was ineffective, going 4 innings of 6 hit, 4-run ball.

• Robert Carson entered the game and pitched 2 innings plus, good until the end when he combined in the 7th to give up 4 runs with Greg Burke.

• The Mets collected only 5 hits: 2 from Omar Q, 1 from Duda, 1 from Turner and 1 from Marlon Byrd. Jose Fernandez pitched 7 innings of shutout ball.

• Brandon Lyon pitched a scoreless 8th.

Thoughts:

This makes perfect sense.

The Mets are not as good as they were this week and they’re not as bad as they are when they face the Marlins.

Jeez, baseball.

Next Up:

The Mets wrap up their series in Miami tomorrow at 1:10 PM.  Matt Harvey gets the start for New York.  He’ll be opposed by Kevin Slowey.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to Like Rising Apple’s Facebook page and follow @RisingAppleBlog on Twitter to keep up with the latest news, rumors, and opinion. 

Also, you can visit Sam Maxwell’s personal Mets Blog here. And for the latest on a Brooklyn Baseball TV Series Sam is developing, Like the Bedford & Sullivan Facebook page, and follow on twitter here.