6/29 Mets Game Recap – Dillon & Mets Bounce Back for 5-1 Win over Nats

After a tough loss at the hands of Terry Collins (“echem”) the Nationals on Friday night, The New York Mets bounced back nicely with a 5-1 win to even the series against RHP Taylor Jordan, making his Major League Debut. Dillon Gee pitched well for the win after a rough go against the Phillies last time out.

Box Score and Highlights here.

Things were rather quiet until the 4th, After Roger Bernadina doubled off the top of the right field wall with 2 out, Kurt Suzuki lined a single into left field to drive in the 1st run of the game before John Buck threw him out at 2nd trying to stretch it.

June 29, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Mets pitcher Dillon Gee throws a pitch against the Washington Nationals during the game at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Munson/THE STAR-LEDGER via USA TODAY Sports

Marlon Byrd opened the bottom of the 4th with a hot shot grounder to Ryan Zimmerman who couldn’t field it cleanly for the error. Josh Satin, who has been fantastic since his callup a few weeks ago, followed with a walk. It looked for a second that Kirk Nieuwenhuis had hit into a tailor-made double play to 2nd, but his speed set up 1st and 3rd and 1 out. John Buck, who has been slumping severely in June, collected only his 2nd RBI of the month on a single to left. Omar Quintanilla then hit a blooper to shallow left-center that fell into the fielder triangle with the shortstop Ian Desmond heading out, loading the bases and breaking an 0-15 slump for Q. Dillon unfortunately swung on a 2-0 pitch and popped it into 1st base foul territory for the 2nd out of the inning. Eric Young, Jr. then swung at the 1st pitch he saw, grounding softly to 1st for the last out of the inning.

Daniel Murphy, who has been slumping of late as well, opened the bottom of the 5th with a sinking looper that dropped before center fielder Denard Span could get to it. Wright then moved Murph over to 2nd on a grounder to short. Zimmerman continued to slump in the field on another hard-hit grounder by Marlon Byrd that hopped up and over Ryan’s head. Ian Desmond recovered the ball before it could head into left and attempted to get Murph going into 3rd. Desmond made a throwing error, however, and the ball trickled away, allowing Murph to dash to the plate giving the Mets a 2-1 lead while Byrd headed down to 2nd. Satin then blooped the ball to shallow right-center, but Byrd held up a bit and could only get to 3rd. That was it for Taylor Jordan’s Major League Debut, as Davey Johnson went to righty reliever Craig Stammen. He first faced Kirk, who hit a sinking line-drive that Denard Span handled with a fantastic back-handed sliding catch in center. Still, it was a sac fly, and Byrd trotted home with the 3rd Mets run of the day. The inning ended with 2nd baseman Anthony Rendon making a spectacular diving catch on a line-drive up the middle by Buck.

Dillon opened the 6th walking Ryan Zimmerman for the 3rd time in the game. Dan Warthen went out to check his temperature after he opened Adam LaRoche‘s at bat with 2 pitches out of the zone. He went 3-1 on the 1st baseman, but Adam hit it to Satin at 1st who caught it on the fly. Zimmerman was caught in the middle, and Satin, not sure whether it bounced, threw the ball to Wright, who was near 2nd because of the shift. Zim quickly turned around and headed back to 1st, but Wright threw back to Satin who tagged Ryan out for the double play. Jayson Werth then singled, but Desmond lined out to right to end the inning.

At 85 pitches but dealing with forearm tendonitis, the Mets played it conservative and sent Andrew Brown to bat for Gee after Quintanilla opened the bottom half of the 6th with a long drive to right-center that hit off the middle of the wall for a double. Brown struck out on a breaking pitch in the dirt that briefly dribbled away. Omar took 3rd immediately, and Suzuki went the safest route by throwing Brown out at 1st. Eric Young, Jr. then hit a fly ball to right field for a sac fly, making it 4-1 Mets. With 2 out and the bases no cleared, Murph hit a line drive into Triples Alley in right-center, heading to 3rd easily. It got scary quickly when one got away from Stammen, hitting Wright on the left tricep (he was fine, though.) The Word continued to be The Byrd as Marlon lined a single into left, scoring Murph and sending Wright to 3rd. The Mets, who haven’t scored more than 5 runs at home in 28 straight games, had their 6th run robbed by a Ryan Zimmerman diving towards the foul line on a hard-hit ball by Satin, throwing Josh out to end the inning.

Carlos Torres replaced Gee, and with 1 out in the 7th, he gave up a long double to left by Suzuki. He got Steve Lombardozzi to line out to 3rd, but then walked Denard Span. David Wright, however, got an opportunity to show off why he’s considered the best at the bare-handed play by grabbing Anthony Rendon’s slow dribbler and throwing him out at 1st by a hair to end the frame.

Torres worked the 8th as well and struck out the side (Ryan Zimmerman, Adam LaRoche and Jayson Werth.)

LaTroy Hawkins finished it up in 9th.

Notables:

• Dillon Gee (6-7, 4.60 ERA) went 6 innings, giving up 1 run on 6 hits and 3 walks, striking out 4.
• Daniel Murphy, who had been slumping recently, had a much needed 3 hit day with 2 singles and a triple.
• Omar Quintanilla broke out of his slump as well with a 2-4 day.
• The Byrd continued to make a case for Comeback-Player-of-the-Year, going 1-3 with an RBI and 2 runs scored.
• Mets have now scored 5 runs or less in 29 straight home games.

A win’s a win though, right?

Thoughts:

Very nice to see Dillon bounce back after he broke his string of good starts against Philadelphia last time out. The tendonitis in his forearm is concerning though, and he will be receiving an MRI at some point next week. He might need to take a couple starts off to get his arm feeling fresh again.

The Mets have taken excellent advantage of other teams’ blunders of late, and it didn’t stop today with 2 unearned runs off the rookie Taylor Jordan. It’s almost to the point that I’m looking for the other teams to get their crap together so I can see a more even playing field, but that’s not quite where I am. The bottom line is they are putting the ball in play more than they were before this good baseball stretch, and I hate to say it, but it certainly revolves around less strikeouts in the lineup without Ike Davis and Lucas Duda there. Ike was in a bad place, and when he’s in a great place, you take those K’s. Will be interesting to see how his return affects the offense overall.

It was clear Terry was going to stay as far away from using more pitchers than he needed after overmanaging the Mets to a loss last night. Glad to see Carlos Torres continue to be extremely effective, because I did not see that coming after his putrid Spring performance, which, good or bad, you should always take with a grain of salt.

The Mets go for the series win tomorrow when Zack Wheeler (1-0, 3.18 ERA) makes his Citi Field debut against Gio Gonzalez (4-4, 3.31 ERA) at 1:10PM.

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