Game Recap: Hefner Can’t Recover After Rain, Lose to Padres 11-5

Jeremy Hefner was making his first MLB start against the first professional organization that he ever played for. Everything was going great through two innings; Hefner looked great pounding the strike zone and the Mets were up 1-0 after a throwing error by Nick Hundley allowed Vinny Rottino to come home after stealing third base. Then, the rains came; there was a 68-minute rain delay, and when Hefner came back out, it was a different story.

When play resumed in the top of the third, the Padres strung together four doubles and hung up a four-spot on their former pitcher, taking a 4-1 lead. After New York went down quietly in order in the bottom of the third, Will Venableand the Padres were at it again, putting two more runs of up in the board and chasing Hefner from the game with two outs in the fourth. Hefner’s final line in his first

MLB start: 3.2 innings, 9 hits, 6 runs, no walks, 3 strikeouts. Not exactly what he was hoping for, but the rain delay definitely played a role. Ramon Ramirez relieved Hefner and threw 1.1 scoreless innings while giving up one hit and striking out two. That gave way to our buddy, Manny Acosta.

Acosta threw two innings last night, and the first one went just fine. The Mets were starting to crawl back into the game in the bottom of the 5th; it started with a lead off walk to Daniel Murphy, then David Wright made them pay with a 2-run homer to center field to cut the lead to 6-3. Instead of being able to hold the Padres to another scoreless inning, Acosta gave up four hits, one walk, and three runs en route to putting the game out of reach. His ERA is now 10.80 on the season….it’s almost June!!

Robert Carson came in to continue the trend as he got touched up for the first time this season in his two innings pitched; he gave up three hits, two runs, and a walk, while surrendering a home run to Nick Hundley. New York tried to start mounting another comeback in the bottom of the 8th after an Ike Davis two-run single, but it was too little too late, as the Amazins fell to the Friars, 11-5. The loss drops the Mets to 24-21, still in a tie with Miami for third place, sitting at 2.5 games behind the first place Nationals.

Obviously, Hefner didn’t pitch that well, but Acosta and Carson weren’t able to keep one of the worst offenses in check to allow the Mets to try and comeback from the early hole they found themselves in. This a team that is among the league-worst in runs scored, batting average, and slugging percentage, yet they were able to hang 11 runs and 18 hits on New York pitching last night…pitiful. David Wright was the offensive star tonight, collecting three hits, including another double and his fifth home run of the year, raising his batting average back up to .405. Daniel Murphy went hitless again and sees himself under .300 for the first time in a while, sitting at .299. Ike Davis was able to scratch into the hit column in a pinch hitting appearance, a day after management decided against sending him down to the minors. Not that anyone outside of the organization agrees with that, but I digress.

Probable Pitchers tonight:

Anthony Bass (2-4, 2.89 ERA) will try and make it two straight for the Padres tonight as he takes the hill against Dillon Gee (3-3, 5.44 ERA) of the Mets. Gee is coming off one of his better performances of the season against the Blue Jays, and is looking to continue to build upon the momentum that he created. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10pm.