Game Recap: Big Inning Dooms Jon Niese and Mets in 11-5 Loss

Jonathon Niese was hoping give the Mets their first back-to-back wins in what seems like years last night, but it was a six-run second inning that New York was ultimately not able to recover from, ending up in a loss to the Dbacks in Arizona.

Mets Offensive Highlights:

New York got all five of their runs in a two inning span. They first broke the game open in the second inning with two runs, started by Ike Davis, who led the frame off with this 17th homer of the season, a fly ball that cleared the right field fence. Daniel Murphy followed that with a double to left and scored on a two-out, Andres Torres single. After they gave up the lead in the bottom of the inning, the Mets decided to play some more long ball. Ruben Tejada and Jordany Valdespin both singled in front of David Wright, who brought the Amazins back within one with a three-run homer, his 16th of the season.

Unfortunately, that would be the closest the Mets would get to re-taking the lead last night, as Arizona continued to pull away.

Diamondbacks Offensive Highlights:

With one out in the second inning, Niese allowed Justin Upton, Stephen Drew, and Chris Young all to single, loading the bases. Then, Niese walked former teammate Henry Blanco to plate Arizona’s first run. Josh Collmenter then singled in another run, but the biggest play was what happened next. Willie Bloomquist hit a 50-foot dribbler up the 3rd base line that Niese fielded and should have kept in his pocket, but he threw it wide of 1st, allowing three runs to score. Aaron Hill capped the inning with a sac fly to center field. Bloomquist was at it again in  the 4th, as he singled in Drew for some insurance. It continued in the fifth, starting with a Jason Kubel double, followed by an RBI single from Paul Goldschmidt. The last bit of scoring for Arizona happened in the seventh, as Justin Upton hit an RBI single, followed by a Chris Young two-run double.

Pitching Highlights:

If you take out that big inning in the 2nd, then Jonathon Niese didn’t pitch badly. However, they don’t do that in baseball. On a night where Collins was hoping to get some length from his starter, the southpaw went 6 innings and gave up 8 runs (6 earned) on 9 hits, 1 walk, and 5 strikeouts. Elvin Ramirez got touched up for three runs in his one inning of work, and Manny Acosta worked a scoreless eighth in his second appearance since being recalled from Triple-A.

Josh Collmenter didn’t pitch well last night, but well enough to get the win, as he also went 6 innings and gave up 5 runs on 7 hits, 1 walk, and 5 strikeouts. Brad Ziegler and Craig Breslow supplied three innings of hitless relief to put the Mets away for good.

Worth Noting:

Wright’s three RBI last night now give him 70 on the season, only trailing Kubel’s 72 for the NL lead. Jonathon Niese hadn’t walked a hitter in his last 20 innings pitched, but he couldn’t put Henry Blanco away with the bases loaded, which ended up being his only walk of the night. Ruben Tejada was the only Met to register a two-hit game.

The loss drops the Mets record to 48-52, still 11.5 games behind the Nationals in the NL East, but they keep burying themselves in the Wild Card race, now 7.5 games back.

Probable Pitchers Saturday:

The Mets will turn to Chris Young (2-4, 3.91 ERA), hoping that he can put together his third straight quality start against Ian Kennedy (8-8, 4.20 ERA). First pitch in Phoenix is scheduled for 8:10pm.