4/16 Game 1 Recap: Dillon Gee Fails to Exit 5th & Rockies take 1st one, 8-4

Well, with the Mets a magnet for winter weather apparently, it took us over 70 hours between pitches. Though the Mets had two 2-run leads, Dillon Gee, who was supposed to pitch on Sunday, could not hold them in the Mile-high City, and the Rockies held on to win 8-4.

Highlights and Box Score here.

The Mets got going immediately in the 1st. After Jordany Valdespin grounded out softly to 3rd base to start the game, Daniel Murphy singled, and then David Wright hit the ball hard, carrying it through the snowy Denver air and out to right-center for his 1st home run of the year and a 2-0 Mets lead.

Gee, who stranded a Carlos Gonzalez triple in the 1st, gave one back in the 2nd on an RBI single by Wilin Rosario, with a very close play on the throw only because of how well John Buck blocks the plate.

CarGo then crushed it in the 3rd inning; it was less than a thing of beauty only because it came off the Mets and it tied the game.

With runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out in the top of the 4th, Ruben Tejada shot a ball to the right of Todd Helton, a single Todd would have turned into an inning-ending double play in yesteryears. Not being yesteryear, though, it gave the Mets a 3-2 lead.

With 1 out in the 5th, David Wright absolutely obliterated the ball to straight-away center off the waterfall’s red rocks for his 2nd home run of the year and game to give the Mets a 4-2 lead.

Gee, however, was wild in the 5th.  With the bases loaded and 2 out, he walked Michael Cuddyer to make it 4-3. Todd Helton then came up, and for the 2nd time in the inning, Murphy, who has made many strides at 2nd base, had his range and instincts exposed when he was unable to field Helton’s ground ball up the middle. Two runs scored to make it 5-4 Rockies, and Gee’s day was done. Brandon Lyon, who hadn’t pitched in a week, relieved him, getting Wilin Rosario to fly out to Kirk Nieuwenhuis in center.

The Mets couldn’t get anything going the rest of the game and the bullpen did not do their job. The Rockies tacked 1 more run on in the 6th off Lyon and 2 more in the 9th, finishing the scoring at 8-4.

Highlights:

• Dillon Gee, for the 2nd straight start, could not go 5 innings. He went 4 2/3 innings, giving up 5 earned runs on 7 hits and 2 walks, with 2 strikeouts and 1 home run allowed.

• David Wright, who had failed to homer through the first 11 games of the year, got his first 2 of the season today, as he went 3 for 4 with 3 RBI.

• John Buck, who took his first 0fer on Saturday, got right back into the swing of things, going 2 for 4 with 1 run scored.

• Lucas Duda continued to walk incessantly, picking another BB up and singling for a 1 for 3 day. Before today’s game he was batting .258, slugging .613 and getting on base at a .452 clip.

• Ike Davis went 0 for 4 with a strikeout.

Thoughts:

First of all, I saw the craziest thing today: The Duda made a diving catch in front of him in the bottom 7th. It’s that going-back-diving-catch that’s troubling…

I’m not all that concerned with Dillon Gee right now because the Mets were faced with a tough hand weather-wise and it threw the back of the staff completely off. Plus, Murph has made strides at 2nd base, but other second baseman could easily have had the ground balls that Daniel couldn’t come up with on diving plays this afternoon. His range, really his second base instincts, are still inferior, even though he’s come a long, long way.

Anyway, they’re getting right into this, so enjoy game 2 everybody.

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