The Mets lost the opening game of their three-game series against the Braves tonight at Citi Field, 5-1.
- It was not a happy Matt Harvey day. He went six innings and gave up seven hits with four earned runs against the worst offense in baseball, though that offense was pretty aggressive early in counts against him all night. It snapped his recent string of great starts, though this appeared more like an off night rather than any kind of step backward.
- The Mets’ offense, which had been on fire the last couple of games, ran into that human buzz saw that is…John Gant? The former Mets farmhand, traded last year in a deal at the deadline that netted the Mets Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe, stuck it to his former employer. He and his funky delivery went 6.2 innings while striking out five and giving up just one earned run on two hits. He earned his first major league win in just his second major league start because we can’t have nice things.
- Curtis Granderson went 2-4 with a single, a double, and a run scored and continues to be one of the only bright spots in this lineup.
- James Loney ended the game with a illegal-before-the-new-rule take-out slide at second base, resulting in a double play. It was a bold choice. It didn’t work out. The upside is that it ended the game quicker than it otherwise would have.
Gut reaction: Glad I missed it and sorry Rob you had to watch it.
What a depressing loss. I will require, at minimum, four straight wins to get over this.
Mets “talking” to Oakland….
Do Harvey’s teammates hate him? He gets no support. 3 runs combined in his last four starts and they seem to make an error every game he pitches. And one more rant – Plawecki does not belong in the majors – at least not now.
Some pitchers, it just happens to. Back in the ’80’s, Royals pitcher Danny Jackson had the league’s worst run support two years running. Glendon Rusch actually had a very good season in 2000, only you wouldn’t know it by his 11-11 record for a team that made the World Series. Bobby Ojeda, 1988, same sort of thing, only moreso; he went 10-13 while pitching for the 100 win Mets. Five of those wins were shutouts, and he led the league (in retrospect) in the Fielding Independent Pitching, which measures those things entirely in the pitcher’s responsibility. And I didn’t even mention Nolan Ryan’s 1987 season.
It seems the 162 game season is actually too short for the breaks to even out.
snagged this gem from an article over at MMO.
It was the 34th time in Harvey’s 79 career outings that the Mets have scored two runs or fewer. Harvey is 1-19 in those 34 games with a 2.60 ERA.
http://metsmerizedonline.com/2016/06/harvey-falters-in-loss-to-braves.html/
GS with less than 2 runs
2012
Harvey: 6/10 = 60%
Mets overall: 51/162=31.5%
2013
Harvey : 9/26 = 34.6%
Mets overall 59/162 = 36.4%
2015
Harvey : 11/29 = 37.9%
Mets overall : 51/162 = 31.5%
2016
Harvey : 8/14 = 57.1%
Mets overall : 25/66 = 37.8%
He’s certainly been unlucky this year and in 2012, but in the 2 more full years he was pretty near the average.
These follow up comments perfectly illustrate why I love Mets360.com.