N.Y. METS ~ Dickey Shines But Bats Fizzle At Citi

From the desk of:  HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

NEW YORK METS:  The Mets' Bats Fell Asleep Early.
R.A. Dickey Lost His Grip Late.



FINAL:
Pittsburgh  5
Mets  1


This is what happens when you face a 26 year old journeyman pitcher with a 12-14 career record, and make him look like the offspring of  Cy 'freakin' Young.  No one does this better than the Mets.  It's not just these current players.  It's all time.  We make virtual nobodies look like phenoms and we've been at this for decades now.


Tonight's hurler extraordinaire was Pittsburgh's James McDonald.  Six innings; six hits; one run; two walks; and five strikeouts left this Met fan shaking his head because the Mets blew an exceptionally well pitched game by R.A. Dickey in spite of his Plantus -Whateveritus condition.  I don't want to get into a digression about Dickey's mettle.  But the guy knows how to Man-Up doesn't he?


And there will be no knocks against Terry from me for not taking Dickey out a batter or two sooner.  We lost because James McDonald turned our bats into wet noodles.  Murphy and Pagan had two hits apiece.  And Beltran and Bay were good(?) for one hit each.  I'm not exactly doing back flips over the fact the much maligned Jason Bay literally tapped in the lone Met RBI tonight.  Credit Angel Pagan on that one.  Other than that, the rest of the Flushing Bisons could do little else against an obscenely ordinary pitcher.  Or, should I say pitchers?  A double and an infield blip - that was the extent of Tuesday's offense against the Pittsburgh Pirates.



R.A. DICKEY'S Line:
7.2 ~ innings pitched.
108 pitches ~ 81 strikes (an incredible number for a knuckle ball).
5 ~ hits.
3 ~ runs/earned.
2 ~ walks.
10 ~ strikeouts.



So file this as one of those "Failure To Seize the Moment" games.  With a pitching performance like Dickey's, the Mets had a golden opportunity to string together a third straight win on the back of two very strong outings by Niese and Gee.  But they damn near got shut-out Tuesday while featuring a line-up minus Wright, Reyes, and Davis.  Tuesday's line-up left Dickey zero room for error and as a result, how damaging was that hit-by-pitch in the eighth inning?  But for seven innings, Dickey was right on point.



Nick Evans probably had the most frustrating night of all the Mets; after Dickey that is.  He was pencilled in to play first base today (as Murph played third) and proceeded to strike out three times.  Ruben Tejada's batting average dropped down into the more familiar .200's category, as he kissed his .300 batting average goodbye today with an Oh-for.  And just as I'd like to see Dillon Gee and Jon Niese string pairs of victories together, I want Josh Thole to start stringing two and three games of good at-bats together.  He did not follow through Tuesday after swinging a winning bat the night before.  I guess what I call for is more consistency my friend.




Mike.BTB