June 21, 2011, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim-New York Mets game story for Metro NYC Newspaper
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JEFF ZELEVANSKY/GETTY IMAGES
Turner stroked an RBI groundout in the ninth.
The “Quest For .500” will begin anew tomorrow.
The Mets had a chance to reach the break-even point yesterday against the L.A. Angels, but decided to sleepwalk through a 7-3 loss at Citi Field.
Jon Niese (6-6, 3.70 ERA) was knocked around for five runs -- four earned -- in four-plus innings, and his teammates couldn’t muster much offensively.
“Just a bad day. It just seemed like they were on every pitch I threw. That triple down the line kind of hurt,” Niese said
Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran sandwiched RBI singles around Justin Turner’s RBI groundout in the ninth. But with Beltran on first, and two outs, Scott Hairston grounded out to end it.
The Mets (35-37) have lost three of four, and are 5-5 in their last 10 games. They are off today and will begin a three-game series Tuesday night against the AL West cellar dweller A’s.
“It was one of those days where nothing really went in our favor; got down early and that kind of sucked the air out of the balloon,” Jason Bay said. “It’s always disappointing (to lose). Right now we’re focused on winning a series. A lot has been said about .500 and this and that (but) right now it’s more about winning a series. Obviously we didn’t do that.”
Terry Collins pointed to Niese’s improved command before the game that as key to the left-hander going 3-1 with 1.60 ERA against in his previous four starts. But that command was noticeably lacking yesterday.
Maicer Itzuris led off the game with a bloop single to center and scored on Vernon Wells’ two-out RBI single. Erick Aybar increased the Angels’ advantage to 4-0 in the second with a two out triple that scored Mark Trumbo, Peter Bourjos and Itzuris. Wells would end Niese’s outing with a RBI single in the fifth. Jeff Mathis and Vernon Wells added solo homers off of Manny Acosta in the sixth and seventh for the Angels.
“Just a bad day. It just seemed like they were on every pitch I threw. That triple down the line kind of hurt,” Niese said of his outing.
“They came out a-hacking,” Josh Thole analyzed. “Sometimes there’s not much you can do. You kind of paint yourself into a corner when they get guys on.”
Factor in an offense that could not figure out Tyler Chatwood (4-4, 3.84) in his 14th Major League start and it is a formula for a loss. The Mets only recorded four hits in seven innings off of the 2008 second round pick. He walked four and struck out four while throwing 117 pitches.
“You’ll find this a lot of times in the big leagues. When you face guys that you’ve never seen before, it’s an uncomfortable at-bat. This kid, he threw fastball after fastball after fastball. We just did not put very good swings on it. We did not get balls centered, a lot of routine fly balls. I thought our at-bats weren’t like what we normally have,” Collins said. “It’s one of those situations where we’d like to see him again.
“When you don’t pitch, and especially when you don’t pitch and hit at the same time, it’s going to get ugly. And it got ugly.”
What went wrong ...
1 Learning curve
Jon Niese didn’t possess good stuff and instead of pitching, he attempted to throw his fastball through the L.A. lineup. But he was toasted for eight hits, five runs (four earned) in four innings.
2 Reyes for MVP?
With every at-bat, Jose Reyes makes Fred Wilpon’s statement to New Yorker magazine look foolish. He leads the NL with a .343 average. His 53 runs scored and 26 steals are second in NL.
3 Rest for the weary
It’s nice to have a day off after a long work stretch. Just ask the Mets, who are relaxing after 13 games in 13 days before hosting the A’s
http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/article/894433--mets-trying-to-hit-elusive-500-mark--page0
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 10:01 AM
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