Niese Crushed, Mets Lose 6-4

After a good beginning, Jonathon Niese was lit up and the Mets couldn’t recover, losing the opening game of the series versus the Braves 6-4.

Game Notes

Jonathon Niese was strong until the fourth inning, which would prove to be his last – giving up six runs, with NONE of them being earned thanks to a David Wright throwing error on a possible inning-ending double play. Niese’s final line was four innings, five hits, six unearned runs, three walks and four strikeouts, Jonathon has looked fatigued in the latter half of the season, and he had thrown 92 pitches in his four innings of work.

The bullpen received another good day’s work, with a rare appearance from Sean Green. Mr. Green went two innings, striking out two and walking one. Amazingly, he didn’t look god-awful and his pitches were moving. Manny Acosta, Elmer Dessens and Pedro Feliciano came on to finish the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. Seeing the bullpen being used a lot is good at this point of the year to gauge who may be returning next year (Feliciano? Green? Dessens?) and to see everyone get some work.

The offense had a major outburst in the second inning, all sparked by an Ike Davis walk on a close pitch that lead Braves manager Bobby Cox to get ejected for arguing balls and strikes. Josh Thole would follow Ike with a single to right-center, allowing Ike Davis to get to third. Lucas Duda would knock an RBI single in to score Ike Davis, Jon Niese hit a bloop RBI single and Jose Reyes hit another RBI single. Lucas Duda brought the score to 6-4 with his first MLB home run, an absolute beam to the Pepsi Porch.

Reyes, Carter, Beltran, Wright, Davis and Thole combined to go 1-23 with one RBI, six strikeouts and one walk.

Ike Davis is 11/11 in his K/BB for September. Much better.

Lucas Duda, enormous day. 2-3 with another multi-RBI day. His last two games, 4-7 with four RBI and one strikeout.

Turning Point

The David Wright error was huge. With Derrek Lee and Matt Diaz running, it was almost tailor-made. If Ruben Tejada even managed to turn one out, he could’ve changed the inning.

Game Ball

Beginning to agree with Joe D on game ball’s for losing efforts, but can’t deny Lucas Duda his just-due for his first MLB home run.

On Deck

The Mets will look to tie the series, sending Dillon Gee to the mound as he faces off against Tim Hudson. Game time is 4:10 P.M.