Dickey Dominant In Mets 3-1 Victory Over D-Backs

Recap:

It was a beautiful day for baseball as the Mets took on the Arizona Diamondbacks and bested them behind R.A. Dickey’s stellar outing, taking the rubber game of the series 3-1.

For the first few innings, it looked as if Dickey had the stuff to go the distance and end the streak of 7,995 games without a no-hitter, but alas, Gerarado Parra’s fourth inning ground-rule double dashed any hopes of that.

Another disappointment in the fourth inning came when Ruben Tejada hit a drag bunt and while running it out, tripped and landed roughly on his quad and while tumbling over the bag, face planted very hard into the dirt. He would leave the game with a strained right quad and be replaced by Justin Turner at short. Tejada is undergoing an MRI as we speak.

The Mets jumped on Cahill right from the get-go, scoring two runs on a Daniel Murphy two-run single in the bottom of the first and  a Josh Thole RBI-knock of his own in the fourth.

Staked to a 3-0 lead, that was all R.A. Dickey needed to cruise to his fourth win of the year. Dickey continued to dominant the potent Diamondbacks lineup with a shutout in-tact going into the ninth. Two batters into the ninth frame however, the shutout was over. Following a Gerardo Parra walk, Justin Upton shot a double down the line to make it a 3-1 ballgame. Collins quickly pulled Dickey in favor of a combination of Byrdak and Francisco to retire the side and shut the door, picking up their 15th win of the year and the rubber game of this series.

Hero Of The Game:

R.A. Dickey, for his 8+ innings of work and setting the table for a Mets victory despite a key player going down in the process.

Notes:

-Frank Francisco is starting to look a bit better coming out of the pen in the past few days. He is a very streaky pitcher, so its possible there are greener pastures on the horizon for Francisco and the Amazin’ bullpen.

-Kirk Nieuwenhuis is not suited for left field. Did anyone see how he fielded that Justin Upton double? He belongs in right, his natural position and Duda should move to left. Collins said last week he doesn’t want to “bounce Duda around” and have his bat be effected by it, yet he is doing just that to Kirk and now you have two guys in Duda and Nieuwenhuis that aren’t hitting instead of one.

-With great starts out of Santana and Dickey, I can only imagine Niese and Gee will follow suit in the coming days. They both seem to follow the trends of the veteran starters at each turn in the rotation.

-I really hope Tejada doesn’t have to go on the DL, because if he does, what are the Mets options? Valdespin? Emaus? Turner? Not exactly appealing defensive options for shortstop.

Up Next:

Jon Niese and the Mets take on the satisfyingly slumping Phillies tomorrow at Citizen’s Bank Park at 8:05pm.