2
2012
Dodgers Take Advantage Of Mets’ NL Worst Defense To Avoid Sweep
An article by 
It was a rough end to an otherwise exceptional series for the New York Mets as the failed to complete the four game sweep of the Dodgers, with poor pitching and sloppy defense being the name of the game as they fell by a lopsided score of 8-3.
Dillon Gee got the nod for New York and labored through his outing to say the least. After Scott Hairston gave the Mets an early lead in the top of the inning with an RBI single, Gee quickly gave it right back, allowing AJ Ellis to score after he had doubled earlier in the inning to make it a 1-1 ballgame. Then after the Mets got him a 3-1 lead, Gee handed that back to them, although this time the result of shoddy defense. After Cedeno dropped a would be forceout at second and Turner literally dropped the ball at first, two unearned runs would score to re-tie the game at three a piece. Come bottom six, James Loney grounded out following an Adam Kennedy double to score Juan Rivera and hand L.A. the lead for good. Gee ended the evening with a final line of six innings pitched, four runs allowed (two earned) on five hits and two walks while punching out four, taking the loss to fall to 5-7 on the season.
The game just got uglier and uglier from this point. Ramon Ramirez put two men on before giving way to Justin Hampson who walked a batter to loade the bases up for Juan Rivera. Facing Miguel Batista, Rivera hit a grounder back to Batista and Nickeas missed the throw, allowing two runners to score to make it 6-3. Then after a sac fly by Adam Kennedy to score Bobby Abreu, James Loney ripped an RBI double to right to put the game out of reach, making it a 8-3 ballgame. No runs were earned in the inning but a devastating one nonetheless.
The Mets offense started out strong but then faded as the game went on. Scoring in the first on the aforementioned Scott Hairston RBI single and then cashing in twice on two errors by Dee Gordon in the the third, the lineup appeared to be getting to Clayton Kershaw.
However once the defense failed the Mets so too did the offense, not even scraping together a hit in the final two innings of the ballgame and looking completely overmatched by Kershaw after hitting him relatively well in the opening innings.
A sloppy game all around as the Mets come home to play the division rival and resident basement dwelling Philadelphia Phillies.
Notes:
- Mike Nickeas’ error in the ninth was the Mets’ NL-worst 63rd error of the season.
- Ruben Tejada went 2-for-3 in the game with a walk and a run scored.
- For what it’s worth, Jeremy Hefner pitched a scoreless eighth in relief in the loss.
- The snubbed should-be starter for the All-Star game, David Wright, went 1-for-4 with a walk and a run scored in the loss, and is now batting .354 on the year. In comparison, Pablo Sandoval went 0-for-4 and is now hitting an even .300. Who do you think should be starting the all-star game at third?
- Jason Bay will hit off a tee this week in New York, after which the team’s medical staff will determine when he will go to Port St. Lucie to begin his rehab.
- Terry Collins is considering having Johan Santana make the team’s first start after the All-Star break on Friday, July 13, against the Braves in Atlanta.
Up Next:
The Mets have an off day tomorrow but will pick things up Tuesday at home against the Phillies starting at 7:10 pm.
About the Author: Clayton Collier
Clayton, a Long Island native and die-hard Mets fan, started writing online about three years ago. He is currently a Journalism major with a minor in Broadcasting at Seton Hall University. Although very disappointed with the current state of the team, Clayton remains hopeful that the young prospects in the farm system will bring the Mets back to a respected franchise in baseball once again. Besides writing for MMO, Clayton is also a staff member at 89.5 WSOU, Seton Hall's modern active rock radio station. You can contact Clayton by following him on Twitter: @Clayton_Collier or E-mailing him at MaybeNextYearMets@yahoo.com
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 26 | 18 | .591 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 22 | .511 | 3.5 |
| Phillies | 21 | 24 | .467 | 5.5 |
| Mets | 17 | 25 | .405 | 8.0 |
| Marlins | 13 | 32 | .289 | 13.5 |
Last updated: 05/21/2013
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I cant believe how Terry Collins continues to use BAD-tista when the game is on the line.
Did you even watch the game?? Clearly the GOAT of the game was that bum nickeaus, he had a terrible defensive game yesterday, which is supposed to be his strong suit.. Bastita indulge the easy DP ball, threw the ball to the Defensive Catcher and he somehow rushing to catch the ball drop it to the back end. then it was all over after that…
Alex is right, Batista sucks, but last night wasn’t his fault it was all on Nickeas! We have the worst catching tandem in baseball. I hope we can fix that at the trade deadline. Nah! That ain’t happening.
Well you guys, at least we took 3 of 4 against the Dodgers who were in first place when we got there and second place after we got done owning them!
Lol, Glad to see you back my friend… I do agree our catching just plain suck… Thole had a 318 OBP and a mind boggling 317 Slug %… I mean, Lol, you can’t make that up…
we one the series thats a huge plus, now get 4out of 6 against the phillies and cubs . LGM
Hi Clayton,
You forgot to mention that the Mets ran themselves out of a potential big first inning and probably lost the game right there.
Torres was caught off first base for the third time in two games and Hairston was out going to second on the throw cut off by the infield. We would have had bases loaded, nobody out and two runs already in instead of two outs, a runner on third and just one.
With a big lead early, aided by those two more runs in the third, Gee pitching well, Kershaw not, it would have been the Dodgers pressing more with their up to then anemic hitting and the whole emotional aspect of the game would have changed.
Glad you mentioned that. We’ve seen this too many times now. Not sure it would have mattered but Hairston and Torres definitely ran them out of what could have been a bigger inning.
This is one of those getaway day losses which happens when the guys mentally get on the plane before the game has ended!
And while I understand they were facing kershaw and all but we can’t keep putting in this light hitting RH Lineup and expect to win.
Guys like Murphy and Davis need to hit LHPs as well.And while I understand ot makes some sense to get them an extra day of rest with the offday today Ike should have still been in there.
It’s a bad Habit that Terry has had of playing all his reserves on the last day of a series when a sweep is possible.
That’s one of the things that drives me nuts about TC. When he rests guys or platoons he does too many at one time and just makes the lineup overly weak. I get wanting to have Hairston over Kirk but the rest wass overkill. Kershaw is a great pitcher and Ike and Murph should see those pitches unless Ike will be consistently platooned.
I can understand sitting Kirk who is struggling and you HAVE to play Hairston who has hit kershaw well in his career.
I can even understand giving Murphy an extra day of rest as he has looked tired at times this year.
And I can even see giving Ike a rest now and then vs LHPs but not both him and Murphy.
Lets face it a 1B doesn’t need all that much rest Valley Fever or not. He doesn’t have to run all that much at 1B certainly not as much as a 2B does. And the loss of defense at 1B has a ripple effect all through the infield.
That said I do like Collins trying to get everyone into games and keeping them fresh I just don’t think it needs to be the same game and usually the last game of a series where we are winning the series and could sweep.
With the All Star break coming up I don’t really see all that big of a need to rest anyone at this point…They are all going to get 3 days off soon anyway!
And resting two hot batters that in a week will have a three day layoff has a greater chance of cooling them off than keeping them fresh.
On the whole I can;t really complain about Collins’ decisions but he does have a pattern of playing the B Team in the last game of a series regardless of what transpired the first few games of a series.
I didn’t expect them to sweep anyway but it almost seemed like we didn’t even try.
I get the whole R/L Split thing but you can’t tell me Ronny Cedeno or Justin Turner are going to actually do anything more than Ike Davis would!
So really what did we gain by playing the righty lefty game?
One HR could have put Kershaw out an inning earlier and maybe Gee holds the lead then.
I have to agree, Mets we already on the flight home in the first inning when they had the opportunity to put up at least 3 runs. Instead Kershaw picks off Torres (really) and Hairston gets thrown out at 2nd. Mets ran themselves right out of what could have been a potential big inning. Then the defense goes south to give the Dodgers the game. Nickeas is suppose to be the “defensive” catcher. If they could have kept it at 4-3 maybe a possible comeback. Also benching Ike, Kirk, & Thole against Kershaw is a mystery to me. Yes he’s a tough lefty, but when will they ever learn to hit tough lefties if they are never in the line up against them?
Torres is the biggest friggin’ liability when on 1B. Just so unprofessional!!!
Nickeas say what you will but he just has not impressed me defensively throughout this season.
As far as sitting Ike vs the hard lefty I have no problem with this move. They have the day off 2morrow and then 6 days b4 the ASB. It may be the last time Ike will get a 2 day break like this and if the Mets continue to play as they have up to now they may be in a dog fight the rest of the season which will mean if Ike is hitting he is playing the rest of the way.
The Mets lost this game cause other than scoring a run on what should of been an easy inning ending dbl ply for the Dodgers and then scoring a run on an error by the dodger 1b unable to handle a ball bounced to him at 1st the Mets were only able to score 1 earned run vs again a tough lefty in Kershaw.
They lost this game cause they ran themselves out of a 1st inning where had Torres not gotten picked off and Hairston not thrown out at 2b who knows how many more runs that inning may have led to.
They lost this game cause Nickeas could not catch cleanly a throw to the plate with the bases loaded and 1 out and instead allowed 2 runs to score. After that the Dodgers were off to the races vs the Mets pen.
The Mets I can’t even count the games they have won cause they have gotten contributions from everyone on the team. Tonight we saw what happens when they don’t.
Hat tip to Kershaw who only gave up 1 earned run over 7 innings and poor job by the bench who not only failed to hit but made bad errors to help an anemic offense score 6 unearned runs.
Mets went 4-3 on the road trip after getting off to an 0-2 start. I figured if they went 5-2 when the road trip started that would be successful. They fell 1 game short.
Back home for the Phils who despite their record are always a tough team vs us. Go no worse than 3 and 3 at home and look forward to what is shaping up to be an interesting July.
LGM!
I blame this loss on Terry Collins. Yes the catching is horrible and we need one to take over for Nickeas AND Thole but that’s another story.
I blame this on Collins for inexplicably benching his 2 hottest hitters in Murphy and Davis. AT least keep Ike Davis in for his defense!!! You don’t bench a premiere fielding, hot hitting starting firstbaseman just because a lefty is starting! Even Capt Kirk should have been in there!
What makes it worse though was Kershaw wasn’t impressive at all early in the game. I thought he didn’t have much of a fastball and his breaking stuff wasn’t so sharp so looking back in hindsight I saw no reason for Davis or Murphy to be able to take him deep into the gap. And that could have helped seal the game early for the Mets when they had Kershaw on the ropes. Collins set the tone by benching his hottest bats and it wound up the pitcher didn’t have his best stuff early on. Collins gets the blame for this loss, despite the bad d, in my opinion.
I can understand sitting one but not both….
He could have kept his infield defense in tact by leaving Ike in there and put Turner in RF for Duda. To take out your solid glove at 1B is ridiculous on it’s own merit.
Or he could have started Turner at 2B, Ronnie Cedeno doesn’t do much for me at all. I’d rather have Jordanny and his left handed bat in there than Cedeno.
Or he could have put Turner at 2B and sat Cedeno with Ike at 1B.
I don’t mind him giving the R/L split thing some thought but all he really did was put every RH bat he had into the lineup and once he did get to the point where they put a RHP in and he pinch hit for them all they needed to do was throw another Lefty at them and he was out of options.
Murphy was hot but an extra day of rest at this point against a great LHP is fine, Murphny was hot but could go cold just as quickly so I can see protecting him until Kershaw is gone…
But Ike is one of your few high power HR hitting bats and fully beyond sliding back to his old ways so let him take his shots at Kershaw. But spilt milk they got the rest and I hope it helps the next few games cause it would be nice to be less than a game out of and maybe even take the lead in the division before the ASG break.
We play the Phillies and Cubs while the Nats play San Fran and Colorado. We could make up some ground while they play the 1st place Giants and the cubbies are (well should be) an easier team to beat than the Rockies. But barely just barely! LOL
That game was embarrassing.
Torres is like Pagan in that he makes frustrating mental mistakes like getting picked off first by the catcher. Oh, except Pagan can actually hit.
Nickeas dropping that ball was absurd. Was RA Dickey throwing him a knuckler? Oh, that’s right, it was a simple toss from 60 feet away.
BEST MOVE OF THE GAME: David Wright, after striking out, tried to get himself ejected to fire up the team. Try harder, David! The guy is too nice sometimes. Let your teammates know that you’re pissed off! Kick the Gatorade jug. Throw a bat. Rip the p*rn mustache off Daniel Murphy’s face!
jokes: http://www.twitter.com/hogwild