The New York Mets lost their second straight game to the Philadelphia Phillies by the score of 9-4 this afternoon at Citi Field. The loss drops them to 10-12 and they have lost eight of their last eleven games.
Shaun Marcum (0-1, 6.75) made his Mets debut and lasted just four innings, allowing three runs on five hits and two walks. He tossed 71 pitches, 44 for strikes, and was charged with a wild pitch. Marcum’s fastball never eclipsed 85 mph. He’ll need to do better than that next time out if the Mets are to make any noise the rest of this season.
The bullpen was called on to pitch five innings and first up was Robert Carson who was absolutely torched by the Phillies. The lefthander allowed five runs in the fifth inning including two home runs by Domonic Brown and John Mayberry. LaTroy Hawkins and Scott Rice each tossed a pair of scoreless innings. Rice has been very effective out of the pen for the Mets. But nevertheless, they now have worst bullpen in the majors with a 5.28 ERA.
Offensively, David Wright had two hits and an RBI, and catcher John Buck hit his eighth home run of the season in the ninth. He now has 23 RBI this season and only Mike Piazza and Ivan Rodriguez have had more in the month of April since 1920. Good company.
The other runs came on a sac fly by Ike Davis and Jordany Valdespin drove in the Mets’ first run with a double in the second.
The Mets have lost three in a row, and four of their last five games against the Phillies this season. They’ll look to salvage the final game of the series with Jon Niese going up against Cole Hamels at 1:10 PM on Sunday.
