Dickey came back strong as the Mets were able to split the four game set with Arizona by a final score of 5-1.
Recap:
Closing out this four-game set, the Mets looked to their ace, R.A. Dickey, to even up the four game set and get this tanking Mets team turned around.
The offense got Dickey an early cushion as they did for Matt Harvey in his debut Thursday, scoring a pair on back to back doubles on the three and four in the order, David Wright and Scott Hairston, to stake the Amazin’s to a 2-0 lead. The Mets made it a three-run advantage in the fifth, after Wright stole his 11th base of the season, Hairston was at it again, bringing home Wright, this time on a weakly hit single to left. Tacking on another, Daniel Murphy roped his 32nd double of the year to make it 4-0. Finally in the eighth, after Dickey allowed an unnearned run, Flushings Finest scored the final run of the game on a two bagger by Josh Thole to account for the final run of the ballgame for either side.
The offensive production was more than enough for R.A. Dickey, who after quite a roller-coaster stretch, hurled a gem today. Dickey allowed just one hit through the first five innings, escaping a bases loaded jam in in the second to keep Arizona off the scoreboard. However in the sixth, the knuckleballer ran into trouble.
Due to a lack of defense, Dickey allowed an unearned run in the sixth. on a groundball deep in the hole at short, Ruben Tejada tried to made a quick play to gun down Aaron Hill but instead missed and threw it into the dugout, putting him on second with nobody out. Then, a Paul Goldschmidt single sandwiched around two passed balls by Josh Thole resulted in the aforementioned unearned run, Dickey would finish the night with seven innings pitched, allowing an unearned run on four hits while walking three and punching out eight, picking up his league-leading 14th win while lowering his ERA to 2.83… Oh and now has 147 strikeouts.
After Dickey’s day was done, the bullpen, –yes, OUR bullpen– was dominant. The only baserunner in the eighth and ninth for the Dbacks was a walk on Bobby Parnell’s part. Jon Rauch pitched a perfect eighth despite his knee issues and Parnell put up a goose egg to with a pair of punch outs to get the Mets our of the desert and into the Bay Area with a victory.
Hero of the Game:
Dickey, for coming in and shuting down the DBacks, what a performance today!
Notes:
-Scott Hairston went 2-for-5 on the day with a double and two RBIs, now batting .308 in his past ten games.
-Andres Torres and Ruben Tejada accounted for the other multi-hit games for the Mets today. Torres went 6-for-12 in the Arizona series.
-Wright went 1-for-3 on the night with a double, two walks, two run scored, a stolen base and an RBI.
-Mike Baxter will join the team in San Fran and Kirk Nieuwenhuis will be demoted to Triple-A Buffalo to make room on the roster for him.
Up Next:
The Mets open up a four game set with the Giants behind Jeremy Hefner starting at 10:10pm at AT&T Park.
