The Mets lost to the Cubs this afternoon by the score of 5-3 in sunny and windy Wrigley Field. It was a coming out party of sorts for Jenrry Mejia who made his much anticipated debut as a starting pitcher.

Game Summary

It wasn’t exactly a Cinderella story for the young righthander Jenrry Mejia who after 30 relief appearances and a stint in the minors, returned for his first career starting assignment against the Cubs.

Mejia actually got off to a good start when he retired the Cubs in order in the first, but things soon fell apart as he allowed ten baserunners and four runs to cross the plate in the next four innings leading to the end of his outing.

Oftentimes Mejia looked a little rattled out there, and I wondered if a veteran catcher like Henry Blanco could have done a better job of calming him down as well as keeping one run from scoring on a wild pitch and possibly saving another run with a good throw to second base. I’m not knocking Mike Nickeas, but let’s face it, he’s clearly not in the Mets plans for the future.

The Mets could have done a better job of giving Mejia the best possible opportunity to win in his debut, and in my opinion they didn’t. Bottom line though, if the Mets really want to do the right thing, they would do well to give the kid some more seasoning in the minors instead of just handing him a spot in the rotation for 2011… Regardless of how well he pitches for the rest of this month.

Misch, Dessens and Feliciano all worked in relief, but Bobby Parnell came out in the eighth inning and threw some major league heat, hurling three pitches that registered 100+ on the radar gun and striking out two Cubs in a scoreless inning of work.

On offense we had a few brights spots, but again the Mets could only muster up three runs in the contest.

Carlos Beltran had a great game and went 3-4 with an RBI and also stole a base which was good to see. I know a lot of you are down on him, but I really do expect a huge season from Beltran in 2011.

Ike Davis ended his homerless slump with his 16th homer of the season and his first since July 29 and second hit of the game. The only other hit for the Mets came from Ruben Tejada who lifted his average to .185. <sarcasm> Lucas Duda was hitless again and is now 1-15 since being called up.

Game Ball

The game ball goes to Carlos Beltran who is really starting to make better contact and has shown no problems with his knee.

Up Next

The Mets look to salvage the final game of the series with Jon Niese facing Ryan Dempster at 2:20 PM.

LGM