There are losses that can be blamed on a single player, and some even on human error — but others are just disappointing team losses where you get outplayed in every facet of the word. These happen every now and then and they’re unpleasant to watch. Tonight, sadly, was one of those games. Zack Wheeler had a streak of consecutive quality starts broken tonight while former Mets prospect Scott Kazmir mowed down the Mets lineup in an 8-1 defeat to the Indians.
Wheeler’s problems tonight stemmed from perhaps the one issue he had in the minor leagues: walking batters. He walked five batters over five innings of work, and allowed five hits in the same span. He was charged with three runs, only two of them earned, and he struck out three. The unearned run crossed in the second, as an in-direct result of a Wilmer Flores throwing error. All in all, Wheeler did a nice job dancing out of the trouble he put himself in over the course of the game, so I can take solace in the fact that he was pretty composed out there. Gonzalez Germen followed with two innings of work and allowed one run.
On the flip side of the ball, Scott Kazmir struck out twelve through six scoreless and allowed just four hits. It was that kind of night for the Mets offense, who managed only a seventh inning solo home run by Justin Turner to get on the board. The deciding blow against us, however, was made when Nick Swisher crushed a grand slam in the bottom of the eighth — saddling both Tim Byrdak and David Aardsma with two earned runs each. Byrdak was the one who surrendered the home run.
You try to put these kind of games behind you and move on to the next one. The Mets are really looking like they’re heading towards a protected draft pick, which really isn’t the worst possible outcome if the Mets plan to actually make a big splash this offseason. Time will tell, however. Jon Niese takes the mound for the Mets tomorrow after a so-so outing his last time out, where he was pulled after a cramp.
