Nothing went right for Valdespin and the Mets against the Cubs on Saturday.
The Mets dropped their second straight against the Cubs in a 5-2 loss at Citi Field on Saturday. Cubs starter Scott Feldman had the Mets number and held them to just one run and retired the last 12 batters he faced in a row.
Jon Niese started for the Mets and pitched well enough to win, but clearly didn’t bring his “A” game today as he allowed two runs on six hits and four walks in 5.2 innings while striking out five. When Terry Collins came out to pull him after two outs in the sixth, he begrudgingly gave up the ball and was jawing all the way back to the dugout. Collins and Niese continued to argue in the dugout and the Mets southpaw wasn’t happy.
LaTroy Hawkins relieved Niese and pitched 1.1 hitless innings, but Scott Rice and Brandon Lyon allowed three more Cubs runs to score in the eighth innings on three walks and three hits.
Greg Burke came in for the ninth and was greeted by a single, a double and a walk to load the bases with nobody out. Juan Lagares then made a great diving catch that was wrongly ruled a trap by the first base ump. But somehow amid the confusion, the clueless Mets escaped the inning without any damage when Burke got the next two outs.
Offensively, the Mets got on the board in the fourth inning on a David Wright RBI double to score Daniel Murphy. In the bottom of the eighth inning the Mets made some more noise. After consecutive hits by Juan Lagares and Kirk Nieuwenhuis, an RBI single by Jordany Valdespin with one out would plate Lagares. But Murphy and Wright would go quietly after that to end the the threat.
In the bottom of the ninth, Marlon Byrd led off the inning with the Mets sixth hit of the game, and after a Duda infield popup, Justin Turner got to first on an error to bring up Buck with two on and one out. But Buck popped out and Cubs closer Kevin Gregg got Lagares to fly out to end the game.
Lagares is making the most of his playing time while Valdespin has not. There’s still no telling if Lagares will continue to hit after the league adjusts to him, but for now you have to play him everyday. Meanwhile, I’d say Spin is now 4-5 days away from being replaced on the roster by Wilmer Flores.
Lucas Duda now has just five hits in his last 37 at-bats and also tried to bunt his way on to lead off the fifth inning and it was all kinds of awful..
The Mets bullpen now ranks an MLB worst in Batting Average Against and Earned Run Average for the third year in a row, and as Gary Cohen pointed out they have the lowest strikeout rate in league as well.
Today’s game was a showcase of just how fundamentally flawed this team is. They are becoming almost unwatchable especially when Matt Harvey isn’t pitching.
The Mets are now at the lowest point of their season, losing ten of their last 12, and falling to 15 games under .500 for the season.
Jeremy Hefner will oppose Matt Garza and try to salvage the final game of the series on Sunday. First pitch is at 1:10 PM, and with that let me wish all you dads out there a Happy Father’s Day.
