Boy, I’ll tell ya… Karma? It’s a bitch…
The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Mets 5-1 this afternoon at Citi Field to complete the sweep and send the Mets reeling to their fourth loss in a row.
Jon Niese was the hard luck loser despite a solid performance from the Mets’ southpaw. He gave the the team more than they could have hoped for, but was let down by defensive miscues, a terrible decision by Terry Collins, and a forgettable outing by reliever Scott Atchison.
Niese was cruising through 6.2 innings and locked in a 1-1 pitching duel with Phillies starter Cole Hamels. After getting two quick outs in the seventh, Laynce Nix hit a foul popup that should have been the third out. But catcher John Buck dropped it for an error and Nix responded a single to ignite a rally.
After another single, Collins decides to bring the right-hander Atchison in. That prompted the dangerous Ryan Howard to come out as pinch-hitter and he immediately drove a two-run double to the wall to put the Phillies up 3-1. Chase Utley followed with another single to score Howard and that pretty much sealed the deal for a Philadelphia win.
It was an awful decision by Collins who should have known that Charlie Manuel would send up Ryan Howard to pinch-hit with a right-hander on the mound. Niese deserved a better fate and should have been allowed to get out of the inning himself after a hard-fought, well-pitched game to that point. Brandon Lyon allowed the fifth Phillies run to score in the eighth.
Offensively, the Mets fired blanks aside from Ruben Tejada who doubled twice and had two of the Mets’ three hits on the day. Ike Davis went 0-for-3 and is now batting .169. Lucas Duda continues to slump and after another hitless game his average is now down to .250. Marlon Byrd also took the collar and saw his average fall to .235 for the season.
In addition to the Buck error, the Mets committed two other errors in the first inning, including one by David Wright who saw his record errorless streak for third baseman come to an end at 77 games.
The Mets hit the road and open a three-game series with the Miami Marlins tomorrow night at 7:10 PM. Matt Harvey will face off against rookie phenom Jose Fernandez. It should be a good one. Maybe not. Oh hell, I don’t know… Harvey’s pitching, just watch!
