The Mets (49-47) were defeated by the Los Angeles Dodgers (55-42) by a score of 3-0 tonight at Citi Field.
Well, the Mets offense did absolutely nothing against tonight. But what else would you expect when you have John Mayberry, who is batting a robust .170/.235/.330, hitting cleanup against arguably the best pitcher in baseball, Clayton Kershaw?
Speaking of the stud lefty, he took full advantage of the Mets lackluster offense, carrying a perfect game into the 7th inning before having it broken up by a clean single off the bat of Curtis Granderson.
In that seventh inning, Wilmer Flores also singled to advance Granderson to second. It would be the only time the Mets were close to scoring a run, and it wasn’t even that close.
In the eighth inning, Lucas Duda, whose batting average has dropped down to .230, hit a single to lead off the frame, but was picked off by Clayton Kershaw to end any sort of rally the Mets may have put together.
Kershaw would end up going the distance, shutting out the Mets, allowing only three hits and striking out 11 batters.
Unfortunately for Bartolo Colon, who pitched very well, his fate was sealed early on as former Phillie and notorious Mets killer Jimmy Rollins took him deep for a solo home run in the third inning.
Colon pitched eight strong innings, allowing just the one run on five hits, while walking zero and striking out four. However, if Colon were to win this game, he would have had to allow -1 runs.
The Dodgers tacked on two insurance runs in the ninth (not that they would even need it), after Sean Gilmartin started the inning by allowing three hits to load the bases, failing to record an out.
The ball was handed off to Carlos Torres, who subsequently walked Alberto Callaspo to force in a run.
Two batters later, Yasiel Puig drove in the second Dodgers run of the inning, hitting a sacrifice fly to score ex-Met Justin Turner.
The Mets went down without a fight in the bottom of the ninth, as they lose for the second day in a row.
On deck:
Jon Niese (5-8, 3.36 ERA) takes the mound for the Mets tomorrow, as they will look to even up the series at a game a piece. Zack Greinke (9-2, 1.30 ERA) was originally set to oppose Niese, but due to his wife going into labor, he has since been scratched, so for now the starter is TBA.
