The Mets (49-48) were defeated by the Los Angeles Dodgers (55-42) by a score of 7-2 tonight at Citi Field.
Jon Niese made the start for the Mets this evening, despite the fact that his wife had gone into labor earlier on today. Unfortunately for Niese, it was a start to forget, as he lasted only three innings, getting touched up four six runs on eight hits, while walking one and striking out one. With the loss, Niese falls to 5-9 on the campaign.
Entering tonight, Niese had pitched to a 2.01 ERA over his previous seven starts. However, Niese looked like the pitcher we saw prior to those seven games, as he was ineffective the entire game, and wasn’t fooling any of the Dodgers hitters, as they had his number as soon as the lefty took the mound tonight.
A major contributor to the Dodgers offense tonight was former Met Justin Turner, who is certainly enjoying life in California. The third baseman went 3-for-5 on the evening, with a home run and two RBI’s. I realize hindsight is 20/20, but it hurts knowing we non-tendered Turner and now he is thriving with Los Angeles.
Perhaps the biggest story of the night was the much anticipated debut of top prospect Michael Conforto. Though the young outfielder would fail to record a hit tonight, going 0-for-3, he did drive in the first Mets run on a groundout in the fifth inning.
One silver lining to take away from this game was the strong performance from the Mets bullpen after Niese was removed early on. Carlos Torres was the first to relieve Niese, and tossed three scoreless innings.
The only blemish against the bullpen tonight was a Jimmy Rollins home run against Hansel Robles in the eighth inning. Even as a Dodger, Rollins still absolutely mashes Mets pitchers, as he hit his second home run in two nights against the Amazin’s and now has 32 career dingers against them in his career.
Alex Torres also had a quality outing for the first time in what seems like forever, as he pitched a clean ninth inning for the Mets.
Despite the loss, this writer is feeling a lot less angry than I was just 24 hours ago. It might have been the debut of Conforto, or the trade the Mets pulled off right around game time, but apart of me just feels like things are going to get a whole lot better in Queens the next week or so.
Hey, the Nationals are losing to the Bucco’s right now, and the Cubs lost earlier today. We are still very much in this thing. Crazier things have happened, and baseball is an unpredictable game.
You gotta believe!
On deck:
Matt Harvey (8-7, 3.19 ERA) will look to get the Mets back on track tomorrow night. First pitch is at 7:10 PM.
