The Mets (28-33), who hoped to bounce back after being swept by the Chicago Cubs, lost 4-2 to the Giants (40-21) to drop their fourth game in a row and are now 4-5 on their current 11 game road trip.
Jon Niese, who faced off against Matt Cain, matched zeros with the Giants starter until the fifth inning when Niese gave a one-out triple to Brandon Hicks and then a sac fly by Brandon Crawford scored Hicks from third to put the Giants up 1-0. In the seventh inning, after the Mets took a 2-1 lead, Niese walked Hicks with two outs and then threw a wild pitch, advancing the tying run to second base. A single by Crawford scored Hicks to tie the game at 2-2. Niese, who hasn’t allowed more than three runs in a game this season, continued that streak as he allowed only two runs on Friday.
Carlos Torres replaced Niese in the bottom of the eighth and quickly walked lead-off hitter Angel Pagan on four pitches, then after a fielders choice moved the go ahead run to second base, Buster Posey launched a two-run home run to left center field to put the Giants up 4-2. Torres escaped more damaged as he struck out Hicks with two runners on to end the inning. Torres threw an inning, giving up two runs on three hits, walking one and striking out a batter. The big blow was the home run by Posey.
Offensively, the Mets could not muster a hit or for that matter get on base off Cain until the fifth inning when Curtis Granderson walked to break the streak at 12 batters. Andrew Brown then quickly grounded into a double play to erase the base runner.
In the top of the sixth inning, hot hitting Rubin Tejada broke up Cain’s no hitter, but Travis d’Arnaud quickly erased any threat by hitting into a double play. In the seventh inning, Matt den Dekker doubled to left filed and Daniel Murphy launched a two-run home run with his “deceptive power”, as Howie Rose put it, to put the Mets up 2-1. David Wright, Granderson and Brown then went in order to end the inning.
After the Giants took the lead in the bottom of the eighth, the Mets went quietly in the top of the ninth to drop their fourth straight game.
Game Notes:
Jon Niese pitched another solid game tossing seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits, one walk, struck out three batters and deserved a better fate.
Daniel Murphy went 1 for 4, with a run scored, home run, and two RBI.
Ruben Tejada was 2 for 3 and raised his batting average to .239 on the season.
Up Next: The Mets will be in San Francisco for game two of their three game series with the Giants. Bartolo Colon (5-5, 4.52) will face off against Tim Hudson (6-2, 1.75) with first pitch scheduled for 10:05 PM.
