Photo Credit: Mike Stobe, Getty Images
The Mets (52-57) lost to the Giants (59-50) by a score of 5-1 on Friday night at Citi Field.
Jon Niese got the start for the Mets and was… strange. Niese went the first 6 innings without allowing an earned run, but trailed 2-0 for most of that time due to his own error. Niese ended up allowing 5 runs (3 earned) on 9 hits in 8+ innings, walking none and striking out 4. Jon threw just 87 pitches (68 for strikes) before being pulled with a man on 1st and no outs in the 9th.
San Francisco took an extremely aggressive against Niese in this game. Meanwhile, Ryan Vogelsong dominated New York’s hitters all night long. This all added up to a very, very quick game.
Niese allowed 2 unearned runs in the top of the 2nd, but the blame was his nonetheless. After Juan Perez doubled to lead off the inning, Gregor Blanco hit one back up the middle to Niese, who snatched it up and wheeled around towards 2nd, where Perez had wandered too far off the bag and was now a sitting duck on the basepaths. However, Niese’s throw hit the dirt before it got anywhere near Ruben Tejada‘s glove, and Ruben couldn’t recover the short-hop. Everybody was safe, and the Giants now had men on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Vogelsong bunted both runners over, and Brandon Crawford drove Perez in with a single up the middle while moving Blanco over to 3rd. Blanco scored on an RBI groundout from Hunter Pence, before Niese retired Matt Duffy to limit the damage. All of this, by the way, took 10 pitches.
The Mets took awhile to get their first baserunner, and when Curtis Granderson finally reached with a walk to lead off the bottom of the 4th, he was immediately erased on a double-play. New York didn’t find the hit column until Juan Lagares singled up the middle to lead off the 6th. With Juan on 1st and nobody out, Ruben Tejada hit what seemed like a certain double-play ball out to Pablo Sandoval at 3rd. However, the Panda bobbled it, and lost the play at 2nd, where Lagares slid in safely. Sandoval recovered and whipped it to first to nail Tejada by a half-step for the 1st out. Jon Niese came up and hit a pretty hard liner to first, but it was right at Michael Morse, who snagged it and threw to 2nd to double up Lagares and end the inning.
Niese got Blanco to hit another ball back to the mound to lead off the 7th and, this time, made the throw to first for the out. However, things started to fall apart for Jon after that play. Niese allowed a triple to Crawford and plunked his opposite number, Vogelsong. Pence added a triple of his own to put the Giants up 4-0, and scored on Matt Duffy’s first Major-League hit, a single into left field. Niese retired Buster Posey and Sandoval to end the inning, but the Giants had opened up a 5-0 lead.
The Mets finally put up a tally in the bottom of the 8th when Lucas Duda parked one over the wall in left field for his 20th home run of the season.
Niese came out to pitch the top of the 9th, but after Crawford led off with a single, Terry Collins pulled the lefty and brought in Vic Black. Vic got a double-play out of a failed sacrifice bunt and got through the inning, but the Mets were unable to rally against Vogelsong in the bottom of the 9th, and San Francisco came away with a victory in the 1st game of the series.
Photo Credit: Frank Franklin II, AP
Well, that was fast.
The Giants came out swinging against Niese and it worked pretty well for them. It will be interesting to see the approach taken by both Niese and the opposition in his next start.
Unofficial stat of the day: Duda hasn’t had a game without a home run since I was 5.
I don’t get why pitchers so often fail to make the throw to first base. It cost Niese dearly tonight, as those 2 unearned runs would be all Vogelsong needed.
Speaking of Vogelsong, he looked pretty hittable. We just didn’t hit him, much like Kyle Kendrick through the first few innings of our last game. I’m pretty sure we hit about 6 pop-ups in the first few innings. That won’t cut it.
This game was pretty bland, and for us at least, it was a bit depressing. Let’s hope the team bounces back tomorrow.
Up Next: The Mets will look to even up their series with the Giants on Saturday night at Citi Field. Jacob deGrom (5-5, 2.79 ERA) will face Jake Peavy (1-10, 4.71 ERA Total, 0-1, 4.50 ERA in 1 start with Giants) at 7:10 PM.
