Jonathon Niese went out and was strong for seven and two third innings, but the Mets offense was stifled by Reds starter Bronson Arroyo  in the 3-1 loss.

Game Notes

Jonathon Niese continued his run of brilliant starts, going seven and two third innings, giving up three runs on six hits with one walk and tied a season high with eight strikeouts. Two of the runs and the hits Jonathon allowed today were solo homers to Brandon Phillips and Chris Heisey, and those were the first and second hits off of him. Jonathon was locating well, and was only burned in the seventh inning, after a freak-occurence bunt went over the pitchers head on the fly and allowed the inning to continue. Jonathon Niese has really settled into a groove, and as his confidence grows in his cutter, he has shown signs that he isn’t just throwing anymore, he is pitching. With every start, he makes it harder to even think about including him in a package to acquire any starting pitcher, specifically Mr. Cliff Lee

The bullpen came out today and did exactly what they had to. Bobby Parnell made another appearance in relief of Niese, and after allowing a single, struck out Drew Stubbs on a high fastball. Parnell’s final line would be one third of an inning, one hit and one strikeout. Elmer Dessens continued his great pitching, having a 1-2-3 eighth inning.

The Mets offense looked like it was going to start with a bang thanks to an Angel Pagan home run to right-center, also known as Death Valley for home runs. After that, the Mets only managed to scatter six hits over the next seven innings. I wish there was more to say, but when you don’t score, there isn’t much to say

Jose Reyes went 0-4 batting righty against a righty due to his strained oblique. It just doesn’t look right watching Jose hit this way, and lets hope this improves quickly.

Josh Thole went 2-3 with a walk, and some people are wondering is it better to keep the offensively-gifted Thole over defensive stud Henry Blanco

Turning Point

When the Mets couldn’t string together an extra-base hit to go along with a single.

Game Ball

Jonathon Niese, you received the Johan Santana treatment, receiving no run support in a great outing today.

On Deck

The Mets have the day off tommorrow, but on Friday begin their last series before the All-Star break against the division leading Braves. The Mets will send out R.A. Dickey to face off against Tommy Hanson. Game Time is 7:10 P.M.