Final Score: Mets 2 Giants 1
The Mets (51-54) defeated the Giants (56-48) by the score of 2-1 tonight in San Francisco.
The Least You Should Know:
Jon Niese started for the Mets and was solid, allowing a run on three hits in seven innings of work.
Bobby Parnell worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his fourth save of the season.
Ruben Tejada reached base four times and homered for the first time in nearly two years.
David Wright had two hits against Matt Cain, and is now 11-for-24 lifetime against him – he had three hits in total on the night and also reached base four times.
The Mets loaded the bases four times – including the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings – and scored only once in those opportunities and did not score in any of those late-game opportunities.
The Mets had 19 base runners on the night but went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position in total, left 13 men on, and lost three runners on the base paths.
For a full recap and box score, check out SNY’s In-Game Live.
Michael Baron, MetsBlog.com:
A win is a win, I guess. But that was as ugly a victory as this team has had this season. Far be it for me to complain when the number in the ‘W’ column increases, but that was painful to watch. The Mets did everything in their power to lose this game tonight, but somehow managed to win. Basically, they should have won this game by about ten (or more) runs, but they ran the bases poorly, and their situational hitting was as bad as it’s been all year long. But, they got an outstanding performance from Niese and the bullpen – pitching is the name of the game, most of the time anyway…
Jason Bay might actually be getting worse with each at-bat. He stranded four runners on base tonight, struck out two more times, and lined into an inning-ending double play to Brad Penny to end the ninth inning. Unbelievable – the guy just has nothing in the tank at this point.
On a more positive note, Niese was outstanding tonight. He found his curveball tonight and relied heavily on it. He made one mistake to Buster Posey who took him deep in the sixth inning. But other than that, he was impressive. He was able to dodge some shoddy defense thanks to his ability to throw strikes and limit the walks, and bailed his team out.
Wright looked refreshed tonight. He had very good numbers against Matt Cain coming in, but his hands looked quicker and his swing was much less loopy than it had been over the last week or so, and the results were indicative of that. He also made a couple of key defensive plays to keep the Giants off the bases and help prevent the Mets from paying for their inept offensive performance tonight.
Jon Rauch has taken a lot of heat this year, but he has been very solid since the middle of June. He gave the Mets another scoreless effort tonight to continue his recent success. Yes, he has seven losses and really struggled during May, but he has allowed just two runs in his last 19 appearances dating back to June 12.
WB Mason Post Game Extra
comments: