Braves 4 Mets 0
What happened to the offense? What happened to the “never say die” attitude?
Mets Game Notes
Looking at the boxscore, Matt Harvey‘s outing doesn’t look so terrible. However, his first two frames were awful, as he struggled to find the strike zone and fell behind nearly every hitter. In the first two innings, Braves starter Pat Maholm tossed 14 pitches, while Harvey threw 52. Yikes!
However, Harvey did a nice job of bouncing back, fighting, and keeping himself in the game. As it turned out, he allowed only two runs — which came on a Jason Heyward bomb in the first — on two hits and five walks in six innings. He expended 101 pitches, which is pretty impressive considering that incredibly inefficient start.
Unfortunately, Harvey’s about-face effort was all for naught, because the Mets hitters couldn’t solve the mystery of Pat “Cy Young” Maholm. Maholm’s blazing 88-MPH fastball and refusal to throw two pitches in a row at the same speed nor in the same location was too much for the Metsies to handle. They managed exactly three hits — two of them doubles, interestingly — and no walks as they were shut out by Maholm.
Lefty Josh Edgin also gave up two runs, also on a homerun — to Dan Uggla. Not a great night for the phenoms.
In the ninth inning, Jordany Valdespin gave an inkling to the concerns of many Mets officials throughout his career. He struck out looking on a pitch that had plenty of the inside part of the plate, and he beefed loudly and unprofessionally. Not smart, not classy, and not acceptable. The pitch looked worse than it was because catcher David Ross was set up on the outside part of the plate and had to reach to his right to stab at the ball — and then he made it look even worse by trying to “frame” it. Regardless, the ball passed over the inside of the plate — about 3-4 inches from the edge — and there was no question it was a strike. Boo Jordany!
This loss gives the Mets 59 losses on the season. So what? Well, the Phillies have 61 losses and the Marlins 62, which means the Mets are closer to the bottom of the NL East than the standings might suggest. A team can always win more games, but they can’t lose less. Those Phillies have been sneaking back up since the All-Star break, and I fear they can pass the Mets if they go on a run.
Next Mets Game
The Mets and Braves do it again at 7:10 p.m. Johan Santana is scheduled to make his comeback from the DL against Kris Medlen.
