Mets Game 127: Loss To Athletics

Athletics 6 Mets 2

Finally, the Mets collect more than four hits.

Mets Game Notes

The Mets had a total of seven hits, in fact, and almost all from the bottom half of the order. Batters one through four went 1-for-13. Batters one through five were 2-for-17, but had one homerun (nicely done, Travis d’Arnaud).

Dillon Gee was not very good (again), yet he managed to muddle through 5 1/3 innings, allowing 4 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks. He seemed always to be in a bases-loaded situation, and even when he wiggled out, the bases would inevitably refill. Even a cat has only nine lives, and eventually, the Athletics made Gee pay for keeping the bases inebriated. Gee hung around in the upper half of the strike zone and above, and struggled mightily to get his curveball snapping consistently.

Meanwhile, Scott Kazmir set down the Mets from the get-go, with strong command of all his pitches and matching body language — he simply looked like he was in complete control of the tempo and the game. I was mildly surprised that he was removed after six stellar innings, but the A’s have great confidence in their bullpen and everybody knows that pitchers can’t go far beyond 100 pitches without turning into a pumpkin.

Oakland reliever Ryan Cook has put up excellent numbers in his two and half years as an Athletic, but I’m betting he’ll go down with an elbow injury and be on the operating table for Tommy John surgery sooner rather than later. The way he “hooks” the ball behind his back is a bad idea, as is the double-tap of his throwing hand against his glove. As is his habit of raising his throwing elbow above his shoulder prior to moving the ball up and forward. As a result his arm is far behind his body, and he’s putting undue strain on both his elbow and his shoulder, and, likely, the elbow will give out first.

Josh Reddick. Careless Whisper. Shoot me. I must’ve heard that vomitous tune a thousand times during a dark, sad, five-month period of my childhood when the radio wouldn’t stop playing it, yet, remarkably, I never knew its title. Go figure. Guns and Roses couldn’t arrive on the scene soon enough. If it weren’t for heavy metal bands like Judas Priest, Metallica, Metal Church, Megadeth, Slayer, and Black Sabbath, I might’ve given up on music altogether. Oh, and thank goodness for Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and Queen. Crazy bit of trivia: Rob Halford and Freddie Mercury never met, not once. That’s nuts, right? Oops, I mean, that’s hard to believe, isn’t it? Anyway, I digress …

Sean Doolittle. For Whom The Bell Tolls. Now we’re talkin’! Time marches ON!!!!

Glad to see Gonzalez Germen has finally kicked that virus. Was it West Nile? African sleeping sickness? Dengue fever? Did I ever tell you guys about my bout with Dengue, by the way? And how it led to my holding the baseball in my hand that was the ball that Endy Chavez caught off the bat of Scott Rolen in October 2006? Remind me to tell you about that, perhaps over the winter when we’re bored (or are we bored now?).

Carlos Beltran is doing 5 Hour Energy
commercials? Whoa, how the mighty have fallen.

Next Mets Game

The Mets and A’s do it again on Wednesday afternoon starting at 3:35 PM. Zack Wheeler takes the hill against Jeff Samardzija.