Mets Game 85: Loss to Reds

Reds 3 Mets 0

There was a game? Who knew? I thought the important Mets activity this Friday night was the trade of Ryan Church to Atlanta for Jeff Francoeur. And then when I saw Jeremy Reed in the #5 spot, I figured it was either a joke or the Mets were simply canceling the game.

Not that I don’t like Jeremy Reed — in fact, I very much like Jeremy Reed and am ticked off that he is unlikely to be playing much anymore. But he shouldn’t be batting fifth any more than Luis Castillo should be batting 8th … or Nick Evans second … or … anyway, I digress …

As it turned out, the Mets did play a game on Friday night, even though Francoeur will not be arriving into New York until Saturday. There are hot dogs and Shake Shack burgers and Hoegaarden beers and Blue Smoke pulled pork sandwiches to sell at the world’s largest bar with live entertainment, after all.

Bronson Arroyo — the righthanded Randy Wolf, i.e., the Mets’ kryptonite (according to Coop) — pitched a nine-inning, four-hit shutout for his ninth victory of the season.

Joey Votto hit a solo homer in the fourth to give Arroyo all the runs he needed. Brandon Phillips stole home and Laynce Nix hit another solo shot to give the Reds unneeded insurance runs.

The loss wasted a nice performance by Fernando Nieve, who allowed three earned runs on eight hits in six innings. You can’t ask much more from a fill-in fifth starter.

Notes

The Mets put six balls into the outfield. No Mets baserunner made it beyond first base.

For the seventh consecutive contest, the Mets had neither a stolen base nor a homerun. Hmm … no small ball, no big ball … what exactly IS the Mets’ offensive strategy?

It was Bronson Arroyo’s second career shutout — the other one came in 2006.

Dan Murphy had half of the Mets’ hits, and the others were collected by, of all people, Argenis Reyes and Fernando Nieve.

I find it hard to believe that the Mets’ perceived “lack of talent” was the reason they couldn’t hit Bronson Arroyo, when Reyes and Nieve both stroked hits. This has little to do with skillset, and everything to do with mental preparation, approach, and focus.

Cry all you want about the Mets’ “depleted” lineup. But I’m looking at the Reds’ lineup — with three guys sporting sub-.300 OBPs, their third baseman hitting worse than most pitchers, and some guy named Ryan Hanigan behind the plate — and not seeing anything resembling “The Big Red Machine”. This Mets team is due for a labotomy.

Next Mets Game

The Jeff Francoeur Era begins on Saturday at 7:10 PM. Johan Santana goes to the mound against Johnny Cueto. Jeff Francoeur plays right field. It’s anyone’s guess who hits cleanup, but my money’s on “Frenchy” — assuming Jerry Manuel determines that he’s had “a good BP session”.