Mets Game 139: Loss to Marlins

Marlins 6 Mets 3

The carriage that transported Pat Misch from Buffalo to Flushing turned into a pumpkin.

Misch allowed four runs in the first frame, and five runs total in six innings, to trounce the sugar-plum dreams of Mets fans who thought he might be the next Jamie Moyer. Though, he does resemble this season’s, 46-year-old, underperforming version of Moyer.

With that quick deficit, it was hard to get anything going against Ricky Nolasco, who mowed down the Mets for a full six innings before finally cracking in the seventh. Though the home team plated three, it was too little, too late, as Nolasco earned his eleventh win of the year.

Notes

The Mets collected a grand total of four hits in the ballgame, and leadoff batter Angel Pagan had half of them.

This game was the Gary Cohenless broadcast — Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez called the game sans the regular play-by-play man. Personally, I thought it went fine, though I’m the type who prefers less noise. As long as the camera is following the ball, the play-by-play description is less vital. I did, however, get this vague feeling that something was missing — and I generally do enjoy Gary Cohen’s input.

Josh Thole caught another solid game behind the plate, save for a few feeble attempts at framing pitches that were nowhere near the strike zone. Stick to sticking it, Josh! The main thing to take away is that he looks comfortable back there — no jerking or jabbing the glove to get to balls, no getting handcuffed or fooled on pitches. He does look a little mechanical, but so did Gary Carter, so who cares? Of course, it was Thole’s second game with Misch, so there was the familiarity factor. I like that the Mets are easing him into the bigs this way — gaining confidence is key to success.

The first Mets run came on a double by Dan Murphy, who hit a poorly located change-up (which was also a poor pitch selection for that moment). This is the main difference between Murphy and a slugger — Murphy hits mistakes for bleeders, bloops, and occasional doubles, while a slugger hits mistakes over the fence. Not a problem, as long as Murphy whacks enough mistakes to drive in 75-80 runs and hit in the .300-.310 area over the course of 550 – 600 at-bats.

Next Mets Game

The series finale occurs on Thursday at 7:10 PM. Bobby Parnell faces Sean West. West stymied the Mets in his start against them on August 25th (1 run in 6 IP) but was blasted for 5 runs on 7 hits on September 4th against the Nationals.