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June 29, 2013 Mets 2013 Games Joe Janish

Mets Game 77: Win Over Nationals

Mets 5 Nationals 1

Gee, Dillon has the Nats’ number.

Mets Game Notes

Dillon Gee‘s mastery of the Washington Nationals continues, as he gains his third victory against them — accounting for half his win total for the season. Gee did his usual mix and match of fastballs and sliders, dropping in a healthy heaping of change-ups, to keep the Nats off-balance. Also encouraging was his velocity; Gee was reaching 92 MPH on occasion with his four-seam fastball.

At the same time, I have to wonder how much of it was Gee and how much was it a hangover for the Nationals, who seemed lethargic in general and played a bit sloppy in the field. It was like they were playing in slow-motion, while the upstart Mets were contrastingly full of energy and playing with intensity. There was a point in the sixth inning when I wondered if even Davey Johnson had thrown in the towel, leaving reliever Craig Stammen out to dry.

The Mets took full advantage of three errors by the Nationals, and in fact, could have made this game a laugher if they’d done a better job with the bats in the fourth frame. For the second straight game, the Mets had a huge opportunity to score in the fourth — they had the bases loaded and one out and came away with only one run scored (and it scored before the bases were juiced). The huge dropoff of capable hitting after David Wright is embarrassing.

Next Mets Game

The rubber match begins at 1:10 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. Zack Wheeler faces Gio Gonzalez.

Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.
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  1. Joe June 29, 2013 at 9:58 pm
    The 4th inning involved the 8-9-1 hitters not getting the job done. I would push the “dropoff” past Wright given Byrd comes after him, and Byrd hasn’t exactly been “incapable.” Here even Buck (bad of late) and Q. (better of late) got hits though the bottom third of the line-up has been suspect.

    Really, overall, shouldn’t the Nats record be on some level be seen as worse than the Mets given the talent base? We are talking about WS bound in the eyes of sum before the season looking incompetent at times in a division that even the Mets might be competitive in if they had more hitting.

    • Joe June 29, 2013 at 10:04 pm
      Correction: The post-Wright line-up actually got on base except for N. hitting into a fielders’ choice. This led to the bases being loaded and a dubious 2-0 swing by Gee. Then, Young didn’t get the job done with two outs.

      This base to base business is problematic but if the bottom of the order consistently hit singles or got walked, the team would be better off than they are now.

  2. TexasGusCC June 29, 2013 at 10:06 pm
    Impressive effort given the heart-wrenching loss last night. Not a dominating pitching effort, but Gee has shown himself to be effective, at least, except against Philadelphia.
  3. AC Wayne June 30, 2013 at 1:37 pm
    Gee has really turned the corner. I just hope that this recent bout w/arm tendinitis doesn’t land him on the DL.

    On another note, what’s going on with Valdespin? He’s batting .200 w/o a position. Have the Mets decided on a plan with regards to JV1? Or is he just this generation’s Joe McEwing?