Mets Game 101: Loss to Nationals

Nationals 4 Mets 1

One five-batter sequence was doom for Dillon Gee.

Mets Game Notes

Not a terrible game by Dillon Gee, but not a great one, either. It could be argued that the turning point of the game was the Ian Desmond at-bat, in which Gee thought he had struck out Desmond and ended the second inning. Instead, the pitch was called a ball, as was the next pitch, before Desmond drilled the 3-2 pitch into the center-field seats. One pitch later, Denard Span lifted the ball into the right-field seats to make it 2-zip. In truth, ball one to Desmond was almost the exact same spot as ball two, so Gee shouldn’t have been too surprised by the non-strike call.

All the Nationals runs scored via the homer, and all three homers occurred within a five-batter sequence — and included a double by opposing pitcher Dan Haren. If not for those four at-bats, the Mets win one-nothing.

Dan Haren was remarkably, surprisingly good — he looked similar to the days when he was one of the top five or ten pitchers in baseball. I’m not sure whether to credit Haren completely for having a great day, or take into consideration the fact he was facing a very weak Mets lineup. Hard to say, considering a similarly weak Mets lineup beat up on him earlier this year.

It seems that Ryan Zimmerman‘s defense deteriorates by the week. Is he on drugs? Seriously. I know he’s had shoulder issues, but that doesn’t explain his inability to react to the baseball and use good fundies in fielding ground balls. Compared to the human vacuum he was 2-3 years ago, it’s as if another person is wearing his uniform — and it’s both tough, and disappointing to see, because he was truly elite at the hot corner.

Not much else to say. The Mets collected all of four hits on the afternoon. Hard to win with that kind of output.

Next Mets Game

The final game of this four-game series begins at 1:35 PM. Carlos Torres faces Taylor Jordan.