Yankees 9 Mets 3

The Mets lost the rubber game and series to their crosstown rival Yankees behind another inconsistent and bad start from “ace” (I used the term loosely) Mike Pelfrey. Through 6 innings Pelfrey looked great and the Mets were winning 3-1, but in the 7th Pelf gave up 4 runs and was promptly taken out. The Yankees went on to score 4 more runs on the Met bullpen making it an 8-run 7th inning and extending the Yankees lead to 9-3.

Mets Game Notes

Mike Pelfrey started the game well but all hell broke loose in the 7th and he just fell apart. Over 6+ innings, Pelf gave up 5 earned runs increasing his era to 5.37. Previous to today’s start, all 3 of Mike’s starts in May were quality starts and it looked like maybe he figured the whole pitching thing out but he took a huge step back today. It looks like the mental problems that have plagued him for most of his career are back again.

The Mets hit well off of Ivan Nova, collecting 11 hits in his 6 2/3 innings, but the clutch RBI hits were absent again today as they scored only 3 runs.  And like the previous game, the Mets left a ton of guys on base (16 to be exact). If you want to win, you simply can’t leave that many guys on base.

Justin Turner broke his consecutive games with a RBI streak with an oh-fer (0-4) and he left 5 men on base. The streak was snapped at 7 games in a row. You knew that Turner had to come down to earth eventually but you hoped that when he did, someone else on the team would step up and lead the team to victory with a breakout multiple-RBI game, but that didn’t happen.

Pedro Beato gave up his first 2 earned runs of the year in the 8-run 7th inning. By that point, the Mets were already down by 3 runs and the game was basically decided so at least he didn’t give up crucial runs in a close game. Beato’s ERA jumped from 0.00 to 0.95 on the year.

Some good things that did happen in this game from the Mets’ perspective were the multiple-hit games of fill-in third baseman Willie Harris and leftfielder Jason Bay. Harris has been in a slump since the first series of the season so it is nice to see him show some promise and the Mets need as many hitters as they possibly can get at this point. Bay hasn’t really hit much since he was signed by the Mets after a monster season with the Boston Red Sox 2 years ago. He still hasn’t produced many runs this year but you have to start somewhere. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Next Mets Game

The Mets have a day off tomorrow and they head to Chicago on Tuesday to face the Cubs at Wrigley Field at 8:05 pm on SNY. Jonathan Niese will go for the Mets against Ryan Dempster of the Cubs.