Mets Game 90: Loss to Giants

Giants 3 Mets 1

Give The Freak three runs, and he’ll win 92.6% of the time. Those are tough odds to overcome.

Mets Game Notes

Tim Lincecum wasn’t exactly dominant, but he prevented the Mets from scoring more than one run. The Giants have given him three or more runs 54 times in his career, and his record in those games is 50-4. Crazy.

And though the Mets couldn’t cross the plate against Lincecum, it wasn’t because they didn’t try. I have to give the offense credit for keeping the pressure on The Freak — they had a baserunner in each of the six innings he pitched, and were a squib away from cracking him. The Mets hitters may lack power, but their patience and tireless ability to foul off two-strike pitches makes them pesky — like a mosquito or a pebble in your shoe. They may not always destroy you with a big fly, but they’ll doggedly wear you down by taking pitches, fouling pitches off, and hitting ’em where they ain’t. For years some fans clamored for the Mets to acquire David Eckstein; now they have about four or five hitters who do what he does (some of them, better).

The Freak Show overshadowed yet another very solid outing by Chris Capuano. All of the runs scored on the lefthander came on infield grounders that fell just short of being converted into double plays. Slightly better defense and this game might still be going.

The way both pitchers battled, and how the offenses could not plate runs, reminded me of games from the 1970s. This could have been a game from 1976 that pitted Jerry Koosman vs. John Montefusco.

Next Mets Game

The final game of the series, and the Left Coast swing, and the first half of the season, will start at 8:05 PM ET on Sunday night. Mike Pelfrey goes to the hill against Matt Cain.