Just Mets

The Mets took a tough loss to the Braves on Friday night, falling 5-3 to Atlanta at Turner Field. Here are my takeaways from Friday’s game…

David Wright made a mental mistake, and it cost the Mets big time.

With Rafael Montero on the eighth inning with one out, Andrelton Simmons grounded one to Wright with Jace Peterson (the lead run) at second. But instead of throwing the ball to first for the sure out, Wright attempted to tag Peterson in a non-force at third, but Peterson was safe. To make matters worse, nobody was covering second base because Daniel Murphy went to back up first, as he was supposed to do.

Phil Gosselin singled in two with two outs, and that was it. Montero did all he could do, but was forced to deal with an extra out and couldn’t put out the fire. He was beaten with his best pitch, and most certainly deserved a better outcome.

Wright knew it, and he was visibly frustrated the rest of the inning. After the inning, he went over to Montero to acknowledge the gaffe. That was respectable, but of course it didn’t change the outcome.

Jon Niese didn’t look comfortable at all.

Niece allowed nine baserunners in five innings tonight, Not including two thanks to two errors from Wilmer Flores. But Niese was centering most of his pitches, and his velocity was inconsistent. It also looked like he was using more of a 3/4 delivery, which caused his cutter to slide over the plate rather than bite in towards the righty.

Niece just didn’t look comfortable at all on the mound right from the first pitch he threw. But, he managed a no-decision out of it, as he worked out of a couple of big jams to keep the damage to a minimum, and that’s all that can be asked when the pitcher isn’t on top of his game.

Wilmer Flores had a night to forget.

Flores made five throws to first, and four of them were poor. He made two errors which led to two unearned runs in this game, and he nearly committed a third one on a bad throw to first, but Michael Cuddyer came off the bag at first and made a good tag on Freddie Freeman in the fifth inning.

All-in-all, it hasn’t been a good start for Flores, either defensively or offensively. He’s now made three errors in two games and looks completely out of sorts at the plate – he’s now 2-for-14 at the plate to start his season. Hopefully this isn’t in his head, but he’s going to have to reverse this trend in a hurry.

Did the short bench hurt the Mets?

With Wright on in the eighth inning and RHP Jim Johnson on the mound for Atlanta, Terry Collins decided to stay with John Mayberry Jr. instead of using Lucas Duda, a spot Collins said before the game he could conceivably swap them out.

It seemingly made sense since Mayberry has struggled historically against righties (and subsequently struck out in that at-bat). But, with the Mets playing with a short bench thanks to the eighth reliever, it’s a risky move to use Duda in that spot. Perhaps with the more conventional five-man bench, Duda gets used, and something else happens in that spot instead.

Other notes from Friday:

Sean Gilmartin made his big league debut in the seventh inning and retired to left-handed hitters: Nick Markakis and Freddie Freeman.

Daniel Murphy went 0-for-3 with a walk at the plate – he is 2-for-15 to start the year.

Wright had three hits on Friday including a two-run home run – he is now 6-for-his-last-10 at the plate.

The Mets got one hit in four innings against the Braves’ bullpen on Friday.