The Mets dropped the rubber game of their three-game series against the Padres 7-3 tonight in San Diego. Here are my takeaways from the loss…
The six-man rotation is off to a bad start.
He was ready to come off the disabled list ten days ago, but he was forced to wait and make what he felt was an unnecessary rehab start a week ago in Binghamton. It’s almost as if he was too rested today and looked very rusty, very unlike the pitcher which was on display before he went on the disabled list.
He seemed to throw a lot of two-seamers, and didn’t deviate from that pitch often enough, particularly early on. His tempo was also really deliberate. And, to top things off, he committed a throwing error on a play at the plate in the fifth inning which more or less ended his night, which was downright ugly.
Needless to say, for the six-man rotation to work, it’s going to be hard for any of the pitchers to have efforts like this, especially for Dillon Gee who is clearly battling with a variety of different demons hanging over his head, including potentially his own frustrations over what’s gone on this season.
While its understandable what they’re trying to do with the young guys pitching with limits, the six-man rotation will be a non-effective measure to take if people aren’t going to pitch well under the conditions of a six-man rotation.
Ugly defense.
Ugly was the theme tonight, whether it was on the mound or in the field. Ruben Tejada hit his first speed bump at third base tonight with errors both with his glove and his arm, and of course the aforementioned error from Gee.
In a way, the errors from Tejada really aren’t unexpected. He’s playing out of position and in a place he never, ever played before last week. He’s bound to have games like this, whether its difficulty judging balls or dealing with the different angles to first on throws.
Is that his fault? Well, he’s a big league player and he’s accountable for the mistakes in between the lines. But again, this is a completely foreign place for the kid on the field, and as is the case with Wilmer Flores at shortstop, it’s hard to come crashing down on him when he’s in a position where he’s more likely to fail than succeed over a long period of time.
Too little too late.
The Mets put together a little rally in the ninth inning, but that was as much offense as they could muster on Wednesday. But with Michael Cuddyer out and Lucas Duda suddenly struggling, the offense simply is not going to be competitive. They need a bat with those two are in the lineup and producing, not to mention someone to pick the two of them up when they’re out, struggling or both.
The consequences of their combined absence and slump was on display and crystal clear tonight, and if the team wants to contend, they’re going to have to go out and find a solution sooner rather than later.
Other notes from Wednesday:
Gee’s streak of 51 consecutive starts pitching five innings or more came to a conclusion tonight when he couldn’t get an out in the fifth inning.
Tejada extended his hitting streak to six straight games with three more hits on Wednesday. He now has 13 hits in his last six games.
Duda snapped an 0-for-11 slide with a sixth inning single off of James Shields.
With his seventh inning single, Wilmer Flores extended his hitting streak to five straight games.
With his seventh inning groundout, Eric Campbell is now 0-for-his-last-24 at the plate.
Curtis Granderson went 0-for-3 on Wednesday and is now 1-for-15 over his last four games.
The bullpen provided five scoreless innings in relief of Gee on Wednesday.
The Mets are 14-26 all-time in Petco Park – they have won one series (2007) in that stadium since it opened in 2004.
Just Mets 