The Mets defeated the Giants by the score of 5-4 tonight at Citi Field. Here are my takeaways from the win…
Bad luck and bad execution in an otherwise solid effort by Jon Niese.
Niece got off to a rocky start, but settled in after the first inning and pitched very well into the sixth inning. At one point, he retired 12 straight into the sixth inning, but that streak ended on a chopper to Eric Campbell, who bobbled the ball and allowed Justin Maxwell to reach base.
Unfortunately, Niese couldn’t work around the error. He allowed a no-doubter of a two-run home run to Brandon Crawford and relinquished the lead in the process.
He got burned by his defense again, and made a bad pitch up in the zone. It happens for sure. But too often this season he’s allowed errors to translate into runs. He had to pick up Campbell in that situation, he threw a meatball down the middle, and the Giants did what championship teams do and took advantage of the extra out given to them.
All-in-all, he pitched well enough to win outside of the mistake. It’s hard to fault him for the larger body of work, but that one pitch was definitely regrettable.
An on and off offense on Thursday.
The lineup at least looks meatier with the addition of Travis d’Arnaud and Dilson Herrera, and they seemed to get some length out of the lineup tonight.
They didn’t have a hit into the fourth inning against Tim Lincecum, but he was throwing a ton of pitches early and the Mets finally broke through with a Travis d’Arnaud RBI single to right to plate Lucas Duda. The Mets then got two more against Lincecum in the fifth before knocking him out, thanks to a leadoff double by Niese and an RBI single by Curtis Granderson.
All-in-all, the best way to describe the offense on Thursday is, “inconsistent.” They got a couple of extra-base hits, had some good situational hitting, and didn’t leave too many runners on-base. They misfired a couple of times and stranded runners on in key situations, but it’s hard to argue against their effort to scratch and claw in this game.
The Mets really have a problem at third base.
I think Campbell is a great addition for this bench. He has a nice, short swing, and can be a really valuable piece in a pinch hit role or an occasional start in a utility role.
But he’s way too overexposed playing everyday. He just is. His poor defense hurt the Mets today in what was his eighth error in under 280 innings at third this season. It’s just not going to work. It has cost the Mets before, it cost the Mets tonight, and it will likely cost them again.
All of the talk has been about improving the offense in the absence of David Wright. That’s fair, but improving the defense must also be a part of the equation, too.
A win is a win.
It hasn’t been pretty for the Mets lately, and they got schooled for the most part in this series. But they escaped with a win here tonight, slightly outplaying the Giants despite a couple of miscues. A win is a win and they have to take them when they can get them until they figure out exactly who they are and can get more reinforcements for the roster. As bad as they’ve been for about six weeks, they’re right in the thick of the race here, which is amazing all things considered.
Other notes from Thursday:
Granderson reached base three times and had two hits on Thursday – he now has three multiple-hit games in his last four contests.
Niese has allowed 13 unearned runs this season.
Campbell has now made eight errors in 274 innings at third base in 2015.
Thursday marked Michael Cuddyer’s fourth career walk-off hit.
Just Mets 