The New York Mets lost to their rivals the Philadelphia Phillies, who tied the three-game series 1 – 1. The Mets have now lost four of their last five games and are now 7 games back from the Washington Nationals.
The Phillies, who beat the ailing Mets 4-2 at Citizens Bank Park, got on the board first with a solo homer cracked off the bat of the Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard in the bottom of the second inning. The New York Mets answered with solo runs in the top of the 3rd and 4th inning to take the lead. The rest of the game was all in the hands of the Phillies who added three more runs to take the victory.
Logan Verrett made his seventh start of the year tonight and pitched six full innings, giving up 8 hits and 2 runs. He struck out 4, walked 1 and gave up 1 homerun. Jerry Blevins got the loss, and now is 3 – 1.
The Mets had some sloppy play with a wild pitch in the 8th inning, which scored Carlos. I’ve also written about the fact that if the Mets are going to win, or at this point even contend, they have to stop leaving men on base. Baseball 101, ya know? In this game, they put the leadoff man on base five times in seven innings but they couldn’t convert any of them into runs. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Unfortunately, the Mets also have way too many injured or ailing players to really do much toward regaining first place right now. Gotta get healthy first and then it’s baseball 101, ya know? Unfortunately, for the fourth straight game Yoenis Cespedes did not play although he was seen running to test his injured quad the day before. Juan Lagares took center field again for Cespedes and went 1 for 3. The Mets had six hits to the Phillies 10.
Noah Syndergaard was still hurting a bit but now he says that he feels like he has a new arm. Will have to see in his next performance. Of course Matt Harvey will undergo surgery and we’ve already lost Lucas Duda and David Wright. However, New York Mets manager Terry Collins has given some good news that Duda, who has been out with a stress fracture in his lower back since late May, is expected to resume baseball activities next week.
Jason deGrom takes the mound in the last of the series against the Philadelphia Phillies. Unlike most of his rotation counterparts, deGrom avoided injury trouble over the past month. He hopes to carry the New York Mets to a successful start to the second half of the season after posting the second lowest ERA among starters over the first 88 games.
He will face right handed pitched Zach Eflin. The 22-year-old recovered nicely from a rough big league debut June 14 in Toronto. Eflin is the first piece the Phillies acquired in their rebuild, acquiring him from the Dodgers for Jimmy Rollins in December 2014.
The New York Mets then head into a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs.
MIKE PIAZZA: Will be enshrined in Baseball’s Hall of Fame on July 24 in Cooperstown, NY. The Mets will retire Piazza’s #31 on Saturday, July 30 prior to the Mets-Rockies 7:10 p.m. game. The Mets will giveaway a Piazza t-shirt on Friday, July 29 (7:10 p.m. game) and a Piazza bobblehead on Sunday, July 31 (1:10 p.m game). For tickets go to Mets.com or call 718-507-TIXX.
