7-7 Jon Niese took the mound tonight against the slumping Dodgers. Hiroki Kuroda was given the ball in an attempt to tame the Mets juggernaut offense. The Mets would do without Jose Reyes again and as of the first pitch, both the Nats and the Braves won their games respectively, the Phillies; however, lost to the Marlins in 10 innings.
A little Met history was made in the first inning when Justin Turner hit a bloop single and tied the Met rookie record for reaching base 28 straight times.
Carlos Beltran led off the top of the fourth with his 25th national league leading double; but after being pushed to third on a fielders choice, Jason Bay failed to get Beltran home. Lucas Duda picked him up by pulling a ball over the first base bag scoring yet another two out run.
The Dodgers would strike back in the bottom of the frame when they would string back to back base hits and score on a fielders choice. Both pitchers were dealing until the Mets broke through in the sixth inning where, yet again, Beltran would lead off the inning with a double(number 26) and advance to third when Murphy would hit a fly ball to left field that was, instead of thrown to third, overthrown almost into the Dodger dugout. After Bay failed to drive him in again, Beltran would score on a wild pitch thrown from Kuroda. With two outs in the inning, the Mets would begin to score. Lucas Duda and Josh Thole would hit singles and Rubin Tejada clipped a two RBI double giving the Mets a 4-1 lead.
The Dodgers got themselves right back in the game in the bottom of the sixth when they put two men on with no outs. Andre Ethier hit an RBI single cutting the Met lead to 4-2 and Matt Kemp hit into what would’ve have been a double play that if it wasn’t botched by the first base umpire. Juan Uribe would hit a sac fly and the Mets would escape with a one run lead.
Jon Niese would pitch seven innings, throw 97 pitches, strike out 6 and give up 3 runs.
Bobby Parnell came in the 8th and got the Dodgers in order. In the top of the ninth, the Mets added an insurance run when Willie Harris hit a one out double and was driven home with a Justine Turner base hit.
K-Rod notched his 22nd save of the year.
The Mets won their 4th game in a row, Niese got his 8th win and for the first time this year, the Mets are 3 games over the .500 mark.
3 comments
rustyjr
7/7/2011-7:31am at 7:31 am (UTC -4)
According o the papers Niese is 8-7 now
metsfan4decades
7/7/2011-9:32am at 9:32 am (UTC -4)
I know this has been talked about before but some credit for this team’s resiliency has to be given to Collins. No ace, BP inconsistent, missing Ike Wright and now Reyes and this team is still playing hard. You have to like what we’ve been seeing lately.
Niese is quietly putting together a good season. And LOL, first time I’ve seen a bit of a temper from him. He was still yammering at the first base ump when inning was over and he walked off the mound. When he hit the dugout he slammed a couple of things and was STILL yelling from the bench. I’m surprised he wasn’t warned or thrown out. Unlike others though, he didn’t allow it to affect him back on the mound.
With Reyes out, Beltran has now played in the most Met games so far this season. O.K., who had Beltran in that pool coming into the season? I know I didn’t.
stickguy
7/7/2011-10:21am at 10:21 am (UTC -4)
my man duda, with another big hit. He seems to be getting a knack for that. I still expect that as he continues to get regular PT, he is going to go on a bit of a tear at some point.