Mets Defense Fails Against Cubs

It’s really hard to win baseball games when your team cannot field the ball. The Mets, with one of the worst defenses in baseball, already know that, and they proved it yet again Monday night in Chicago.

The game was scoreless into the fourth when with a man on Joe Mather sent a Johan Santana pitch into the seats in left center to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead.

Santana was lifted after six innings, but not before first escaping a bases loaded jam in his final frame to keep the game close. Santana pitched well, allowing just the two runs on five hits, striking out six Cubs.

Then came the seventh and the ugly defense. Adrian Cardenas led off with a pop-up near home plate. David Wright called off Mike Nickeas, but he couldn’t handle it and the ball hit off of his glove. Cardenas raced all the way to third on the error. Jon Rauch struck out Reed Johnson and then got Darwin Barney to hit a pop fly to short right. Lucas Duda came in and the ball bounced off of his chest. Cardenas scored on that error to make it 3-0 and Barney landed at third. With the infield in Starlin Castro hit a hard grounder to second that hit off off Ronny Cedeno’s glove for the third error of the inning, scoring Barney to make it 4-0. Rauch walked Alfonso Soriano and was pulled from the game with runners in first and second.

Ramon Ramirez, just back from the disabled list, then allowed a single to Jeff Baker to score Castro to extend the lead to 5-0 and put runners on first and third. A fielder’s choice plated Soriano to make it 6-0. The Cubs scored four runs in the inning on just one hit. Disgraceful.

At least Ike Davis was able to hit a solo shot in the ninth to break up the shutout.

Mets lose 6-1.