NY Loses, Splits Mets-White Sox Series
The Mets and their fans quickly came down to earth from Matt Harvey’s near-perfect game when Jeremy Hefner took the mound at Citi Field on Wednesday. Hefner’s two previous outings have been very good, and he wasn’t terrible tonight, but he is no Matt Harvey and the White Sox beat the Mets 6-3 to split the brief two-game Mets-White Sox series.
The White Sox apparently wanted to show early on that it would be a very different kind of night — Alejandro De Aza led off the game with a bullet into the seats in right that got out of the stadium in hurry for a 1-0 lead.
Lucas Duda got the run back in the second with a bomb of his own, into the second deck in right field to tie the game at one. Duda now has seven home runs with a whopping 11 RBIs.
A bunt single and infield single put runners on first and third with one out in the top of the fourth for the Sox. Alex Rios doubled to make it 2-1 and put runners on second and third. Conor Gillaspie then hit a bloop to shallow center that no one could get to. It went for a two-run double to give the White Sox a 4-1 lead.
Hefner went six innings, allowing four runs on eight hits, with one walk and five strikeouts. Hefner was done in by some soft hits in that fourth inning. Bloops or rockets, though, they all still count.
Scott Atchison allowed a run in the seventh as the White Sox ran the score to 5-1.
The Mets could do nothing against Jake Peavy. The former Cy Young Award winner held the Mets to just one run on three hits over 6.2 innings.
Ruben Tejada led off the eighth inning with a single. Pinch hitter Justin Turner followed with a hit down the line in right. He should have had a double but he stumbled rounding first base and had to head back there. Rios bobbled the ball out there, allowing Tejada to score on the error to make it 5-2. Later in the inning Duda came to bat with two on and two outs, representing the potential tying run. He struck out swinging. Hey, at least he took the bat off of his shoulder.
Rios homered off of Jeurys Familia in the ninth to bring the score to 6-2.
In the bottom of the ninth Mike Baxter tripled with one out and came around to score on a two-out Tejada single to make it 6-3. After Turner reached on an infield single, Juan Lagares came to the plate as the potential tying run. But he struck out to end the game.
There will be another two-game Mets-White Sox matchup next month in Chicago. Ah, the perils of daily interleague play.