Mets, Dickey Lose a Disappointing One

It had all of the earmarks of a truly memorable game — a hobbling R.A. Dickey pitching his best game of the year, shutting out the Pirates through seven innings and striking out a career-high ten, the Mets clinging to a 1-0 lead. Then it all went to hell.

Dickey allowed three runs in the eighth and the Mets went down to defeat 5-1.

Perhaps Terry Collins should have taken out Dickey after seven innings, happy with that performance from a man pitching with a partial tear of the plantar facia in his right foot. But you can hardly blame Collins — his bullpen has been awful lately. I wonder if he just didn’t trust any of his middle relievers to protect a one-run lead.

The Mets offense was virtually non-existent. After two heavy-hitting games, the bats fell silent on Tuesday, managing just six hits off of Pirates pitching.

Just a disappointing loss all around.

*****

The offense will not be getting help from Ike Davis anytime soon. The bone bruise on his left ankle is  not healing, so Davis will wear a protective boot for at least the next three weeks.

”A bone bruise bleeds into a stress fracture. It’s basically the same approach to recovery. So unfortunately this is going to be three weeks-plus, it appears, before he’s back,” Sandy Alderson said. ”We’ve just got to give it time to heal. It’s not there yet.”

Davis will be re-examined in three weeks, and if the bone is healed, he will then be cleared to begin baseball activities.

It was a huge blow when Davis went down, and today’s diagnosis just makes matters worse. We likely won’t see Davis back on the field until July at the earliest.

Maybe Fred Wilpon was right — the Mets are snakebit.