R.A. Dickey Flops Against Reds

While the Mets downward spiral continues, the one thing fans could count on is R.A. Dickey. That’s why his performance on Wednesday was so disappointing.

Dickey lasted six innings, allowing five runs on ten hits, three of them home runs. He did strike out nine batters to increase his NL lead to 175. But he fell to 15-4 and a 2.89 ERA — still excellent numbers, but he is not the shoe-in for the Cy Young Award that he was a month ago.

Dickey winning the award would be a small consolation prize to fans who had their hopes up so high, only to crash back down to earth when the Mets collapsed following the All-Star break.

Right now Johnny Cueto appears to be the front runner. He is tied with Dickey and Gio Gonzalez for the league lead in wins with 15, but he is second in ERA at 2.45. Gonzalez has a relatively high ERA of 3.29, but a strong finish could get him in the race. Stephen Strasburg is 14-5 with a 2.91 ERA and is just behind Dickey with 173 strikeouts, but if the Nationals make good on their idiotic vow to shut him down, Strasburg would be out of the money.

For a while it look liked David Wright could win the MVP, Kirk Nieuwenhuis might take home Rookie of the Year, and Dickey would walk away with the Cy Young. Dickey is the last man standing — let’s hope he can get it done.