David Wright Error Leads to Mets Loss
With so many poor players on the Mets, the one thing they can’t afford are bad plays by their good players. A first inning error by David Wright led to the latest Mets loss, against the Reds at Citi Field on Tuesday.
Things looked good for Jonathon Niese early in the first. He got the first two outs rather easily, but then things got difficult for him. A walk, a single and another walk loaded the bases. Todd Frazier then hit a sharp grounder to David Wright, but Wright pulled his glove up too quickly and the ball went underneath it. Two runs scored on the error. An infield single loaded the bases again and Niese walked Devin Mesoraco to force home a run. Niese finally struck out opposing pitcher Mike Leake to end the inning, but by that point it was 3-0. Niese threw 48 pitches in the inning.
With two outs in the fourth and Lucas Duda on first, John Buck doubled off the wall in right. Third base coach Tim Teufel held Duda at third; with struggling Ike Davis coming up, it was probably a bad idea. Davis grounded out meekly to first and heard some pretty loud boos as he failed to come through yet again. Davis went 0-3 and is now batting .149.
Niese settled down after that terrible first inning and ended up going six innings. He didn’t allow any more runs (the three runs in the first were unearned). He struck out seven and walked three, giving up five hits.
The anemic Mets bats could not manage anything against Leake; he threw seven shutout innings, allowing just three hits.
The Reds made it 4-0 in the ninth when Mesoraco hit Collin McHugh’s first pitch into the seats in left field.
Mets lose 4-0.